Okay, I'm just getting started with C++ (without any prior C experience), and I'm confronted by the following instruction:

--------------------------
If you execute the compiler directly, without using the shell file, its behavior is more relaxed. This may sometimes be necessary. Do it like this:


g++ temp.cpp
Now set up a convenient data directory in which to place your programs. Create a file named temp.cpp with this content:


#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
cout << "Hello World!" << endl;
return 0;
}
Again, you should be able to copy this little program from this page, and use a text editor to save it as “temp.cpp.”

Move to the directory in which temp.cpp is located, and type this:


gccp temp.cpp
--------------------------

What is happening with "g++ temp.cpp" (near the very beginning of this excerpt), and why do we call it "g"++?

g++ is the name of the GNU C++ Compiler in Linux.

gcc is the name of the GNU C Compiler in Linux.

The G in GNU recursively stands for itself and ultimately doesn't stand for anything else.

If I understand your question, your focus was on why "G"? If so, I don't have an answer much better than don't worry about it.

Thanks.

Actually, I understand the "Gnu's Not UNIX" acronym. You're explanation is just what I was after.

But in "temp.cpp", is .cpp generally the extension we use for c++ code before it's compiled?

What's the difference between "g++ temp.cpp" near the beginning and "gccp temp.cpp" near the end?

Maybe just a variant of the same thing?

Try both versions to see if they work. If so, then one might be a soft link to the other---or an alias.

Yes.

I don't know what gccp is. Maybe a typo.

Some systems have gpp installed as a link or alias for g++ so that it can be called by older scripting tools that don't understand g++ can be a program name. Maybe someone set up gccp as a similar alias for g++

Does this give an answer?:

sh-3.1$ which gccp
which: no gccp in (/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/lib/java/bin:/usr/lib/kde4/libexec:/usr/lib/qt/bin:/usr/share/texmf/bin:.)
sh-3.1$ locate gccp
/usr/lib/gcc/i486-slackware-linux/4.3.3/adalib/libgccprefix.a
sh-3.1$ file /usr/lib/gcc/i486-slackware-linux/4.3.3/adalib/libgccprefix.a
/usr/lib/gcc/i486-slackware-linux/4.3.3/adalib/libgccprefix.a: current ar archive
sh-3.1$

To what question? It answers Pixellany's suggestion that you try both.

I get the same result when I try which gpp. But that does not mean the place I saw gpp used as an alias for (via soft link to) g++ was a typo. It just means that soft link isn't installed in the Linux system I'm using now.

My guess is that gccp was a typo. But I could easily be wrong. Second best guess is that it was a soft link installed on the system used by whoever wrote the instructions you quoted.

Whatever it was, there is no reason for you to use it. Use g++

I tried both and it appears Johnsfine is right--either it's a typo or the author overlooked a prior use of a soft link.

I'm marking this solved. Thanks!