Failure installing xgboost on Mac - ar: no archive members specified - c++

Question

I am trying to install xgboost on Mac. I followed the instructions on github, but when I run make -j4 I get an error:
c++ -std=c++0x -Wall -O3 -msse2 -Wno-unknown-pragmas -funroll-loops -Iinclude -Idmlc-core/include -Irabit/include -fPIC -DDISABLE_OPENMP -o xgboost build/cli_main.o build/learner.o build/logging.o build/c_api/c_api.o build/c_api/c_api_error.o build/common/common.o build/data/data.o build/data/simple_csr_source.o build/data/simple_dmatrix.o build/data/sparse_page_dmatrix.o build/data/sparse_page_raw_format.o build/data/sparse_page_source.o build/data/sparse_page_writer.o build/gbm/gblinear.o build/gbm/gbm.o build/gbm/gbtree.o build/metric/elementwise_metric.o build/metric/metric.o build/metric/multiclass_metric.o build/metric/rank_metric.o build/objective/multiclass_obj.o build/objective/objective.o build/objective/rank_obj.o build/objective/regression_obj.o build/tree/tree_model.o build/tree/tree_updater.o build/tree/updater_colmaker.o build/tree/updater_histmaker.o build/tree/updater_prune.o build/tree/updater_refresh.o build/tree/updater_skmaker.o build/tree/updater_sync.o dmlc-core/libdmlc.a rabit/lib/librabit_empty.a -pthread -lm
ar crv lib/libxgboost.a
c++ -std=c++0x -Wall -O3 -msse2 -Wno-unknown-pragmas -funroll-loops -Iinclude -Idmlc-core/include -Irabit/include -fPIC -DDISABLE_OPENMP -shared -o lib/libxgboost.so build/learner.o build/logging.o build/c_api/c_api.o build/c_api/c_api_error.o build/common/common.o build/data/data.o build/data/simple_csr_source.o build/data/simple_dmatrix.o build/data/sparse_page_dmatrix.o build/data/sparse_page_raw_format.o build/data/sparse_page_source.o build/data/sparse_page_writer.o build/gbm/gblinear.o build/gbm/gbm.o build/gbm/gbtree.o build/metric/elementwise_metric.o build/metric/metric.o build/metric/multiclass_metric.o build/metric/rank_metric.o build/objective/multiclass_obj.o build/objective/objective.o build/objective/rank_obj.o build/objective/regression_obj.o build/tree/tree_model.o build/tree/tree_updater.o build/tree/updater_colmaker.o build/tree/updater_histmaker.o build/tree/updater_prune.o build/tree/updater_refresh.o build/tree/updater_skmaker.o build/tree/updater_sync.o dmlc-core/libdmlc.a rabit/lib/librabit_empty.a -pthread -lm
ar: no archive members specified
usage: ar -d [-TLsv] archive file ...
ar -m [-TLsv] archive file ...
ar -m [-abiTLsv] position archive file ...
ar -p [-TLsv] archive [file ...]
ar -q [-cTLsv] archive file ...
ar -r [-cuTLsv] archive file ...
ar -r [-abciuTLsv] position archive file ...
ar -t [-TLsv] archive [file ...]
ar -x [-ouTLsv] archive [file ...]
make: *** [lib/libxgboost.a] Error 1
make: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-pthread'
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-pthread'
If I run just make (without -j4) I get:
$ make
ar crv lib/libxgboost.a
ar: no archive members specified
usage: ar -d [-TLsv] archive file ...
ar -m [-TLsv] archive file ...
ar -m [-abiTLsv] position archive file ...
ar -p [-TLsv] archive [file ...]
ar -q [-cTLsv] archive file ...
ar -r [-cuTLsv] archive file ...
ar -r [-abciuTLsv] position archive file ...
ar -t [-TLsv] archive [file ...]
ar -x [-ouTLsv] archive [file ...]
make: *** [lib/libxgboost.a] Error 1
Any idea what is causing this and how I can fix it?
Although I might be wrong I think is because archive utility ar on mac is too old (from 2005):
$ man ar
AR(1) BSD General Commands Manual AR(1)
NAME
ar -- create and maintain library archives
SYNOPSIS
...
...
Darwin July 27, 2005 Darwin
Any ideas how to update ar to the newest version on OS X?
Here is the makefile for your reference:
ifndef config
ifneq ("$(wildcard ./config.mk)","")
config = config.mk
else
config = make/config.mk
endif
endif
ifndef DMLC_CORE
DMLC_CORE = dmlc-core
endif
ifndef RABIT
RABIT = rabit
endif
ROOTDIR = $(CURDIR)
ifeq ($(OS), Windows_NT)
UNAME="Windows"
else
UNAME=$(shell uname)
endif
include $(config)
ifeq ($(USE_OPENMP), 0)
export NO_OPENMP = 1
endif
include $(DMLC_CORE)/make/dmlc.mk
# include the plugins
include $(XGB_PLUGINS)
# use customized config file
ifndef CC
export CC = $(if $(shell which gcc-5),gcc-5,gcc)
endif
ifndef CXX
export CXX = $(if $(shell which g++-5),g++-5,g++)
endif
export LDFLAGS= -pthread -lm $(ADD_LDFLAGS) $(DMLC_LDFLAGS) $(PLUGIN_LDFLAGS)
export CFLAGS= -std=c++0x -Wall -O3 -msse2 -Wno-unknown-pragmas -funroll-loops -Iinclude $(ADD_CFLAGS) $(PLUGIN_CFLAGS)
CFLAGS += -I$(DMLC_CORE)/include -I$(RABIT)/include
#java include path
export JAVAINCFLAGS = -I${JAVA_HOME}/include -I./java
ifndef LINT_LANG
LINT_LANG= "all"
endif
ifneq ($(UNAME), Windows)
CFLAGS += -fPIC
XGBOOST_DYLIB = lib/libxgboost.so
else
XGBOOST_DYLIB = lib/libxgboost.dll
endif
ifeq ($(UNAME), Linux)
LDFLAGS += -lrt
JAVAINCFLAGS += -I${JAVA_HOME}/include/linux
endif
ifeq ($(UNAME), Darwin)
JAVAINCFLAGS += -I${JAVA_HOME}/include/darwin
endif
ifeq ($(USE_OPENMP), 1)
CFLAGS += -fopenmp
else
CFLAGS += -DDISABLE_OPENMP
endif
# specify tensor path
.PHONY: clean all lint clean_all doxygen rcpplint pypack Rpack Rbuild Rcheck java
all: lib/libxgboost.a $(XGBOOST_DYLIB) xgboost
$(DMLC_CORE)/libdmlc.a: $(wildcard $(DMLC_CORE)/src/*.cc $(DMLC_CORE)/src/*/*.cc)
+ cd $(DMLC_CORE); make libdmlc.a config=$(ROOTDIR)/$(config); cd $(ROOTDIR)
$(RABIT)/lib/$(LIB_RABIT): $(wildcard $(RABIT)/src/*.cc)
+ cd $(RABIT); make lib/$(LIB_RABIT); cd $(ROOTDIR)
jvm: jvm-packages/lib/libxgboost4j.so
SRC = $(wildcard src/*.cc src/*/*.cc)
ALL_OBJ = $(patsubst src/%.cc, build/%.o, $(SRC)) $(PLUGIN_OBJS)
AMALGA_OBJ = amalgamation/xgboost-all0.o
LIB_DEP = $(DMLC_CORE)/libdmlc.a $(RABIT)/lib/$(LIB_RABIT)
ALL_DEP = $(filter-out build/cli_main.o, $(ALL_OBJ)) $(LIB_DEP)
CLI_OBJ = build/cli_main.o
build/%.o: src/%.cc
#mkdir -p $(#D)
$(CXX) $(CFLAGS) -MM -MT build/$*.o $< >build/$*.d
$(CXX) -c $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $#
build_plugin/%.o: plugin/%.cc
#mkdir -p $(#D)
$(CXX) $(CFLAGS) -MM -MT build_plugin/$*.o $< >build_plugin/$*.d
$(CXX) -c $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $#
# The should be equivalent to $(ALL_OBJ) except for build/cli_main.o
amalgamation/xgboost-all0.o: amalgamation/xgboost-all0.cc
$(CXX) -c $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $#
# Equivalent to lib/libxgboost_all.so
lib/libxgboost_all.so: $(AMALGA_OBJ) $(LIB_DEP)
#mkdir -p $(#D)
$(CXX) $(CFLAGS) -shared -o $# $(filter %.o %.a, $^) $(LDFLAGS)
lib/libxgboost.a: $(ALL_DEP)
#mkdir -p $(#D)
ar crv $# $(filter %.o, $?)
lib/libxgboost.dll lib/libxgboost.so: $(ALL_DEP)
#mkdir -p $(#D)
$(CXX) $(CFLAGS) -shared -o $# $(filter %.o %a, $^) $(LDFLAGS)
jvm-packages/lib/libxgboost4j.so: jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/native/xgboost4j.cpp $(ALL_DEP)
#mkdir -p $(#D)
$(CXX) $(CFLAGS) $(JAVAINCFLAGS) -shared -o $# $(filter %.cpp %.o %.a, $^) $(LDFLAGS)
xgboost: $(CLI_OBJ) $(ALL_DEP)
$(CXX) $(CFLAGS) -o $# $(filter %.o %.a, $^) $(LDFLAGS)
rcpplint:
python2 dmlc-core/scripts/lint.py xgboost ${LINT_LANG} R-package/src
lint: rcpplint
python2 dmlc-core/scripts/lint.py xgboost ${LINT_LANG} include src plugin
clean:
$(RM) -rf build build_plugin lib bin *~ */*~ */*/*~ */*/*/*~ */*.o */*/*.o */*/*/*.o xgboost
clean_all: clean
cd $(DMLC_CORE); make clean; cd $(ROODIR)
cd $(RABIT); make clean; cd $(ROODIR)
doxygen:
doxygen doc/Doxyfile
# create standalone python tar file.
pypack: ${XGBOOST_DYLIB}
pypack: ${XGBOOST_DYLIB}
cp ${XGBOOST_DYLIB} python-package/xgboost
cd python-package; tar cf xgboost.tar xgboost; cd ..
# Script to make a clean installable R package.
Rpack:
make clean_all
rm -rf xgboost xgboost*.tar.gz
cp -r R-package xgboost
rm -rf xgboost/src/*.o xgboost/src/*.so xgboost/src/*.dll
rm -rf xgboost/src/*/*.o
rm -rf xgboost/demo/*.model xgboost/demo/*.buffer xgboost/demo/*.txt
rm -rf xgboost/demo/runall.R
cp -r src xgboost/src/src
cp -r include xgboost/src/include
cp -r amalgamation xgboost/src/amalgamation
mkdir -p xgboost/src/rabit
cp -r rabit/include xgboost/src/rabit/include
cp -r rabit/src xgboost/src/rabit/src
rm -rf xgboost/src/rabit/src/*.o
mkdir -p xgboost/src/dmlc-core
cp -r dmlc-core/include xgboost/src/dmlc-core/include
cp -r dmlc-core/src xgboost/src/dmlc-core/src
cp ./LICENSE xgboost
cat R-package/src/Makevars|sed '2s/.*/PKGROOT=./' | sed '3s/.*/ENABLE_STD_THREAD=0/' > xgboost/src/Makevars
cp xgboost/src/Makevars xgboost/src/Makevars.win
Rbuild:
make Rpack
R CMD build --no-build-vignettes xgboost
rm -rf xgboost
Rcheck:
make Rbuild
R CMD check xgboost*.tar.gz
-include build/*.d
-include build/*/*.d
-include build_plugin/*/*.d
Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

brew install clang-omp
export CC=clang-omp
export CXX=clang-omp++
cd python-package
sudo python setup.py install
pip install xgboost

Answer 2

i successfully installed it on my linux machine, there is nothing wrong with the make file, my ar version is 2.24, so you got it right, your binutils is very old, to update it go to https://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/ download the 2.24 version.
extract and change the directory:
./configure
make
sudo make install