Specify OpenMP to GCC

In general, keep in mind that the directives and the functions are different things; the former are controlled by -fopenmp and the latter are controlled by linking to the OpenMP library.

  1. (Updated to incorporate comments) Try using the -fopenmp and -static options to statically link OpenMP. Because this implies -lgomp -lrt, the following command won’t compile correctly unless you also specify the location of librt.a.

    gcc hello.c /usr/lib/gcc/i686-linux-gnu/4.4/libgomp.a  -o hello
    
  2. (Updated to incorporate comments) I imagine that the following command is compiling correctly because the OpenMP library is already in your library path and your system’s dynamic linker is automatically linking with libgomp.so.

    gcc hello.c -fopenmp -o hello
    
  3. The following command is probably compiling properly because it is linking to the shared object for OpenMP (libgomp.so). Note that the -static option is not used.

    gcc hello.c -L/usr/lib/gcc/i686-linux-gnu/4.4/ -lgomp -o hello
    

    If you don’t specify the -fopenmp option, OpenMP directives should be ignored.

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