How to Install gcc 5.3 with yum on CentOS 7.2?

Update:
Often people want the most recent version of gcc, and devtoolset is being kept up-to-date, so maybe you want devtoolset-N where N={4,5,6,7...}, check yum for the latest available on your system). Updated the cmds below for N=7.

There is a package for gcc-7.2.1 for devtoolset-7 as an example. First you need to enable the Software Collections, then it's available in devtoolset-7:

sudo yum install centos-release-scl
sudo yum install devtoolset-7-gcc*
scl enable devtoolset-7 bash
which gcc
gcc --version

Update: Installing latest version of gcc 9: (gcc 9.3.0) - released March 12, 2020:

Same method can be applied to gcc 10 (gcc 10.1.0) - released May 7, 2020

Download file: gcc-9.3.0.tar.gz or gcc-10.1.0.tar.gz

Compile and install:

//required libraries: (some may already have been installed)
dnf install libmpc-devel mpfr-devel gmp-devel

//if dnf install libmpc-devel is not working try:
dnf --enablerepo=PowerTools install libmpc-devel

//install zlib
dnf install zlib-devel*

./configure --with-system-zlib --disable-multilib --enable-languages=c,c++

make -j 8 <== this may take around an hour or more to finish
              (depending on your cpu speed)

make install

Tested under CentOS 7.8.2003 for gcc 9.3 and gcc 10.1

Tested under CentOS 8.1.1911 for gcc 10.1 (may take more time to compile)

Results: gcc/g++ 9.3.0/10.1.0

Installing gcc 7.4 (gcc 7.4.0) - released December 6, 2018:

Download file: https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/gcc-7.4.0/gcc-7.4.0.tar.gz

Compile and install:

//required libraries:
yum install libmpc-devel mpfr-devel gmp-devel

./configure --with-system-zlib --disable-multilib --enable-languages=c,c++

make -j 8 <== this may take around 50 minutes or less to finish with 8 threads
              (depending on your cpu speed)


make install

Result:

Notes:

1. This Stack Overflow answer will help to see how to verify the downloaded source file.

2. Use the option --prefix to install gcc to another directory other than the default one. The toplevel installation directory defaults to /usr/local. Read about gcc installation options

You can use the centos-sclo-rh-testing repo to install GCC v7 without having to compile it forever, also enable V7 by default and let you switch between different versions if required.

sudo yum install -y yum-utils centos-release-scl;
sudo yum -y --enablerepo=centos-sclo-rh-testing install devtoolset-7-gcc;
echo "source /opt/rh/devtoolset-7/enable" | sudo tee -a /etc/profile;
source /opt/rh/devtoolset-7/enable;
gcc --version;

The best approach to use yum and update your devtoolset is to utilize the CentOS SCLo RH Testing repository.

yum install centos-release-scl-rh
yum --enablerepo=centos-sclo-rh-testing install devtoolset-7-gcc devtoolset-7-gcc-c++

Many additional packages are also available, to see them all

yum --enablerepo=centos-sclo-rh-testing list devtoolset-7*

You can use this method to install any dev tool version, just swap the 7 for your desired version. devtoolset-6-gcc, devtoolset-5-gcc etc.