The big question that I intend to address is: why buy this book instead of relying on the free book "An introduction to GCC for the GNU compilers gcc and g++?"

Well, this book does cover more ground than its rival - sadly, like its competitor it fails to document the GNU debugger ( gdb ) or the -Weffc++ option or even make - it does cover automake which makes the make oversight surprising. However, in this book's favour it is unique in covering:

• l How to build GCC from source.
• l Using autocong and automake.
• l Using libtool.
• l Trouble shooting GCC (including build& installation problems).
• l GCC online help (GNU info) - although it fails to mention that info is obsolete if you're using KDE - just open a Konqueror window and type in ##gcc.

Verdict: If you want a comprehensive reference, buy this book. Otherwise buy or print "An introduction to GCC". Recommended.