man gcc
-v Print (on standard error output) the commands executed to run the stages of compilation. Also print the version number of the compiler driver program and of the preprocessor and the compiler proper.
-x language
Specify explicitly the language for the following input files (rather than letting the compiler choose a default based on the file name suffix). This option applies to all following input files until the next -x option. Possible values for language are:
c c-header cpp-output
c++ c++-header c++-cpp-output
objective-c objective-c-header objective-c-cpp-output
objective-c++ objective-c++-header objective-c++-cpp-output
assembler assembler-with-cpp
ada
f77 f77-cpp-input f95 f95-cpp-input
go
java
-E Stop after the preprocessing stage; do not run the compiler proper. The output is in the form of preprocessed source code, which is sent to the standard output. Input files that don't require preprocessing are ignored.
# gcc -v -x c-header -E /dev/null
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.12' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-5/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,ada,c++,java,go,d,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr --program-suffix=-5 --enable-shared --enable-linker-build-id --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --with-default-libstdcxx-abi=new --enable-gnu-unique-object --disable-vtable-verify --enable-libmpx --enable-plugin --with-system-zlib --disable-browser-plugin --enable-java-awt=gtk --enable-gtk-cairo --with-java-home=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-gcj-5-amd64/jre --enable-java-home --with-jvm-root-dir=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-gcj-5-amd64 --with-jvm-jar-dir=/usr/lib/jvm-exports/java-1.5.0-gcj-5-amd64 --with-arch-directory=amd64 --with-ecj-jar=/usr/share/java/eclipse-ecj.jar --enable-objc-gc --enable-multiarch --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-abi=m64 --with-multilib-list=m32,m64,mx32 --enable-multilib --with-tune=generic --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 5.4.0 20160609 (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.12)
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-v' '-E' '-mtune=generic' '-march=x86-64'
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/cc1 -E -quiet -v -imultiarch x86_64-linux-gnu /dev/null -mtune=generic -march=x86-64 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Wformat-security
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/local/include/x86_64-linux-gnu"
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/../../../../x86_64-linux-gnu/include"
#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.
# 1 "/dev/null"
# 1 "<built-in>"
# 1 "<command-line>"
# 1 "/usr/include/stdc-predef.h" 1 3 4
# 1 "<command-line>" 2
# 1 "/dev/null"
COMPILER_PATH=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/:/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/:/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/:/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/:/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/
LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/:/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/../../../x86_64-linux-gnu/:/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/../../../../lib/:/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/:/lib/../lib/:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/:/usr/lib/../lib/:/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/../../../:/lib/:/usr/lib/
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-v' '-E' '-mtune=generic' '-march=x86-64'