The GNU Fortran compiler is the successor to g77, the Fortran 77 front end included in GCC prior to version 4 (released in 2005). While it is backward-compatible with most g77 extensions and command-line options, gfortran is a completely new implemention designed to support more modern dialects of Fortran. GNU Fortran implements the Fortran 77, 90 and 95 standards completely, most of the Fortran 2003 and 2008 standards, and some features from the 2018 standard. It also implements several extensions including OpenMP and OpenACC support for parallel programming.

The GNU Fortran compiler passes the NIST Fortran 77 Test Suite, and produces acceptable results on the LAPACK Test Suite. It also provides respectable performance on the Polyhedron Fortran compiler benchmarks and the Livermore Fortran Kernels test. It has been used to compile a number of large real-world programs, including the HARMONIE and HIRLAM weather forecasting code and the Tonto quantum chemistry package; see https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/GfortranApps for an extended list.

GNU Fortran provides the following functionality:

• Read a program, stored in a file and containing source code instructions written in Fortran 77.
• Translate the program into instructions a computer can carry out more quickly than it takes to translate the original Fortran instructions. The result after compilation of a program is machine code, which is efficiently translated and processed by a machine such as your computer. Humans usually are not as good writing machine code as they are at writing Fortran (or C++, Ada, or Java), because it is easy to make tiny mistakes writing machine code.
• Provide information about the reasons why the compiler may be unable to create a binary from the source code, for example if the source code is flawed. The Fortran language standards require that the compiler can point out mistakes in your code. An incorrect usage of the language causes an error message.

  The compiler also attempts to diagnose cases where your program contains a correct usage of the language, but instructs the computer to do something questionable. This kind of diagnostic message is called a warning message.

• Provide optional information about the translation passes from the source code to machine code. This can help you to find the cause of certain bugs which may not be obvious in the source code, but may be more easily found at a lower level compiler output. It also helps developers to find bugs in the compiler itself.
• Provide information in the generated machine code that can make it easier to find bugs in the program (using a debugging tool, called a debugger, such as the GNU Debugger gdb).
• Locate and gather machine code already generated to perform actions requested by statements in the program. This machine code is organized into modules and is located and linked to the user program.

The GNU Fortran compiler consists of several components:

• A version of the gcc command (which also might be installed as the system’s cc command) that also understands and accepts Fortran source code. The gcc command is the driver program for all the languages in the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC); With gcc, you can compile the source code of any language for which a front end is available in GCC.
• The gfortran command itself, which also might be installed as the system’s f95 command. gfortran is just another driver program, but specifically for the Fortran compiler only. The primary difference between the gcc and gfortran commands is that the latter automatically links the correct libraries to your program.
• A collection of run-time libraries. These libraries contain the machine code needed to support capabilities of the Fortran language that are not directly provided by the machine code generated by the gfortran compilation phase, such as intrinsic functions and subroutines, and routines for interaction with files and the operating system.
• The Fortran compiler itself, (f951). This is the GNU Fortran parser and code generator, linked to and interfaced with the GCC backend library. f951 “translates” the source code to assembler code. You would typically not use this program directly; instead, the gcc or gfortran driver programs call it for you.