how to define a string in gcc command line?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2410976/how-to-define-a-string-in-gcc-command-line

to avoid the shell "eating" the quotes and other characters, you might try single quotes, like this:

gcc -o test test.cpp -DNAME='"Mary"'

This way you have full control what is defined (quotes, spaces, special characters, and all).