Why does g++ require libstdc++.a? Why is it not the default? - c++

Question

I had this problem, and the solution was to explicitly pass libstdc++.a to g++, like the following:
/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/bin/g++ -I/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/include -L/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib64 -Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib64 b.cpp /usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib64/libstdc++.a
My question: Why do I need to explicitly pass libstdc++.a? How can I make it automatic so that libstdc++.a is used by default? How can I find the answer to the two questions?
The test code:
#include <sstream>
using namespace std;
int
main ()
{
ostringstream oss;
unsigned long k = 5;
oss << k;
}
Compiled with the following parameters:
/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/bin/g++ -I/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/include -L/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib64 -Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib64 -lstdc++ b.cpp
Got the following output:
/tmp/cclRSXGV.o: In function main': b.cpp:(.text+0x35): undefined reference to std::ostream::operator<<(unsigned long)'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
Using GNU gcc 10.2.0, installed with the following:
../gcc-10.2.0/configure --prefix=/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0 --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --with-bugurl=bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla --enable-bootstrap --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --enable-checking=release --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --disable-libunwind-exceptions --enable-gnu-unique-object --enable-languages=c,c++ --disable-dssi --enable-libgcj-multifile --with-ppl --with-cloog --with-tune=generic --with-arch_32=i686 --build=x86_64-redhat-linux && make install-strip
Already had GNU gcc 4.4.7 installed by default at /usr, and GNU gcc 9.2.0 at /usr/local/gcc-9.2.0
Running /usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/bin/g++ -v b.cpp produces the following:
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/bin/g++
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-redhat-linux
Configured with: ../gcc-10.2.0/configure --prefix=/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0 --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --with-bugurl=http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla --enable-bootstrap --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --enable-checking=release --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --disable-libunwind-exceptions --enable-gnu-unique-object --enable-languages=c,c++ --disable-dssi --enable-libgcj-multifile --with-ppl --with-cloog --with-tune=generic --with-arch_32=i686 --build=x86_64-redhat-linux
Thread model: posix
Supported LTO compression algorithms: zlib
gcc version 10.2.0 (GCC)
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-v' '-shared-libgcc' '-mtune=generic' '-march=x86-64'
/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/cc1plus -quiet -v -D_GNU_SOURCE b.cpp -quiet -dumpbase b.cpp -mtune=generic -march=x86-64 -auxbase b -version -o /tmp/ccJiMH6j.s
GNU C++14 (GCC) version 10.2.0 (x86_64-redhat-linux)
compiled by GNU C version 10.2.0, GMP version 6.1.0, MPFR version 3.1.4, MPC version 1.0.3, isl version isl-0.18-GMP
GGC heuristics: --param ggc-min-expand=100 --param ggc-min-heapsize=131072
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/../../../../x86_64-redhat-linux/include"
#include "..." search starts here:
#include <...> search starts here:
/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/../../../../include/c++/10.2.0
/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/../../../../include/c++/10.2.0/x86_64-redhat-linux
/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/../../../../include/c++/10.2.0/backward
/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/include
/usr/local/include
/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/include
/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/include-fixed
/usr/include
End of search list.
GNU C++14 (GCC) version 10.2.0 (x86_64-redhat-linux)
compiled by GNU C version 10.2.0, GMP version 6.1.0, MPFR version 3.1.4, MPC version 1.0.3, isl version isl-0.18-GMP
GGC heuristics: --param ggc-min-expand=100 --param ggc-min-heapsize=131072
Compiler executable checksum: 410dfe626634fcd13dbcedee05209c5e
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-v' '-shared-libgcc' '-mtune=generic' '-march=x86-64'
as -v --64 -o /tmp/ccUyoUr2.o /tmp/ccJiMH6j.s
GNU assembler version 2.35 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) using BFD version (GNU Binutils) 2.35
COMPILER_PATH=/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/:/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/:/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/:/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/:/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/
LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/:/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/../../../../lib64/:/lib/../lib64/:/usr/lib/../lib64/:/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/../../../:/lib/:/usr/lib/
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-v' '-shared-libgcc' '-mtune=generic' '-march=x86-64'
/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/collect2 -plugin /usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/liblto_plugin.so -plugin-opt=/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/lto-wrapper -plugin-opt=-fresolution=/tmp/ccfGN6NK.res -plugin-opt=-pass-through=-lgcc_s -plugin-opt=-pass-through=-lgcc -plugin-opt=-pass-through=-lc -plugin-opt=-pass-through=-lgcc_s -plugin-opt=-pass-through=-lgcc --eh-frame-hdr -m elf_x86_64 -dynamic-linker /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 /usr/lib/../lib64/crt1.o /usr/lib/../lib64/crti.o /usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/crtbegin.o -L/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0 -L/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/../../../../lib64 -L/lib/../lib64 -L/usr/lib/../lib64 -L/usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/../../.. /tmp/ccUyoUr2.o -lstdc++ -lm -lgcc_s -lgcc -lc -lgcc_s -lgcc /usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/10.2.0/crtend.o /usr/lib/../lib64/crtn.o
/usr/local/bin/ld: /tmp/ccUyoUr2.o: in function `main':
b.cpp:(.text+0xc9): undefined reference to `std::cout'
/usr/local/bin/ld: b.cpp:(.text+0x35): undefined reference to std::ostream::operator<<(unsigned long)'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

Answer 1

By default g++ links against the dynamic libstdc++ library (libstdc++.so). By passing libstdc++.a explicitly you're linking against the static counterpart. You could achieve the same end result with -static-libstdc++.
Both static and dynamic linking against libstdc++ should work. Your issue could be possibly caused by building or installing GCC incorrectly (e.g. applying an incorrect patch, or mixing include files from different GCC builds).
To investigate, produce object file b.o by adding -c to your g++ command line, and preprocessed source b.ii by adding -E -o b.ii. Use nm -u b.o to get mangled names of undefined symbols (add -C to demangle). You'll see that mangled name of the missing symbol is _ZNSolsEm. Try to grep the missing symbol in the list of symbols defined by libstdc++ (nm -D --defined-only /usr/local/gcc-10.2.0/lib64/libstdc++.so). If it is missing from the library, the issue is that the included files expect the library to provide those template instantiations, while the actual library does not.
If you look in b.ii, you'll find that it declares the corresponding extern template towards the end:
extern template class basic_ostringstream<char>;
If you look into sstream.tcc file from gcc install tree that this line comes from, you'll see it's guarded by #if _GLIBCXX_EXTERN_TEMPLATE. The definition of this macro is in c++config.h, and is set depending on --enable-extern-template option at libstdc++ configuration time. If the library is built with --disable-extern-template, it will not provide those template instantiations.