Cannot compile with GCC, cannot run G++ compiled binary

[just-ero]

I'm a bit of a noob, so I'm sure I'm missing something.
This is my code:

#include <iostream>
int main() {
  std::cout << "Hello, world!";
  return 0;
}

This is the output of gcc main.cpp -o app -v:

Click to view

clang version 21.1.8 (https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project.git 2078da43e25a4623cab2d0d60decddf709aaea28)
Target: x86_64-w64-windows-gnu
Thread model: posix
InstalledDir: C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/bin
Configuration file: C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/bin/x86_64-w64-windows-gnu.cfg
 "C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/bin/clang-21.exe" -cc1 -triple x86_64-w64-windows-gnu -emit-obj -dumpdir app- -disable-free -clear-ast-before-backend -disable-llvm-verifier -discard-value-names -main-file-name main.cpp -mrelocation-model pic -pic-level 2 -mframe-pointer=none -fmath-errno -ffp-contract=on -fno-rounding-math -mconstructor-aliases -mms-bitfields -funwind-tables=2 -fno-sized-deallocation -fno-use-init-array -target-cpu x86-64 -tune-cpu generic -debugger-tuning=gdb -fdebug-compilation-dir=C:/Users/ero/Desktop/CppGccWin -v -fcoverage-compilation-dir=C:/Users/ero/Desktop/CppGccWin -resource-dir C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/lib/clang/21 -internal-isystem C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/c++/v1 -internal-isystem C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/include/c++/v1 -internal-isystem C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/lib/clang/21/include -internal-isystem C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include -internal-isystem C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/usr/include -internal-isystem C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/include -fdeprecated-macro -ferror-limit 19 -fmessage-length=199 -fno-use-cxa-atexit -fgnuc-version=4.2.1 -fskip-odr-check-in-gmf -fcxx-exceptions -fexceptions -exception-model=seh -fcolor-diagnostics -faddrsig -o C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o -x c++ main.cpp
clang -cc1 version 21.1.8 based upon LLVM 21.1.8 default target x86_64-w64-mingw32
ignoring nonexistent directory "C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/c++/v1"
ignoring nonexistent directory "C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include"
ignoring nonexistent directory "C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/usr/include"
#include "..." search starts here:
#include <...> search starts here:
 C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/include/c++/v1
 C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/lib/clang/21/include
 C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/include
End of search list.
 "C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/bin/ld.lld" -m i386pep -Bdynamic -o app.exe C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/crt2.o C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/crtbegin.o -LC:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib -LC:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/mingw/lib -LC:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/lib -LC:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/lib/clang/21/lib/windows C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o -lmingw32 C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/lib/clang/21/lib/windows/libclang_rt.builtins-x86_64.a -lunwind -lmoldname -lmingwex -lmsvcrt -ladvapi32 -lshell32 -luser32 -lkernel32 -lmingw32 C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/lib/clang/21/lib/windows/libclang_rt.builtins-x86_64.a -lunwind -lmoldname -lmingwex -lmsvcrt -lkernel32 C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WinGet/Packages/MartinStorsjo.LLVM-MinGW.MSVCRT_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe/llvm-mingw-20251216-msvcrt-x86_64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/crtend.o
ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: __cxa_begin_catch
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>& std::__1::__put_character_sequence[abi:ne210108]<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>(std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>&, char const*, unsigned long long))
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>::sentry::~sentry())
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(__clang_call_terminate)

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::__1::ios_base::__set_badbit_and_consider_rethrow()
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>& std::__1::__put_character_sequence[abi:ne210108]<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>(std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>&, char const*, unsigned long long))

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: __cxa_end_catch
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>& std::__1::__put_character_sequence[abi:ne210108]<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>(std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>&, char const*, unsigned long long))
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>& std::__1::__put_character_sequence[abi:ne210108]<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>(std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>&, char const*, unsigned long long))
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>::sentry::~sentry())

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: __gxx_personality_seh0
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(.xdata$_ZNSt3__124__put_character_sequenceB8ne210108IcNS_11char_traitsIcEEEERNS_13basic_ostreamIT_T0_EES7_PKS4_y)
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(.xdata$_ZNSt3__116__pad_and_outputB8ne210108IcNS_11char_traitsIcEEEENS_19ostreambuf_iteratorIT_T0_EES6_PKS4_S8_S8_RNS_8ios_baseES4_)  
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(.xdata$_ZNSt3__119ostreambuf_iteratorIcNS_11char_traitsIcEEEC2B8ne210108ERNS_13basic_ostreamIcS2_EE)
>>> referenced 7 more times

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>::flush()
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>::sentry::sentry(std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>&))

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::__1::basic_string<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>, std::__1::allocator<char>>::~basic_string()
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::ostreambuf_iterator<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>> std::__1::__pad_and_output[abi:ne210108]<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>(std::__1::ostreambuf_iterator<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>, char const*, char const*, char const*, std::__1::ios_base&, char))
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::ostreambuf_iterator<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>> std::__1::__pad_and_output[abi:ne210108]<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>(std::__1::ostreambuf_iterator<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>, char const*, char const*, char const*, std::__1::ios_base&, char))

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::uncaught_exceptions()
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::basic_ostream<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>::sentry::~sentry())

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::terminate()
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(__clang_call_terminate)

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::__1::basic_string<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>, std::__1::allocator<char>>::__init(unsigned long long, char)
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::basic_string<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>, std::__1::allocator<char>>::basic_string[abi:ne210108](unsigned long long, char))

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::__1::ios_base::getloc() const
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::basic_ios<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>::widen[abi:ne210108](char) const)

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::__1::locale::~locale()
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::basic_ios<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>::widen[abi:ne210108](char) const)
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::basic_ios<char, std::__1::char_traits<char>>::widen[abi:ne210108](char) const)

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::__1::locale::use_facet(std::__1::locale::id&) const
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::ctype<char> const& std::__1::use_facet[abi:ne210108]<std::__1::ctype<char>>(std::__1::locale const&))

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::__1::ios_base::clear(unsigned int)
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(std::__1::ios_base::setstate[abi:ne210108](unsigned int))

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::__1::cout
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(.refptr._ZNSt3__14coutE)

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::__1::ctype<char>::id
>>> referenced by C:/Users/ero/AppData/Local/Temp/main-a919e1.o:(.refptr._ZNSt3__15ctypeIcE2idE)
clang-21: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

Compiling with g++ main.cpp -o app works, but the resulting binary cannot be executed:

The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000000e).

What's wrong?

[mstorsjo]

This is the output of gcc main.cpp -o app -v:

This is expected; the same goes for actual GCC as well. If you link with the C compiler driver, it doesn't link in the C++ standard library automatically.

Compiling with g++ main.cpp -o app works, but the resulting binary cannot be executed:

The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000000e).

What's wrong?

That's hard to say - 0xc000000e maps to STATUS_NO_SUCH_DEVICE.

When linking in the C++ standard library, your executable ends up depending on libc++.dll and libunwind.dll, which are present in the compiler bin directory. Issues executing C++ executables often relate to these not being found, or finding an incompatible version. It's not obvious if that's the case here or not. To be sure to find them, copy a version of them (from llvm-mingw-.../bin) to next to your built executable.

Adding -static (or -static-libstdc++ -static-libgcc) to the link command should prefer a static version of these, so the end executable doesn't depend on the separate DLLs. That may avoid the issue you're seeing. But I'm not sure what's wrong when you end up getting that specific error code.