dyld: Library not loaded ... Reason: Image not found

Question

When trying to run an executable I've been sent in Mac OS X, I get the following error

dyld: Library not loaded: libboost_atomic.dylib
  Referenced from: /Users/"Directory my executable is in"
  Reason: image not found
Trace/BPT trap:5

I have installed the boost libraries and they are located in /opt/local/lib. I think the problem has something to do with the executable only looking in the directory it is in as when I paste the 'libboost_atomic.dylib' in there, it doesn't mind about it anymore. Unfortunately then it complains it can't find the next boost library.

Is there an easy way to fix this?

Solution 1

Find all the boost libraries (where exefile is the name of your executable):

$ otool -L exefile
exefile:
        @executable_path/libboost_something.dylib (compatibility version 0.7.0, current version 0.7.0)
        /usr/lib/libc++.1.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 65.1.0)
        /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 169.3.0)

and for each libboost_xxx.dylib, do:

$ install_name_tool -change @executable_path/libboost_something.dylib /opt/local/lib/libboost_something.dylib exefile

and finally verify using otool again:

$ otool -L exefile
exefile:
        /opt/local/lib/libboost_something.dylib (compatibility version 0.7.0, current version 0.7.0)
        /usr/lib/libc++.1.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 65.1.0)
        /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 169.3.0)

Manpages: otool install_name_tool

EDIT A while back I wrote a python script (copy_dylibs.py) to work out all this stuff automatically when building an app. It will package up all libraries from /usr/local or /opt/local into the app bundle and fix references to those libraries to use @rpath. This means you can easily install third-party library using Homebrew and package them just as easily.

I have now made this script public on github.

Solution 2

This worked for me:

brew upgrade node

Solution 3

In the target's General tab, there is a section called Frameworks, Libraries, and Embedded Content

Click on the + sign, add required framework and the crash is resolved.

Solution 4

After upgrade Mac OS to Mojave. I tried to install npm modules via yarn command I got error:

dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/opt/icu4c/lib/libicui18n.60.dylib
  Referenced from: /usr/local/bin/node
  Reason: image not found
Abort trap: 6

Was fixed with:

brew update
brew upgrade

Solution 5

For some, this could be as easy as setting the system path for dynamic libraries. On OS X, this is as simple as setting the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. See:

Is it OK to use DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH on Mac OS X? And, what's the dynamic library search algorithm with it?

View more solutions

Comments

[VenushkaT]

@trojanfoe can you please explain here what is the exefile is it be a tool exec file path ? isnt it ?

[Leo]

It may seem stupid, but I wonder what value should I set DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH to?

[markshiz]

@Caesar Set it to the directory of wherever the dylibs you're trying to link are located.

[tglas]

After recompiling the executable I have to repeat this process - quite annoying during development.

[frankliuao]

Actually the better way is to use DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH to modify the search path. The other answer has got this.

[ScottyBlades]

'exefile': No such file or directory

[brunouno]

@ScottyBlades exefile stands for the executable file you're trying to run. In my case, otool -L /usr/local/bin/php did the trick.

[Joe Sleiman]

what should i add ? there's a lot of files

[trojanfoe]

You cannot expect your users to change DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH. The correct solution is to include non-standard libraries with the .app and the user won't have to do anything. The developer, however, may still have to hack the loader path as per my answer.

[cn00]

I create a cocoa framework dynamic library project, it works, and compared with my bad cmake generated project find this different, and fixed it, it works on iOS.

[diegoaguilar]

What is this doing, though?

[Hugo Nogueira]

@diegoaguilar this is reinstalling node using homebrew. Probably another installation broke node path. Also worked for me.

[Ishan]

My intelliJ started throwing this error when I recently updated xcode. I was trying to run a node.js server through intellij. I wasn't sure what went wrong. Running node --version on my system resulted in the same error. Running the above two commands solved my problem.

[Matt Kneiser]

Thanks! Worked for me when Homebrew messed up bash. In my case I needed to run install_name_tool as root to get over the issue. This one-liner inspects all the dylibs for a binary: otool -L /usr/local/bin/bash | awk -F' ' '{print $1}' | tail -n +2 | xargs -I{} ls {}

[Michael Behrens]

In my case, I also ran the brew cleanup command, which is good to do at times if you want to get rid of old versions.

[JBarros35]

this is not IOS issue.

[Mo Farhand]

@Himanshu I have libcppreset for my project! it has a lot of dependency from boost and ... I run a bash script to change them with install_name_tool but for the LC_ID_DYLIB I can't so need to make a symlink in usr/loca/opt ! is there any way to figure out ? :| It's painfull :(

[Jivan]

People need to stop recommending doing brew upgrade just like that. This can be a massive disruptor for one's entire system. Instead, isolate what needs to be upgraded and upgrade that only.

[Buraco]

Regarding to @MichaelBehrens's comment, I run brew cleanup then it fixed.

[Onema]

Using this worked for me, unfortunately, I still don't know what cause of the issue to begin with or why updating, upgrading and cleaning up solve the issue

[Pianistprogrammer]

this worked totally for me, however, while trying to do the cleanup, i ran into some permission issue, if you also have this trouble, try running sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/local/lib then try running the brew cleanup again

[Harry Moreno]

I still get ImportError: cannot import name 'ssl' from 'urllib3.util.ssl_' (/Users/foo/.local/share/virtualenvs/TMIWqqTS/lib/python3.7/‌​site-packages/urllib‌​3/util/ssl_.py) after running this

[Harry Moreno]

I fixed my follow up error by reinstalling python. I use asdf to manage my language versions so I did asdf uninstall python 3.7.3 (I was using 3.7.3, specify here the version you have) and then ran asdf install python 3.7.3.

[Cadu De Castro Alves]

It worked for me after updating macOS Catalina. Thanks!

[Ejaz Karim]

any explanations on this would be helpful.

[YuAn Shaolin Maculelê Lai]

Here's the other way. Please take a look. github.com/eXolnet/homebrew-deprecated/issues/27

[trojanfoe]

@YuAnShaolinMaculelêLai Sorry I don't understand what you mean.

[trojanfoe]

Looks to me like the executable shouldn't even be linking against libssl.1.0.0.dylib, but rather libssl.1.dylib, which will be symlinked to the exact version on the system while maintaining API compatibility. See this.

[inaki]

Same here, I fixed it with brew upgrade node (OSX Catalina)

[shorol]

if till not work : brew services start php

[desu sai venkat]

Add the framework and set the framework to Embed & Sign

[Jeremy Moritz]

This should be the accepted answer. Save most people a lot of hassle.

[trojanfoe]

@JeremyMoritz Except that the question doesn't even mention node and is not tagged with node. It's an answer to a different question.

[Joana Carvalho]

I had a similar problem dyld: Library not loaded:/usr/local/opt/fftw/lib/libfftw3f.3.dylib. After checking many possible solutions I just did brew install fftw and it worked for me. Thanks @brunouno

[Sam Ginrich]

@trojanfoe .app? Have a test executable, trying to link some .dylib . Linux is same with LD_LIBRARY_PATH

[Sam Ginrich]

So easy. Thank you! Wonder, what other answers are about, and how brew would do a similair thing ...