Get Library Path that gcc or g++ Compiler Would Use for Linking

When working with multiple compiler installations or custom toolchains, identifying the exact library search paths used during linking becomes important. This helps in debugging missing symbols, confirming proper library lookup behavior, and understanding how the compiler locates system and runtime dependencies. This tutorial demonstrates how to get the library path that gcc or g++ compiler would use for linking.

To determine the full path of a library as it will be used by the linker, the compiler provides the -print-file-name option, which accepts a library name and resolves it using the configured search paths. This is particularly useful when checking which standard C or C++ runtime libraries are linked by default. For example, the following command provides the path for libc.so library:

gcc -print-file-name=libc.so

When the library is properly resolved within the compiler search directories, an absolute path is returned:

/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/11/../../../x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so

Here is an example for getting path for C++ library:

g++ -print-file-name=libstdc++.so

Output example:

/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/11/libstdc++.so

If a library cannot be located, the output typically returns only the library name itself.