What does "CC=/path/to/directory ./configure" do?

Question

What does CC=/path/to/afl/afl-gcc ./configure do? (see. AFL's Readme)

Is it telling GCC to look into that directory for files? (Maybe something like a path-variable, because of the =-character?)

Strange thing also: there is no configure-exe. in that directory.

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 16 '15 at 18:51

5

When you write

A=B C

The shell runs the command C with the environment variable A set to B.

The CC environment variable is commonly used to tell configure scripts where a C compiler is located.

answered Oct 16 '15 at 18:51

Adrian

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 16 '15 at 18:52

This is a combination of two actions:

If both actions are on one line, the environent variable is only passed to this command and is not stored in the environment of the current shell.

The CC can be used to tell the configure script which c comiler to use.

2 Answers2