--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 fixincludes script from running. Preventing this is necessary because under normal circumstances the GCC installation will run the fixincludes script which scans your system for header files that need to be fixed. It might find that the Glibc header files of your host system need to be fixed. If so, it will fix them and put them in $LFS/static/lib/gcc-lib/i686-pc-linux-gnu/3.2. Later on in chapter 6 you will install Glibc which will put its header files in /usr/include. Next you will install other programs that use the Glibc headers. GCC will look in /static/lib/gcc-lib before looking in /usr/include, with the result of finding and using the fixed Glibc header files from your host distribution, which are probably incompatible with the Glibc version actually used on the LFS system. ln -s gcc $LFS/static/bin/cc: This creates the $LFS/static/bin/gcc symlink, which some packages need.