installing g++ on my RH desktop

Well, the archives were very helpful (and I have bookmarked them) but I
did not see an answer to my question.

This sad story starts with the error message when configuring
something to compile:

C++ preprocessor "/lib/cpp" fails sanity check

Checking the configure logs, g++ is not found.  Checking google and the
rhn-users archives, I see that some compilers are not included in the
full gcc suite, and they have to be added separately.  Not a problem,
I'll add g++.  I do a quick check to see what version of gcc I have
installed:

gcc version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44)

OK.  I need gcc-c++ for gcc 4.1.2-44.

[root@cbar-linux ~]# yum update gcc-c++-4.1.2-44.el5.i386
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
rhel-i386-client-5                               | 1.3 kB     00:00     
primary.xml.gz                                   | 1.6 MB     00:02     
rhel-i386-client-5                                    4294/4294
adobe-linux-i38                                  |  951 B     00:00     
Skipping security plugin, no data
Setting up Update Process
No Packages marked for Update

OK, maybe I am being too specific.

[root@cbar-linux ~]# yum update gcc-c++
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
No package gcc-c++ available.
Nothing to do

Nope.  Wait a sec, do I want to 'update' or 'install'

[root@cbar-linux ~]# yum install gcc-c++
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
No package gcc-c++ available.
Nothing to do

Nope, that wasn't it either. Then I see in the archives that someone
used a 'search' directive in yum.  g++ did not work, gcc* did not work,
but it looks like 'yum search gcc' hit paydirt.

[root@cbar-linux ~]# yum search gcc
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
============================= Matched: gcc =============================
compat-glibc.i386 : Compatibility C library
compat-gcc-34.i386 : Compatibility GNU Compiler Collection
compat-gcc-34-c++.i386 : C++ support for compatibility compiler
compat-gcc-34-g77.i386 : Fortran 77 support for compatibility compiler
compat-libgcc-296.i386 : Compatibility 2.96-RH libgcc library
compat-libstdc++-296.i386 : Compatibility 2.96-RH standard C++ libraries
compat-libstdc++-33.i386 : Compatibility standard C++ libraries
cpp.i386 : The C Preprocessor.
gcc.i386 : Various compilers (C, C++, Objective-C, Java, ...)
libgcc.i386 : GCC version 4.1 shared support library
libgcj.i386 : Java runtime library for gcc
libgnat.i386 : GNU Ada 95 runtime shared libraries
libgomp.i386 : GCC OpenMP 2.5 shared support library
libmudflap.i386 : GCC mudflap shared support library
libstdc++.i386 : GNU Standard C++ Library
libtermcap.i386 : A basic system library for accessing the termcap
database.

Bingo! It looks like I want compat-gcc-34-c++.i386...

[root@cbar-linux ~]# yum install compat-gcc-34-c++.i386
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Package compat-gcc-34-c++-3.4.6-4.i386 already installed and latest
version
Nothing to do

hmmm.  The system thinks g++ is already installed. But it is not. 

[root@cbar-linux ~]# which g++
/usr/bin/which: no g++ in
(/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/root/bin)

[root@cbar-linux ~]# cd /
[root@cbar-linux /]# find / -name g++ -print
[root@cbar-linux ~]#

So what am I missing?


-- 
Christopher Barnard
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
comment your code as if the maintainer will be a homicidal maniac who
knows where you live.