Install gcc@12 with Homebrew, apt, MacPorts, apk, dnf, Nix, pacman, scoop, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• aarch64-apple-darwin23-c++-12
• aarch64-apple-darwin23-gcc-12
• aarch64-apple-darwin23-gcc-ar-12
• aarch64-apple-darwin23-gcc-nm-12
• aarch64-apple-darwin23-gcc-ranlib-12
• aarch64-apple-darwin23-gfortran-12
• cpp-12
• gcov-12
• gcov-dump-12
• gcov-tool-12
• lto-dump-12

Project history

GCC began as the GNU C Compiler. The GCC project history records the first beta release on March 22, 1987, by Richard Stallman, originally for the GNU operating system and initially centered on C.

During the 1990s, GCC grew beyond C into a multi-language compiler suite. The official GCC 2.95 page notes that the name changed from GNU C Compiler to GNU Compiler Collection because the compiler supported several languages beyond C.

A major governance and development milestone was the EGCS fork in 1997, created to merge active GCC development work from several communities. GCC and EGCS were reunified in April 1999, and GCC 2.95 was the first release after that reunification.

Adoption history

GCC became widely adopted because it was both the GNU system compiler and an openly developed, portable optimizing compiler. The current mission statement emphasizes support for many platforms, many architectures, open mailing lists, and participation by individuals and companies.

The GCC 12 package represents package-manager demand for a stable major compiler series rather than only the newest compiler. Official release branches and tags make these major lines easy for distributors and users to pin, audit, and rebuild.

How it is used

As packaged here, GCC 12 exposes version-suffixed compiler tools such as gcc-12, g++-12, cpp-12, gcov-12, and gfortran-12, depending on the platform package. This lets users select the intended compiler line explicitly in build scripts.

Official GCC installation documentation covers downloading sources, configuring, building, testing, and final installation, while the online manuals document compiler invocation, language front ends, runtime libraries, and toolchain options.

The GCC 12 change notes highlight compiler-infrastructure shifts useful to package users, including vectorization enabled at -O2 and expanded OpenMP/OpenACC support.

Why package nerds care

Versioned GCC packages matter because compilers are infrastructure, not leaf applications. A build may need a particular major GCC for language support, libstdc++ behavior, Fortran ABI expectations, sanitizer behavior, or target support, while another project on the same machine needs a different line.

The official Git repository page documents release branches and release tags, which is exactly the provenance package maintainers need when mapping formula names such as gcc@12 or gcc@15 to upstream source history.

Timeline

• 1987: First GCC beta release as the GNU C Compiler
• 1997: EGCS fork announced as an experimental GCC development project
• 1999: GCC and EGCS reunified; GCC 2.95 released after reunification
• 2022: GCC 12.1 released on May 6
• 2025: GCC 12.5 released on July 11

Related projects

• EGCS is the historically important GCC fork that was later reunified with GCC.
• Related components within the GCC distribution include libstdc++, GFortran, GOMP/libgomp, GCC Go, GDC, GM2, and newer front ends documented on the official GCC site.
• GCC is part of the wider GNU toolchain ecosystem and is commonly used with source-control, build, and generated-file tooling such as Git, Autoconf, Bison, Automake, Xgettext, and Gperf, all mentioned in GCC source-tree documentation.

Sources

• https://gcc.gnu.org/
• https://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-12/changes.html
• https://gcc.gnu.org/gccmission.html
• https://gcc.gnu.org/git.html
• https://gcc.gnu.org/releases.html
• https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/History