The -MM option does not raise an error if the source includes a non-existent header using angle brackets:
$ echo "#include <does_not_exist.h>" > foo.c $ gcc -MM -MF foo.d foo.c && echo succeeded || echo failed succeeded $ cat foo.d foo.o: foo.c Including a file using double quotes does produce an error as expected: $ echo '#include "does_not_exist.h"' > foo.c $ gcc -MM -MF foo.d foo.c && echo succeeded || echo failed foo.c:1:28: fatal error: does_not_exist.h: No such file or directory compilation terminated. failed Seen in current trunk: $ gcc -v Using built-in specs. COLLECT_GCC=./install/bin/gcc COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/home/rhansen/gcc_build/install/libexec/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.5.0/lto-wrapper Target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu Configured with: ../gcc/configure --prefix=/home/rhansen/gcc_build/install --with-local-prefix=/home/rhansen/gcc_build/install --enable-languages=c Thread model: posix gcc version 4.5.0 20100131 (experimental) [trunk revision 156418] (GCC) And in 4.4.1 from Ubuntu Karmic: $ gcc -v Using built-in specs. Target: x86_64-linux-gnu Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.4/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr --enable-shared --enable-multiarch --enable-linker-build-id --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.4 --program-suffix=-4.4 --enable-nls --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-objc-gc --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i486 --with-tune=generic --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu Thread model: posix gcc version 4.4.1 (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9) -- Summary: No error with missing header and -MM Product: gcc Version: 4.5.0 Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P3 Component: preprocessor AssignedTo: unassigned at gcc dot gnu dot org ReportedBy: rhansen at bbn dot com GCC build triplet: x86_64-linux-gnu GCC host triplet: x86_64-linux-gnu GCC target triplet: x86_64-linux-gnu http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=42921