/usr/ucb/cc: language optional software package not installed

Question

I tried to compile some C code to get object file from a shell prompt:

$cc a.c  

But this gives me the following error:

/usr/ucb/cc:  language optional software package not installed

How can I compile C code?

Solution 1

First, you should remove /usr/ucb from your PATH as this directory is quite obsolete now. It was meant to ease people migrating from SunOS 4 to Solaris 2 a couple of decades ago but doesn't make much sense these days. Especially this cc commands which set specific flags to compile BSDish code.

Second, all current Solaris releases come with a C compiler out of the box but it is located in a directory which might not be in your PATH, /usr/sfw/bin and is named gcc (Gnu compiler). Note that Solaris 11 has gcc in the PATH.

On Solaris 10, use

/usr/sfw/bin/gcc

or

PATH=$PATH:/usr/sfw/bin
gcc

Alternatively, you might have already installed (or you can install) the Solaris Studio compiler (now Oracle Developer Studio). In that case, its path would be <installation-dir>/bin/cc (eg: /opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc, /opt/SolarisStudio11/bin/cc, /opt/OracleDeveloperStudio12.5-OS-sparc-bin-bin/developerstudio12.5/bin/cc, etc.)

Solution 2

It is unfortunate that sun ever shipped /usr/ucb/cc; you would think it was compatible with SunOS 4; instead it compatible with some very old version of 4.2 but it also required the installation of the SunPro (Now Solaris Studio) compilers.

These compilers can be downloaded from

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solarisstudio/downloads/index.html

under the following license terms (quoted from the above page)

Provides perpetual no-cost license for production use and the development of commercial applications.

Solution 3

Your Solaris installation doesn't have a compiler installed. Back in the 1900:s, Sun charged extra for their C compiler, and provided a stub "cc" command instead, just to remind you that the compiler is not installed.

To compile a file, you need to install a compiler for the same Solaris version (2.5.1?) and architecture (SPARC/sun4m?) that matches your operating system and computer hardware.

Read more at SunFreeware.com for free software that installs under /usr/local/.

If you take that open source/GNU road, you will probably need to install a lot of packages to satisfy dependencies before it works, but if you have the disk space it would probably be worth it.

Old versions of Sun's SparCompiler/Forte/SunStudio can be hard to obtain for your (supposedly) old machine, as they were typically licensed with node locked licenses, and you will not be able to buy a license for those obsoleted software packages any more.

Comments

[Admin]

What version of Solaris? Copy-paste the output of uname -a. Either you don't have a compiler or it's not in the default PATH; ask your admins. If you don't have a Sun compiler (or even if you have one), you can install GCC, possibly from a Sun software distribution.

[jlliagre]

This cc isn't a stub command to remind the compiler is not installed but was designed to ease recompiling code written for SunOS 4 (BSD) on Solaris 2 (System V).

[MattBianco]

/usr/ucb/cc: language optional software package not installed

[pengwynn]

How do we install the Sun Studio compiler rather than using GCC. We catch occasional bug reports for SunCC, but a fresh install of Solaris 10 only produces the message discussed in the question. For completeness, we are OK with the gear for Sun Studio 12.2 and above; we need Sun Studio on Solaris 10. Also see How to find past downloads after "Sun Download Center Changes"

[jlliagre]

@jww Isn't this already answered here unix.stackexchange.com/a/194196/2594 ?

[pengwynn]

Thanks Jlliagre. That's Sun Studio 12.5. Were interested in Sun Studio for Solaris 10. The cited answer and its link if for Sun Studio 12.5, which is for Solaris 11.

[jlliagre]

@jww Not only Solaris 11. There are download links for Oracle Solaris 10 (SPARC and x86) SVR4 installers.

[pengwynn]

Thanks again Jlliagre. How to find past downloads after "Sun Download Center Changes" states its effectively one of the those dead-end webmaster loops that results in a non-download. Its very frustrating.

[jlliagre]

@jww Do you mean you are unable to download either of these Solaris 10 tarballs?