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Background: When I try to google search something like "gcc -Wall" (for example,) to find documentation on the -Wall flag's meaning for GCC, it looks like I get the same search results as if I just searched "gcc": None of the results seem to include the text "-Wall" in them.

Why doesn't a search query with search terms starting with dashes seem to work as I intend (return results containing matches of the terms that starts with a dash), and how can I properly query for terms that start with a dash?

Note: Related, but not a duplicate (because it is more general, and the answer is binary-different as a result): How do I escape Google functional characters?.

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    Meta note: It was discussed where and at what level of abstraction away from command-line arguments / compiler flags to ask this question here on meta.stackexchange.com
    – starball
    Commented Dec 30, 2022 at 6:33

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gcc -Wall actually tells the Google search engine to include things that match "gcc", and exclude things that match "Wall". This is because the dash/hyphen character, "-", is one of several special characters called "search operators" for the Google search engine.

If you go to "How to search on Google", it links to a page about search operators that documents the various search operators and how they work. For this particular one, if you start a term with a dash/hyphen, it will tell the Google search engine to exclude that term from the search. Quoting from the current user documentation:

Exclude words from your search
Put - in front of a word you want to leave out. For example, jaguar speed -car

To properly search for pages with matches of search terms that start with a dash/hyphen, use the "exact match" operator: enclose/wrap the term that starts with dashes with double quotes (including the dash/hyphen), like "gcc "-Wall"".

The "exact match" operator does what its name suggests: It is used to search for exact matches, and can be used to treat the dash/hyphen as part of the search term for which to find an exact match. Quoting from the current user documentation:

Search for an exact match
Put a word or phrase inside quotes. For example, "tallest building".

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