GCC fatal error: stdio.h: No such file or directory
CGccStdioC Problem Overview
I'm trying to compile a program in C on OS X 10.9 with GCC 4.9 (experimental). For some reason, I'm getting the following error at compile time:
gcc: fatal error: stdio.h: No such file or directory
I then tried a simple Hello World program:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, const char *argv[])
{
printf("Hello, world!");
return 0;
}
Again, upon running gcc -o ~/hello ~/hello.c, I got the same error. I'm using an experimental version of gcc, but it seems implausible that there would be a release which generated errors upon importing stdio. What could be causing this issue, and how can it be fixed?
C Solutions
Solution 1 - C
macOS
I had this problem too (encountered through Macports compilers). Previous versions of Xcode would let you install command line tools through xcode/Preferences, but xcode5 doesn't give a command line tools option in the GUI, that so I assumed it was automatically included now. Try running this command:
xcode-select --install
If you see an error message that developer tools are already installed (and still header files can't be found), wipe out any existing one to do a fresh installation:
sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools
Ubuntu
(as per this answer)
sudo apt-get install libc6-dev
Alpine Linux
(as per this comment)
apk add libc-dev
Solution 2 - C
Mac OS Mojave
The accepted answer no longer works. When running the command xcode-select --install it tells you to use "Software Update" to install updates.
In this link is the updated method:
Open a Terminal and then:
cd /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Packages/
open macOS_SDK_headers_for_macOS_10.14.pkg
This will open an installation Wizard.
Update 12/2019
After updating to Mojave 10.15.1 it seems that using xcode-select --install works as intended.
Solution 3 - C
ubuntu users:
sudo apt-get install libc6-dev
specially ruby developers that have problem installing gem install json -v '1.8.2' on their VMs
Solution 4 - C
I know my case is rare, but I'll still add it here for someone who troubleshoots it later. I had a Linux Kernel module target in my Makefile and I tried to compile my user space program together with the kernel module that doesn't have stdio. Making it a separate target solved the problem.
Solution 5 - C
I had the same problem. I installed "XCode: development tools" from the app store and it fixed the problem for me.
I think this link will help: <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xcode/id497799835?mt=12&ls=1>
Credit to Yann Ramin for his advice. I think there is a better solution with links, but this was easy and fast.
Good luck!