I\'m about to update default GCC (version 4.6.3) shipped by Ubuntu 12.04 to 4.8.2, though the compilation requires a standalone C++ compiler
admin@ubuntu: /u
Do you want to compile it yourself ? If not, there is a PPA, described here
You can easily compile the sources.
The following commands worked for gcc 4.7. They should be fine for gcc 4.8 as well:
sudo apt-get install libmpfr-dev libgmp3-dev libmpc-dev flex bison
svn checkout svn://gcc.gnu.org/svn/gcc/trunk
cd trunk
./configure --prefix=/opt/gcc-4.8.2/usr/local/gcc-4.8.2 --enable-languages=c,c++
make
make install
The compiler will be placed in the /opt/ directory, so you have to use it from there.
Add the ppa by
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
Install g++ and gcc (version 4.8)
sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install gcc-4.8 g++-4.8
Run the following commands one by one,
sudo update-alternatives --remove-all gcc
sudo update-alternatives --remove-all g++
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.8 20
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.8 20
sudo update-alternatives --config gcc
sudo update-alternatives --config g++
That's it you are done!