Checking the gcc version in a Makefile?
I would like to use some gcc warning switchs that aren't available in older gcc versions (eg. -Wtype-limits). Is there an easy way to check the gcc version and only add those extra options if a recent gcc is used ? I wouldn't say its easy, but you can use the shell function of GNU make to execute a shell command like gcc --version and then use the ifeq conditional expression to check the version number and set your CFLAGS variable appropriately. Here's a quick example makefile: CC = gcc GCCVERSION = $(shell gcc --version | grep ^gcc | sed 's/^.* //g') CFLAGS = -g ifeq "$(GCCVERSION)" "4.4.3"