Where does gcc look for C and C++ header files?

On a Unix system, where does gcc look for header files?

I spent a little time this morning looking for some system header files, so I thought this would be good information to have here.

`gcc -print-prog-name=cc1plus` -v

This command asks gcc which C++ preprocessor it is using, and then asks that preprocessor where it looks for includes.

You will get a reliable answer for your specific setup.

Likewise, for the C preprocessor:

`gcc -print-prog-name=cpp` -v

In addition, gcc will look in the directories specified after the -I option.

You can create a file that attempts to include a bogus system header. If you run gcc in verbose mode on such a source, it will list all the system include locations as it looks for the bogus header.

$ echo "#include <bogus.h>" > t.c; gcc -v t.c; rm t.c

[..]

#include "..." search starts here:
#include <...> search starts here:
 /usr/local/include
 /usr/lib/gcc/i686-apple-darwin9/4.0.1/include
 /usr/include
 /System/Library/Frameworks (framework directory)
 /Library/Frameworks (framework directory)
End of search list.

[..]

t.c:1:32: error: bogus.h: No such file or directory

The CPP Section of the GCC Manual indicates that header files may be located in the following directories:

GCC looks in several different places for headers. On a normal Unix system, if you do not instruct it otherwise, it will look for headers requested with #include in:

 /usr/local/include
 libdir/gcc/target/version/include
 /usr/target/include
 /usr/include

For C++ programs, it will also look in /usr/include/g++-v3, first.

To get GCC to print out the complete set of directories where it will look for system headers, invoke it like this:

$ LC_ALL=C gcc -v -E -xc - < /dev/null 2>&1 | 
  LC_ALL=C sed -ne '/starts here/,/End of/p'

which will produce output of the form

#include "..." search starts here:
#include <...> search starts here:
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/include
 /usr/local/include
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/include-fixed
 /usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu
 /usr/include
End of search list.

If you have -I-family options on the command line they will affect what is printed out.

(The sed command is to get rid of all the other junk this invocation prints, and the LC_ALL=C is to ensure that the sed command works -- the "starts here" and "End of search list" phrases are translated IIRC.)