Options like -iquote can have a <dir> attached, without whitespace.

[mmjo]

gcc and clang accept both '-iquote<dir>' and '-iquote <dir>'.

Just like '-I.' and '-I .', which was already accepted.

Same for '-isystem', '-idirafter' and '-iframework'.

[mmjo]

I tried to create an issue, but somehow github does not allow that.
Here is the text:

In a Makefile, -iquote. fails with gcc/clang

Information

VIM version

VIM - Vi IMproved 9.1 (2024 Jan 02, compiled Aug 24 2026 22:13:04)
Included patches: 1-16, 647, 678, 697

Operating System: Ubuntu 24.04

What went wrong

Building tmux, with gcc, running linter on save, i get:
gcc|1 error| cc : cannot specify '-o' with '-c', '-S' or '-E' with multiple files

Or with clang:
clang|1 error| cc : no such file or directory: '/mnt/data/download/src/tmux/-std=gnu99'

Reproducing the bug

let b:ale_c_parse_makefile=1
Makefile contains -iquote. without separating whitespace.

Running the cc (gcc) linter.
The code takes the next argument as directory to -iquote.
This results in the multiple files error.

:ALEInfo

Expand

Current Filetype: c Available Linters: ['astgrep', 'cc', 'ccls', 'clangcheck', 'clangd', 'clangtidy', 'cppcheck', 'cpplint', 'cquery', 'cspell', 'flawfinder'] Linter Aliases: 'cc' -> ['gcc', 'clang'] Enabled Linters: ['cc', 'flawfinder'] Ignored Linters: [] Suggested Fixers: 'ast-grep' - Apply ast-grep rules. 'astyle' - Fix C/C++ with astyle. 'clang-format' - Fix C, C++, C#, CUDA, Java, JavaScript, JSON, ObjectiveC and Protobuf files with clang-format. 'clangtidy' - Fix C/C++ and ObjectiveC files with clang-tidy. 'remove_trailing_lines' - Remove all blank lines at the end of a file. 'replace_emdash' - Replace em dash with -- ASCII characters. 'trim_whitespace' - Remove all trailing whitespace characters at the end of every line. 'uncrustify' - Fix C, C++, C#, ObjectiveC, ObjectiveC++, D, Java, Pawn, and VALA files with uncrustify.

Linter Variables:
let g:ale_c_always_make = 1
let g:ale_c_build_dir = ''
let g:ale_c_build_dir_names = ['build', 'build/Debug', 'build/Release', 'bin']
let g:ale_c_cc_executable = 'gcc'
let g:ale_c_cc_header_exts = ['h']
let g:ale_c_cc_options = ''
let g:ale_c_cc_use_header_lang_flag = -1
let g:ale_c_flawfinder_error_severity = 6
let g:ale_c_flawfinder_executable = 'flawfinder'
let g:ale_c_flawfinder_minlevel = 5
let g:ale_c_flawfinder_options = ''
let g:ale_c_parse_compile_commands = 0
let g:ale_c_parse_makefile = 0
let b:ale_c_parse_makefile = 1

Global Variables:
let g:ale_cache_executable_check_failures = v:null
let g:ale_change_sign_column_color = v:false
let g:ale_command_wrapper = ''
let g:ale_completion_delay = 500
let g:ale_completion_enabled = 1
let g:ale_completion_max_suggestions = 50
let g:ale_disable_lsp = 'auto'
let g:ale_echo_cursor = v:true
let g:ale_echo_msg_error_str = 'E'
let g:ale_echo_msg_format = '%linter% %code%: %s'
let g:ale_echo_msg_info_str = 'I'
let g:ale_echo_msg_warning_str = 'W'
let g:ale_enabled = 1
let g:ale_fix_on_save = 0
let g:ale_fixers = {'c': ['trim_whitespace', 'remove_trailing_lines']}
let g:ale_history_enabled = v:true
let g:ale_info_default_mode = 'preview'
let g:ale_history_log_output = v:true
let g:ale_keep_list_window_open = 0
let g:ale_lint_delay = 200
let g:ale_lint_on_enter = 0
let g:ale_lint_on_filetype_changed = 1
let g:ale_lint_on_insert_leave = 0
let g:ale_lint_on_save = 1
let g:ale_lint_on_text_changed = 0
let g:ale_linter_aliases = {}
let g:ale_linters = {'c': ['cc', 'flawfinder']}
let g:ale_linters_explicit = 1
let g:ale_linters_ignore = {'c': ['cpplint', 'cquery', 'cspell']}
let g:ale_list_vertical = v:false
let g:ale_list_window_size = 10
let g:ale_loclist_msg_format = '%linter% %code%: %s'
let g:ale_max_buffer_history_size = 20
let g:ale_max_signs = -1
let g:ale_maximum_file_size = v:null
let g:ale_open_list = 1
let g:ale_pattern_options = v:null
let g:ale_pattern_options_enabled = v:null
let g:ale_root = {}
let g:ale_set_balloons = v:false
let g:ale_set_highlights = 1
let g:ale_set_loclist = 0
let g:ale_set_quickfix = 1
let g:ale_set_signs = 1
let g:ale_sign_column_always = v:false
let g:ale_sign_error = 'e'
let g:ale_sign_info = 'i'
let g:ale_sign_offset = 1000000
let g:ale_sign_style_error = 'e'
let g:ale_sign_style_warning = 'w'
let g:ale_sign_warning = 'w'
let g:ale_sign_highlight_linenrs = v:false
let g:ale_type_map = {}
let g:ale_use_neovim_diagnostics_api = v:false
let g:ale_use_global_executables = v:null
let g:ale_virtualtext_cursor = 'current'
let g:ale_warn_about_trailing_blank_lines = v:true
let g:ale_warn_about_trailing_whitespace = v:true

Command History:

(executable check - success) gcc
(finished - exit code 0) ['env', 'BASH_ENV=/home/mike/etc/bash/alias.bash', '/bin/bash', '-O', 'expand_aliases', '-c', 'cd ''/mnt/data/download/src/tmux'' && make -n --always-make']

<<>>

(finished - exit code 1) ['env', 'BASH_ENV=/home/mike/etc/bash/alias.bash', '/bin/bash', '-O', 'expand_aliases', '-c', 'cd ''/mnt/data/download/src/tmux'' && ''gcc'' -S -x c -o /dev/null -iquote ''/mnt/data/download/src/tmux'' -DPACKAGE_NAME="tmux" -DPACKAGE_TARNAME="tmux" -DPACKAGE_VERSION="next-3.7" -DPACKAGE_STRING="tmux\ next-3.7" -DPACKAGE_BUGREPORT="" -DPACKAGE_URL="" -DPACKAGE="tmux" -DVERSION="next-3.7" -DHAVE_STDIO_H=1 -DHAVE_STDLIB_H=1 -DHAVE_STRING_H=1 -DHAVE_INTTYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_STDINT_H=1 -DHAVE_STRINGS_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_STAT_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_TYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -DHAVE_WCHAR_H=1 -DSTDC_HEADERS=1 -D_ALL_SOURCE=1 -D_DARWIN_C_SOURCE=1 -D_GNU_SOURCE=1 -D_HPUX_ALT_XOPEN_SOCKET_API=1 -D_NETBSD_SOURCE=1 -D_OPENBSD_SOURCE=1 -D_POSIX_PTHREAD_SEMANTICS=1 -D__STDC_WANT_IEC_60559_ATTRIBS_EXT__=1 -D__STDC_WANT_IEC_60559_BFP_EXT__=1 -D__STDC_WANT_IEC_60559_DFP_EXT__=1 -D__STDC_WANT_IEC_60559_FUNCS_EXT__=1 -D__STDC_WANT_IEC_60559_TYPES_EXT__=1 -D__STDC_WANT_LIB_EXT2__=1 -D__STDC_WANT_MATH_SPEC_FUNCS__=1 -D_TANDEM_SOURCE=1 -D__EXTENSIONS__=1 -DHAVE_DIRENT_H=1 -DHAVE_FCNTL_H=1 -DHAVE_INTTYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_PATHS_H=1 -DHAVE_PTY_H=1 -DHAVE_STDINT_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_DIR_H=1 -DHAVE_LIBM=1 -DHAVE_DIRFD=1 -DHAVE_FLOCK=1 -DHAVE_PRCTL=1 -DHAVE_SYSCONF=1 -DHAVE_ASPRINTF=1 -DHAVE_CFMAKERAW=1 -DHAVE_CLOCK_GETTIME=1 -DHAVE_CLOSEFROM=1 -DHAVE_EXPLICIT_BZERO=1 -DHAVE_GETDTABLESIZE=1 -DHAVE_GETLINE=1 -DHAVE_MEMMEM=1 -DHAVE_SETENV=1 -DHAVE_STRCASESTR=1 -DHAVE_STRLCAT=1 -DHAVE_STRLCPY=1 -DHAVE_STRNDUP=1 -DHAVE_STRSEP=1 -DHAVE_EVENT2_EVENT_H=1 -DHAVE_NCURSES_H=1 -DHAVE_TIPARM=1 -DHAVE_TIPARM_S=1 -DHAVE_B64_NTOP=1 -DHAVE_MALLOC_TRIM=1 -DHAVE_DAEMON=1 -DHAVE_FORKPTY=1 -DHAVE___PROGNAME=1 -DHAVE_PROGRAM_INVOCATION_SHORT_NAME=1 -DHAVE_PR_SET_NAME=1 -DHAVE_SO_PEERCRED=1 -DHAVE_PROC_PID=1 -I ''/mnt/data/download/src/tmux'' -D_DEFAULT_SOURCE -D_XOPEN_SOURCE=600 -DTMUX_VERSION=''"next-3.7"'' -DTMUX_CONF=''"/etc/tmux.conf:/.tmux.conf:$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tmux/tmux.conf:/.config/tmux/tmux.conf"'' -DTMUX_LOCK_CMD=''"lock -np"'' -DTMUX_TERM=''"tmux-256color"'' -DDEBUG -iquote. ''/mnt/data/download/src/tmux/-std=gnu99'' -O2 -Wno-long-long -Wall -W -Wformat=2 -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations -Wwrite-strings -Wshadow -Wpointer-arith -Wsign-compare -Wundef -Wbad-function-cast -Winline -Wcast-align -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wno-pointer-sign -Wno-attributes -Wno-unused-result -Wno-format-y2k - < ''/home/mike/tmp/vim/vumKaDv/3/tmux.c''']

<<>>
gcc: fatal error: cannot specify ‘-o’ with ‘-c’, ‘-S’ or ‘-E’ with multiple files
compilation terminated.
<<>>