gcc -x

Force the compiler to compile in the specified language. Without this flag, gcc determines the language by the source file's suffex.

In the following example, foo.cpp is treated as a c file rather than a c++ file, although its suffix is .cpp:

$ gcc -x c foo.cpp

Possible values for the language are:

• c
• c-header: precompiled header file
• 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
• brig