Which compiler, compiled this file?

Question

I am using gnu gcc and armcc to compile a few C files. How can I get the information about which compiler compiled which file?

Ex: test.cpp is being compiled by armcc or gnu gcc.

The makefile is very complicated and I am looking out for a command by which I can check which compiler compiled which file.

Any ideas?

Do you have access to the indeterminate object files ? – Shmil The Cat Mar 14 '13 at 19:10 — Shmil The Cat, Mar 14 '13 at 19:10
Perhaps the object file format might give you some clues – paulm Mar 14 '13 at 19:13 — paulm, Mar 14 '13 at 19:13
Yes, I have access to the .o files – aditya3524 Mar 14 '13 at 19:14 — aditya3524, Mar 14 '13 at 19:14

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 14 '13 at 19:15

2

Sometimes you can look at the file with a hex editor and tell if the compiler wrote its name into the file.

answered Mar 14 '13 at 19:15

AbsoluteƵERØ

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teppic · Answer 2 · 2013-03-14T19:23:05.443

2

I'm not sure if there's an easier way, but you can find it embedded in the binary with gcc (at least on my platform):

$ hexdump -C foo | grep -A2 GCC

00001030  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  47 43 43 3a 20 28 55 62  |........GCC: (Ub|
00001040  75 6e 74 75 2f 4c 69 6e  61 72 6f 20 34 2e 37 2e  |untu/Linaro 4.7.|
00001050  32 2d 32 32 75 62 75 6e  74 75 33 29 20 34 2e 37  |2-22ubuntu3) 4.7|

edited Mar 14 '13 at 19:23

answered Mar 14 '13 at 19:15

teppic

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This does not work with executable files (or .o files) compiled with gcc here (gcc on OS X). This seems to be platform-dependent. – Randy Howard Mar 14 '13 at 19:20
@RandyHoward- though actually that may be because it's clang behind the scenes? – teppic Mar 14 '13 at 19:24
gcc --version i686-apple-darwin11-llvm-gcc-4.2 (GCC) 4.2.1 (Based on Apple Inc. build 5658) (LLVM build 2336.11.00) <<>> Regardless, his question was about multiple compilers. I'm not sure this method is a valid answer. – Randy Howard Mar 14 '13 at 19:26
Yup - the llvm bit. I think it's just a gcc frontend to llvm, but I'm not certain. – teppic Mar 14 '13 at 19:28

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 14 '13 at 20:11

Some compiler embedd compiler name and version in to the binrary, but not all. We can also embedd whatever information we want into the binary.

gcc -DCOMPILER_DETAILS='"gcc 4.3.3"' temp.c

In temp.c use the macro COMPILER_DETAILS in any place, like just use it in printf. So that this string literal will be embedd in the generated binary file. Dont assign this string to unused variable, compiler will not embedd because of optimization.

Which compiler, compiled this file?

3 Answers3