Is it possible to downgrade gcc 4.6.1 to 4.4.x?

Question

I've tried the following:

sudo apt-get remove gcc
sudo apt-get install gcc-4.4

But this does not work, running gcc --version gives a 'No such file or directory' error.

Solution

You can install both gcc-4.4 and gcc-4.6 if you wish. The binaries for them would be: /usr/bin/gcc-4.4 and /usr/bin/gcc-4.6.

Besides this, if you want /usr/bin/gcc to point to /usr/bin/gcc-4.4, then you have to update the link yourself or use update-alternatives as explained in this question.

Comments

[fredley]

Note: I have found some promising looking instructions, I'll let you know how it goes.

[fredley]

This method does not work.

[fredley]

How do I get it from the repos?

[doug]

easiest is to install synaptic, search gcc, g++, cpp. I guess one could use software center though it's still a pain to use. In S-C I'd search gcc-, g++=, cpp= (note that = is not a typo

[jcollado]

@mac It's a shame the old link doesn't work anymore. I've updated the response to point to link you suggested since it provides a good explanation of what has to be done indeed. Thanks.