‘boost::placeholders’ has not been declared : boost::placeholders::_1 - c++

Question

I am trying to launch a ROS project but I receive a very strange error: ‘boost::placeholders’ has not been declared.
I have the following settings:
Ubuntu 20.04
ROS Noetic
Boost 1.71
CMake -> cmake version 3.16.3
Below a sample of the error I receive in the terminal:
In file included from /opt/ros/noetic/include/ros/node_handle.h:34,
from /opt/ros/noetic/include/ros/ros.h:45,
/opt/ros/noetic/include/ros/publisher.h: In member function ‘boost::function<void(const boost::shared_ptr<ros::SubscriberLink>&)> ros::Publisher::getLastMessageCallback()’:
/opt/ros/noetic/include/ros/publisher.h:179:70: error: ‘boost::placeholders’ has not been declared
179 | return boost::bind(&Impl::pushLastMessage, impl_.get(), boost::placeholders::_1);
Below the file that seems to carry this error is reported:
template<class M, class T>
Subscriber subscribe(const std::string& topic, uint32_t queue_size, void(T::*fp)(M), T* obj,
const TransportHints& transport_hints = TransportHints())
{
SubscribeOptions ops;
ops.template initByFullCallbackType<M>(topic, queue_size, boost::bind(fp, obj, boost::placeholders::_1));
ops.transport_hints = transport_hints;
return subscribe(ops);
}
Following this source I can confirm I added C++14:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.3)
project(lidar_boat_detection)
set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE Debug)
add_compile_options(-std=c++14 -g)
find_package(PCL 1.8 REQUIRED)
include_directories(${PCL_INCLUDE_DIRS})
link_directories(${PCL_LIBRARY_DIRS})
add_definitions(${PCL_DEFINITIONS})
find_package(Boost REQUIRED COMPONENTS
system
filesystem
date_time
thread
)
find_package(catkin REQUIRED COMPONENTS
roscpp
pcl_conversions
pcl_ros
std_msgs
message_generation
)
Also I consulted this source and I added #include <boost/bind/bind.hpp> instead of #include <boost/bind.hpp> as per new directive and I added using namespace boost::placeholders;. However non of these solutions worked and another thing I tried was to add #include <boost/bind/placeholders.hpp> and that also didn't work:
#ifndef ROSCPP_PUBLISHER_HANDLE_H
#define ROSCPP_PUBLISHER_HANDLE_H
#include "ros/forwards.h"
#include "ros/common.h"
#include "ros/message.h"
#include "ros/serialization.h"
//#include <boost/bind.hpp>
#include <boost/bind/bind.hpp>
#include <boost/thread/mutex.hpp>
using namespace boost::placeholders;
namespace ros
{
class NodeHandleBackingCollection;
....
}
Always from the same post I tried to add the following line #define BOOST_BIND_NO_PLACEHOLDERS at the beginning of the file but that also didn't work:
#ifndef ROSCPP_PUBLISHER_HANDLE_H
#define ROSCPP_PUBLISHER_HANDLE_H
#define BOOST_BIND_NO_PLACEHOLDERS
#include "ros/forwards.h"
#include "ros/common.h"
#include "ros/message.h"
#include "ros/serialization.h"
//#include <boost/bind.hpp>
#include <boost/bind/bind.hpp>
#include <boost/thread/mutex.hpp>
using namespace boost::placeholders;
namespace ros
{
class NodeHandleBackingCollection;
....
}
I dug more and come across this post but unfortunately it was not useful to solve the problem.
This question would have been useful is a proper answer would have been provided as this is extremely close to the problem I have.
EDITS
Creating Package: template_package_msgs
-- Using these message generators: gencpp;geneus;genlisp;gennodejs;genpy
CMake Error at /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/cmake/Boost-1.71.0/BoostConfig.cmake:117 (find_package):
Could not find a package configuration file provided by "boost_bind"
(requested version 1.71.0) with any of the following names:
boost_bindConfig.cmake
boost_bind-config.cmake
Add the installation prefix of "boost_bind" to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH or set
"boost_bind_DIR" to a directory containing one of the above files. If
"boost_bind" provides a separate development package or SDK, be sure it has
been installed.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/cmake/Boost-1.71.0/BoostConfig.cmake:182 (boost_find_component)
/usr/share/cmake-3.16/Modules/FindBoost.cmake:443 (find_package)
template_package/template_package_msgs/CMakeLists.txt:9 (find_package)
-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "/home/emanuele/sonar_ws/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".
See also "/home/emanuele/sonar_ws/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log"
I am running out of ideas on how to solve it. Thanks for pointing in the right direction for solving this issue.

Answer 1

There was a recent improvement to Boost Bind, see Why boost::bind insists pulling `boost::placeholders` into global namespace?
It looks like you want to define BOOST_BIND_GLOBAL_PLACEHOLDERS unless you want to update the calling code. Check that BOOST_BIND_NO_PLACEHOLDERS is not defined

Answer 2

I have trouble replicating your exact problem on my system. If I clone your minimal example from your Bitbucket but leave the line add_definitions(-DBOOST_BIND_NO_PLACEHOLDERS) in the CMakeLists.txt then it gives me the same error you got but if I remove it I do not have these issues and it compiles fine. If this error persists on your system even though you remove this line, the only plausible reason that I can come up with is that for some obscure reason some other package in your workspace or ROS itself adds this definition which makes the compilation of your package then fail. I would actually try to make a new workspace (or put CATKIN_IGNORE files into the other packages in your workspace and then $ catkin clean the workspace followed by $ catkin build) and see if it still occurs with your Bitbucket code as the only package in your workspace. If it compiles keep adding the packages until you find out which of your other packages might be causing it. If it does not then the only way of solving this dilemma that comes to my mind is adding the line
#undef BOOST_BIND_NO_PLACEHOLDERS
to the top of your two .cpp files talker.cpp and subscriber.cpp (before actually including ros/ros.h). This might though lead to problems when combining it with code that relies on BOOST_BIND_NO_PLACEHOLDERS. In order to reduce the chances of it breaking your code do not add it to header files as then it might leak into code including your header file.