Difference between CC, gcc and g++?

Question

What are the difference between the 3 compilers CC, gcc, g++ when compiling C and C++ code in terms of assembly code generation, available libraries, language features, etc

Answer 1

CC is an environment variable referring to the system's C compiler. What it points to (libraries accessible, etc) depend on platform. Often it will point to /usr/bin/cc, the actual c complier (driver). On linux platforms, CC almost always points to /usr/bin/gcc.

gcc is the driver binary for the GNU compiler collection. It can compile C, C++, and possibly other languages; it determines the language by the file extension.

g++ is a driver binary like gcc, but with a few special options set for compiling C++. Notably (in my experience), g++ will link libstdc++ by default, while gcc won't.