How to get gcc running (gcc: fatal error: cannot execute ‘cc1’: spawn: No such file or directory)

[jw-rav]

Hi all,

I was using cygwin for decades, but am new to mingw/msys2 and I am totally confused by this environment thing which did not exist in cygwin.

From https://www.msys2.org/docs/environments/, I learned " If you are unsure, go with UCRT64" so I started with URCT64, but I get same error (see below) on all environments.

So, on a freshly installed system, I do in the UCRT64 environment:

pacman -S --refresh --sysupgrade
pacman -S --needed base-devel msys2-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain
pacman -S emacs man openssh git svn mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc \
          mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-tk  mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-tk \
          p7zip zip unzip ascii

Then I open a fresh UCRT64 terminal and try to build a test project:

jw@kiste UCRT64 /d/wc/git/test/src
$ make
gcc -O2 -o test test.c
gcc: fatal error: cannot execute ‘cc1’: spawn: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
make: *** [Makefile:45: test] Error 1

jw@kiste UCRT64 /d/wc/git/test/src
$  gcc --print-prog-name=cc1
D:/msys64/ucrt64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/14.1.0/cc1.exe

jw@kiste UCRT64 /d/wc/git/test/src
$ find / -name cc1.exe
/mingw64/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/14.1.0/cc1.exe
/ucrt64/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/14.1.0/cc1.exe
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-msys/13.3.0/cc1.exe

jw@kiste UCRT64 /d/wc/git/test/src
$ echo $MSYSTEM
UCRT64

jw@kiste UCRT64 /d/wc/git/test/src
$ pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc
warning: mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc-14.1.0-3 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (1) mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc-14.1.0-3

Total Installed Size:  224.68 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:        0.00 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n]
(1/1) checking keys in keyring                [###############################] 100%
(1/1) checking package integrity              [###############################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files                   [###############################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts             [###############################] 100%
(1/1) checking available disk space           [###############################] 100%
:: Processing package changes...
(1/1) reinstalling mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc  [###############################] 100%
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/1) Updating the info directory file...

jw@kiste UCRT64 /d/wc/git/test/src
$ make
gcc -O2 -o test test.c
gcc: fatal error: cannot execute ‘cc1’: spawn: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
make: *** [Makefile:45: test] Error 1

jw@kiste UCRT64 /d/wc/git/test/src
$ find / -name cc1.exe
/mingw64/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/14.1.0/cc1.exe
/ucrt64/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/14.1.0/cc1.exe
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-msys/13.3.0/cc1.exe

jw@kiste UCRT64 /d/wc/git/test/src
$ gcc --print-prog-name=cc1
D:/msys64/ucrt64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/14.1.0/cc1.exe

jw@kiste UCRT64 /d/wc/git/test/src

Any hints what I am messing up here?

[Biswa96]

The antivirus may interfere with the process. Try to exclude msys2 installation directory in antivirus realtime scanning.

[jw-rav]

I've seen this answer already over there on stack-exchange, but:

• The error should be "permission denied" or something in this case, not "file not found"
• The file is located in three directories. But it is not there where gcc is looking for it. This does not look like an antivirus problem to me. This looks more like a configuration problem (gcc is looking in wrong directory)

[jw-rav]

Have done a complete fresh install wit antivirus deactivated.

Same problem.

And in addition a new problem: emacs no longer starts in GUI mode.