GCC not working but G++ does - c

Question

I am trying to run some programs on a BeagleBone Black on the 'out of the box' operating system but I keep getting issues when compiling with gcc. This is best illustrated when trying to compile a simple hello world program:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
printf("Hello World\n");
return 0;
}
The output from compiling and running this is:
debian#beaglebone:~$ g++ helloworld.c -o test
debian#beaglebone:~$ ./test
Hello World
debian#beaglebone:~$ gcc helloworld.c -o test
debian#beaglebone:~$ ./test
./test: line 27: typedef: command not found
./test: line 36: typedef: command not found
./test: line 37: typedef: command not found
./test: line 38: typedef: command not found
./test: line 39: typedef: command not found
./test: line 42: typedef: command not found
./test: line 43: typedef: command not found
./test: line 44: typedef: command not found
./test: line 45: typedef: command not found
./test: line 46: typedef: command not found
./test: line 47: typedef: command not found
./test: line 52: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 53: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 61: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 62: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 68: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 69: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 70: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 71: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 72: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 73: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 74: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 75: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 76: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 77: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 78: syntax error near unexpected token `}'
./test: line 78: `__extension__ typedef struct { int __val[2]; } __fsid_t;'
debian#beaglebone:~$
My gcc and g++ versions are:
debian#beaglebone:~$ gcc --version
gcc (Debian 4.7.2-5) 4.7.2
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
debian#beaglebone:~$ g++ --version
g++ (Debian 4.7.2-5) 4.7.2
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Has anyone come across this problem before? I've had a look around but none of the fixes seem applicable. Thanks in Advance.
edit: output of gcc -v helloworld.c -o outputFile
debian#beaglebone:~$ gcc -v helloworld.c -o outputFile
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
Target: arm-linux-gnueabihf
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Debian 4.7.2-5' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.7/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,c++,go,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr --program-suffix=-4.7 --enable-shared --enable-linker-build-id --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.7 --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --enable-gnu-unique-object --disable-libitm --enable-plugin --enable-objc-gc --disable-sjlj-exceptions --with-arch=armv7-a --with-fpu=vfpv3-d16 --with-float=hard --with-mode=thumb --enable-checking=release --build=arm-linux-gnueabihf --host=arm-linux-gnueabihf --target=arm-linux-gnueabihf
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.7.2 (Debian 4.7.2-5)
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-E' '-v' '-o' 'outputFile' '-march=armv7-a' '-mfloat-abi=hard' '-mfpu=vfpv3-d16' '-mthumb' '-mtls-dialect=gnu'
/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/cc1 -E -quiet -v -imultilib . -imultiarch arm-linux-gnueabihf helloworld.c -o outputFile -march=armv7-a -mfloat-abi=hard -mfpu=vfpv3-d16 -mthumb -mtls-dialect=gnu
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/local/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf"
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/../../../../arm-linux-gnueabihf/include"
#include "..." search starts here:
#include <...> search starts here:
/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/include
/usr/local/include
/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/include-fixed
/usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf
/usr/include
End of search list.
COMPILER_PATH=/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/:/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/:/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/:/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/:/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/
LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/:/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/../../../arm-linux-gnueabihf/:/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/../../../:/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/:/lib/:/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/:/usr/lib/
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-E' '-v' '-o' 'outputFile' '-march=armv7-a' '-mfloat-abi=hard' '-mfpu=vfpv3-d16' '-mthumb' '-mtls-dialect=gnu'

Answer 1

The secret is revealed in the verbose compiler output:
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-E' [...]
-E provokes GCC just to preprocess the input, so the resulting 'test' file actually is the input file with the single include resolved (recursively).
Since you did not add the -E parameter explicitely, gcc obviously did so implicitely. According to this discussion on gcc.gnu.org, your version of gcc seems to have this compiled in, so I assume you would have to recompile gcc from fixed source code - or get a properly compiled gcc version from whichever source (Debian repositories?).

Answer 2

You can try to use \gcc instead of gcc. The leading backslash tells the shell to ignore any aliases which might shadow the executable of the same name. You can also use the full gcc path to achieve the same.
You can also check there is no aliases or functions named gcc using type gcc, whatis gcc or maybe which gcc or even using a lower level set|grep gcc.