gcc segmentation fault on Ubuntu 12.04

Question

I am trying to compile a C program on Ubuntu precise 12.04. Here's the program:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
  printf("Hello World!");
  return 0;
}

My gcc version is 4.6.3 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5). Initially it did not find cc1 so I added a soft link. Now I get this message when I try to compile:

gcc: internal compiler error: Segmentation fault (program cc1)

Compiling the same program with g++ works fine.

I tried reinstalling build-essential, but to no avail. What am I missing?

EDIT: I tried reinstalling according to @gertyvdijk's suggestion. As it did not help, here is the output of apt-cache policy gcc-4.6:

  gcc-4.6:  Installed: 4.6.3-1ubuntu5
  Candidate: 4.6.3-1ubuntu5
  Version table:
 *** 4.6.3-1ubuntu5 0
        500 http://il.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

and the output of ls -l /usr/bin/gcc:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Mar 13  2012 /usr/bin/gcc -> gcc-4.6

EDIT #2: here's a verbose compiler output:

    gcc -v aaa.c 
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.6/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.6/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr --program-suffix=-4.6 --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++/4.6 --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --enable-gnu-unique-object --enable-plugin --enable-objc-gc --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-tune=generic --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.6.3 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5) 
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-v' '-mtune=generic' '-march=x86-64'
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.6/cc1 -quiet -v -imultilib . -imultiarch x86_64-linux-gnu aaa.c -quiet -dumpbase aaa.c -mtune=generic -march=x86-64 -auxbase aaa -version -fstack-protector -o /tmp/ccHfcXMs.s
gcc: internal compiler error: Segmentation fault (program cc1)
Please submit a full bug report,
with preprocessed source if appropriate.
See <file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.6/README.Bugs> for instructions.

Solution

This segmentation fault really should not happen. I suspect something is wrong with the binaries installed on your system - possibly because of the symbolic link you created.

Try reinstalling GCC and all affecting libraries:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall gcc gcc-4.6 gcc-4.6-base libgcc1 cpp-4.6

Specifically the cpp-4.6 package appears to be broken in your setup as /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.6/cc1 belongs to that package and the error output you've provided indicates the cause of the issue is in there somewhere.

Comments

[green]

Try cc <filename.c>.

[gertvdijk]

"I tried reinstalling build-essential" - That's just a metapackage. You'll have to reinstall the plain GCC packages to properly reinstall all gcc binaries. Try apt-get reinstall gcc gcc-4.6 gcc-4.6-base libgcc1. If that does not work, please also provide the output of apt-cache policy gcc-4.6 and ls -l /usr/bin/gcc in your question.

[Yuval F]

Did not work. Please see the updated question.

[gertvdijk]

GCC package installation looks all good. I am unable to reproduce this using the exact same gcc version and the source you provided - binary returns "Hello World!" as expected. It could be that a Bash alias in your user profile is the culprit. Could you try to invoke gcc using this more explicit command?/usr/bin/gcc sourcefile.c -o helloworld. Oh and I meant sudo apt-get install --reinstall gcc gcc-4.6 gcc-4.6-base libgcc1 in my previous comment. (there's no such action as apt-get reinstall.)

[Yuval F]

Thanks Gert, but the full path gives the same result. I have added a verbose compiler output - maybe you will be able to see something off there.

[gertvdijk]

Re-reading "Initially it did not find cc1 so I added a soft link." <-- What exactly did you do and why? I now think you mean /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.6/cc1 from the cpp-4.6 package - was it absent? It should just be there - it's a hard dependency of gcc. Try reverting the symbolic link you created and reinstall that package.

[Yuval F]

That did the trick, thanks. Please build an answer from your comments, so I can upvote and accept it.

[Amadu Bah]

The version need to be the same as the installed cc1. In my case was 4.8 "/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.8/cc1". So the command sudo apt-get install --reinstall gcc gcc-4.8 gcc-4.8-base libgcc1 cpp-4.8 did the trick

[Nathan B]

Still getting the 'segmentation fault'

[Geoff]

Thanks, the following worked for me: sudo apt-get install --reinstall gcc gcc-4.9 gcc-4.9-base libgcc1 cpp-4.9 Note: this is actually on Raspian Jessy.