Being not admin user how to install local GCC instead of provided?

Question

So I came into my classrom Debian is installed, and gcc 4.1. I want to install (compile from sources is an option - I have time..) for my self GCC 4.7 and adress it in bash as gcc anywhere. Is such thing possible and how to do it?

Answer 1

Use the --prefix option with the configure command.

I won't try to give a complete configure command here, since GCC is one of those programs most often given complex configuration options, but adding something like --prefix=$HOME/my-gcc-4.7 will work. Upon installation, you will get a tree under that directory containing things like bin/gcc.

Once it's built and installed, add $HOME/my-gcc-4.7/bin to the head of your PATH, and suddenly it will become the default GCC.