C++ Boost: undefined reference to boost::system::generic_category()

Question

I am trying to include Boost libraries in my project and have been facing issues in the same. I am on Ubuntu 12.10 with Codeblocks IDE and tried installing the libraries manually reading instructions from the site, but was getting error's with header as well as to-be-built-before-use libraries.

I then installed the libraries via terminalby sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev. After this, in my programs on Codeblocks, I can include headers like #include <boost/regex.hpp> but when I try to include the header for the Filesystem library ( #include "boost/filesystem/operations.hpp" ), I am getting the following error:

/usr/include/boost/system/error_code.hpp|214|undefined reference to boost::system::generic_category()'|

I am not sure how to resolve this error (specifically in Codeblocks on Linux). I really could use some help here.

Compiler : Gcc
Program code: Only tried inlcuding the above file system operations.hpp file.

Build log from Codeblocks:

Build started on: 20-11-2012 at 18:02.53
Build ended on: 20-11-2012 at 18:02.54
-------------- Build: Debug in libopenFrameworks ---------------
Target is up to date.
-------------- Build: Debug in reader1 ---------------
make -s -f Makefile Debug
linking i686 bin/reader1_debug linux
obj/i686Debug/src/testApp.o: In function `__static_initialization_and_destruction_0':
/usr/include/boost/system/error_code.hpp:214: undefined reference to `boost::system::generic_category()'
/usr/include/boost/system/error_code.hpp:215: undefined reference to `boost::system::generic_category()'
/usr/include/boost/system/error_code.hpp:216: undefined reference to `boost::system::system_category()'
obj/i686Debug/src/main.o: In function `__static_initialization_and_destruction_0':
/usr/include/boost/system/error_code.hpp:214: undefined reference to `boost::system::generic_category()'
/usr/include/boost/system/error_code.hpp:215: undefined reference to `boost::system::generic_category()'
/usr/include/boost/system/error_code.hpp:216: undefined reference to `boost::system::system_category()'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [bin/reader1_debug] Error 1
Process terminated with status 2 (0 minutes, 1 seconds)
6 errors, 0 warnings

Solution 1

You should link in the libboost_system library. I am not sure about codeblocks, but the g++ command-line option on your platform would be

-lboost_system

Solution 2

Depending on the boost version libboost-system comes with the -mt suffix which should indicate the libraries multithreading capability.

So if -lboost_system cannot be found by the linker try -lboost_system-mt.

Solution 3

It's a linker problem. Include the static library path into your project.

For Qt Creator open the project file .pro and add the following line:

LIBS += -L<path for boost libraries in the system> -lboost_system

In my case Ubuntu x86_64:

LIBS += -L/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu -lboost_system

For Codeblocks, open up Settings->Compiler...->Linker settings tab and add:

boost_system

to the Link libraries text widget and press OK button.

Solution 4

This answer actually helped when using Boost and cmake.

Adding add_definitions(-DBOOST_ERROR_CODE_HEADER_ONLY) for cmake file.

My CMakeLists.txt looks like this:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.12)
project(proj)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)


set(SHARED_DIR "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/../shared")

set(BOOST_LATEST_DIR            "${SHARED_DIR}/boost_1_68_0")
set(BOOST_LATEST_BIN_DIR        "${BOOST_LATEST_DIR}/stage/lib")
set(BOOST_LATEST_INCLUDE_DIR    "${BOOST_LATEST_DIR}/boost")
set(BOOST_SYSTEM                "${BOOST_LATEST_BIN_DIR}/libboost_system.so")
set(BOOST_FS                    "${BOOST_LATEST_BIN_DIR}/libboost_filesystem.so")
set(BOOST_THREAD                "${BOOST_LATEST_BIN_DIR}/libboost_thread.so")

set(HYRISE_SQL_PARSER_DIR           "${SHARED_DIR}/hyrise_sql_parser")
set(HYRISE_SQL_PARSER_BIN_DIR       "${HYRISE_SQL_PARSER_DIR}")
set(HYRISE_SQL_PARSER_INCLUDE_DIR   "${HYRISE_SQL_PARSER_DIR}/src")
set(HYRISE_SQLPARSER                "${HYRISE_SQL_PARSER_BIN_DIR}/libsqlparser.so")


include_directories(${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR} ${BOOST_LATEST_INCLUDE_DIR} ${HYRISE_SQL_PARSER_INCLUDE_DIR})

set(BOOST_LIBRARYDIR "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/")
set(Boost_USE_STATIC_LIBS OFF)
set(Boost_USE_MULTITHREADED ON)
set(Boost_USE_STATIC_RUNTIME OFF)

add_definitions(-DBOOST_ERROR_CODE_HEADER_ONLY)

find_package(Boost 1.68.0 REQUIRED COMPONENTS system thread filesystem)

add_executable(proj main.cpp row/row.cpp row/row.h table/table.cpp table/table.h page/page.cpp page/page.h
        processor/processor.cpp processor/processor.h engine_instance.cpp engine_instance.h utils.h
        meta_command.h terminal/terminal.cpp terminal/terminal.h)


if(Boost_FOUND)
    include_directories(${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS})
    target_link_libraries(proj PUBLIC Boost::system Boost::filesystem Boost::thread ${HYRISE_SQLPARSER})
endif()

Solution 5

I searched for a solution as well, and none of the answers I encountered solved the error, Until I found the answer of "ViRuSTriNiTy" to this thread: Undefined reference to 'boost::system::generic_category()'?

according to that answer, try to add these lines to your cmake file:

find_package(Boost 1.55.0 REQUIRED COMPONENTS system filesystem)
include_directories(... ${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS})
link_directories(... ${Boost_LIBRARY_DIRS})
target_link_libraries(... ${Boost_LIBRARIES})

View more solutions

Comments

[pyCthon]

your not linking it right, codeblocks won't do it for you unlike you system path and system repository,

[Cipher]

@pyCthon: In that case, can you add more detail more detail about how to link this in Code::blocks. I tried adding the linker flag -lboost_system at some place in settings, but it didn't resolve. However, I am not even sure if I did the whole linker flag thing at the right place. A little more detail would be of great help.

[pyCthon]

well what compiler are you using? mingw? gcc? what code are you trying to run? give an example.....

[Cipher]

@pyCthon: Comiler is Gcc. I have not written any code till now, but have tried including the Boost filesystem library (operation.hpp in the above post)

[pyCthon]

does it work compiling a regular program with boost filesystem library from command line with g++?

[Cipher]

I already found the linker flag to be added though. Can't get it working in Codeblocks.

[juanchopanza]

@Cipher can you obtain the build and link commands executed by codeblocks?

[juanchopanza]

@Cipher sorry, pastebin is blocked at work. I can check later but it will take a few hours.

[Cipher]

No problem. Updated in the post as well

[ddacot]

i have the same problem as Cipher's, just in my case i deal with boost/asio.hpp. I get these error s1.directupload.net/images/130608/koyvqpdp.jpg when trying to compiler. When i try to add -lboost_system it says "cannot find lboost_system". What;s the problem?

[juanchopanza]

@ddacot are the boost libs in your library search path?

[ddacot]

@juanchopanza i'm not quiet sure what are you talking about, but i have these lines in my .pro file INCLUDEPATH += C:/boost/boost_1_53_0/ LIBS += "-LC:/boost/boost_1_53_0/stage/lib/" -lboost_system

[juanchopanza]

@ddacot OK, you seem to be on some windows system, probably using mingw, right? I am not familiar with the exact options you need for that.

[ddacot]

@juanchopanza some days ago i compiled boost for vs2012 and it works fine. Now i need to use in qt but can't. Yeap, i'm on w8. Yes Qt creator uses Mingw as default compiler.

[Jonas G. Drange]

In cmake this will be include_directories(${libfoo_INCLUDE_DIRS}) and then target_link_library(MyLib ${libfoo_LDFLAGS}).

[Ashraf Sayied-Ahmad]

if you are using CMake the following lines should be added: add_library(boost_system STATIC IMPORTED) set_target_properties(boost_system PROPERTIES IMPORTED_LOCATION "${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/libs/${ANDROID_ABI}/libboost_syst‌​em-gcc-mt-1_53.a") add_library(boost_filesystem STATIC IMPORTED) set_target_properties(boost_filesystem PROPERTIES IMPORTED_LOCATION "${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/libs/${ANDROID_ABI}/libboost_file‌​system-gcc-mt-1_53.a‌​")

[Filipe Calasans]

That solved my issue. It's quite easy to forget the flags used during compilation, specially when you use the default ones.

[tssch]

It works because for these boost versions the actual library file name had a -mt suffix.