diff --git a/cc/private/toolchain/unix_cc_configure.bzl b/cc/private/toolchain/unix_cc_configure.bzl
index fe485d81f..5aed02659 100644
--- a/cc/private/toolchain/unix_cc_configure.bzl
+++ b/cc/private/toolchain/unix_cc_configure.bzl
@@ -276,7 +276,13 @@ def _is_gcc(repository_ctx, cc):
     # GCC's version output uses the basename of argv[0] as the program name:
     # https://gcc.gnu.org/git/?p=gcc.git;a=blob;f=gcc/gcc.cc;h=158461167951c1b9540322fb19be6a89d6da07fc;hb=HEAD#l8728
     cc_stdout = repository_ctx.execute([cc, "--version"]).stdout
-    return cc_stdout.startswith("gcc ") or cc_stdout.startswith("gcc-")
+    if cc_stdout.startswith("gcc ") or cc_stdout.startswith("gcc-"):
+        return True
+
+    # As a fallback, also check specs output in case argv[0] was a symlink.
+    specs = repository_ctx.execute([cc, "-v"]).stderr
+    last_line = specs.rstrip("\n").split("\n")[-1]
+    return "gcc version " in last_line
 
 def _get_compiler_name(repository_ctx, cc):
     if _is_clang(repository_ctx, cc):