--prefix=/static: This is NOT a typo. GCC hard codes some paths while compiling and so we need to pass /static as the prefix during ./configure. We pass the real install prefix during the make install command later. --with-as and --with-ld: GCC can be miscompiled if your host distribution's Binutils package is quite old. We need a good working static GCC until we reinstall GCC later in chapter 6. So by using as and ld from the Binutils package we just compiled we ensure that GCC will work correctly. make BOOT_LDFLAGS="-static": This is the equivalent to make LDFLAGS="-static" as we use with other packages to compile them statically. make install-no-fixedincludes: This prevents the fixed header files from being installed. This is needed because under normal circumstances the GCC installation will run the fixincludes scripts which scans your system for header files that need to be fixed. Say it finds Glibc header files. It will fix them and will end up in $LFS/static/lib/gcc-lib/i686-pc-linux-gnu/ Later on in chapter 6 you will install Glibc which will install header files in /usr/include. Next you will install other programs which will use Glibc headers. GCC will look in /static/lib/gcc-lib before looking in /usr/include, which has the result of Glibc header files from your host distribution being found and used which are probably incompatible with the Glibc version actually in use on the LFS system. ln -s gcc $LFS/static/bin/cc: This creates the $LFS/static/bin/gcc symlink, which some packages need.