Kext compiled fine with symbols undefined - c++

I am recently writing a kernel module for osx 10.9, and found out that every symbol in the final binary I compiled is undefined by nm tool.
How is it done by specifying flags in build settings? I mean, when you are building a user mode application, it cant be linked correctly when it has symbols unresolved. I cant find any related flags in command line of building the kext binary.
Just out of cuirosity, where is this flag that tells linker any undefined symbols are ok? I know the --unresolved-symbols flag but it is not found in the build command line.
Moreover, how do I link directly against mach_kernel? Cause I just saw a driver of osx 10.5 which links to macho. Or is it only possible in the old days?

The flag that accomplishes this for a kext is the -Xlinker -kext, it also includes the option -nostdlib because the base standard library is not available to a kext. These rules tell the OSX linker that it doesn't need to resolve all the symbols in the resulting binary.
You don't link directly to the kernel, you rely on the undefined symbols being connected up at kext load time rather than at any other time.

Related

undefined reference to std::__cxx11::basic_string when linking to boost [duplicate]

I use c++11, but also some libraries that are not configured for it, and need some type conversion. In particular I need a way to convert std::__cxx11::string to regular std::string, but googling I can't find a way to do this and putting (string) in front does not work.
If I do not convert I get linker errors like this:
undefined reference to `H5::CompType::insertMember(std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&, unsigned long, H5::DataType const&) const'
Is it possible that you are using GCC 5?
If you get linker errors about undefined references to symbols that involve types in the std::__cxx11 namespace or the tag [abi:cxx11] then it probably indicates that you are trying to link together object files that were compiled with different values for the _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI macro. This commonly happens when linking to a third-party library that was compiled with an older version of GCC. If the third-party library cannot be rebuilt with the new ABI then you will need to recompile your code with the old ABI.
Source: GCC 5 Release Notes/Dual ABI
Defining the following macro before including any standard library headers should fix your problem: #define _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI 0
If you can recompile all incompatible libs you use, do it with compiler option
-D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=1
and then rebuild your project. If you can't do so, add to your project's makefile compiler option
-D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0
The define
#define _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI 0/1
is also good but you probably need to add it to all your files while compiler option do it for all files at once.
When I had similar issue it's happened because my lib was build using clang++, and it's linked to libstdc++.so by default on my system. While app binary was build using clang and linked with -lc++ option.
Easiest way to check dependencies is to perform ldd libName.so
To fix it you should use the same library on in app and library.
Easiest way. Build library using clang++ and compile app using clang++. Without extra linking options on both steps. Default stdlib will be used.
Build library with -stdlib=c++ and compile app with -lc++. In this case both library and app will use libc++.so.
Build library without extra options and link binary to -lstdc++. In this case both library and app will use libstdc++.so.
Answers here mostly focus on short way to fix it, but if that does not help, I'll give some steps to check, that helped me (Linux only):
If the linker errors happen when linking other libraries, build those libs with debug symbols ("-g" GCC flag)
List the symbols in the library and grep the symbols that linker complains about (enter the commands in command line):
nm lib_your_problem_library.a | grep functionNameLinkerComplainsAbout
If you got the method signature, proceed to the next step, if you got no symbols instead, mostlikely you stripped off all the symbols from the library and that is why linker can't find them when linking the library. Rebuild the library without stripping ALL the symbols, you can strip debug (strip -S option) symbols if you need.
Use a c++ demangler to understand the method signature, for example, this one
Compare the method signature in the library that you just got with the one you are using in code (check header file as well), if they are different, use the proper header or the proper library or whatever other way you now know to fix it
I got this, the only way I found to fix this was to update all of mingw-64 (I did this using pacman on msys2 for your information).
For me -D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0 didn't help.
It works after I linked to C++ libs version instead of gnustl.
I had a similar issue recently while trying to link with the pre-built binaries of hdf5 version 1.10.5 on Ubuntu 16.04. None of the solutions suggested here worked for me, and I was using g++ version 9.1. I found that the best solution is to build the hdf5 library from source. Do not use the pre-built binaries since these were built using gcc 4.9! Instead, download the source code archives from the hdf website for your particular distribution and build the library. It is very easy.
You will also need the compression libraries zlib and szip from here and here, respectively, if you do not already have them on your system.
In my case, I was having a similar problem:
/usr/bin/ld: Bank.cpp:(.text+0x19c): undefined reference to 'Account::SetBank(std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >)' collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
After some researches, I realized that the problem was being generated by the way that Visual Studio Code was compiling the Bank.cpp file. So, to solve that, I just prompted the follow command in order to compile the c++ file sucessful:
g++ Bank.cpp Account.cpp -o Bank
With the command above, It was able to linkage correctly the Header, Implementations and Main c++ files.
OBS: My g++ version: 9.3.0 on Ubuntu 20.04
I've encountered similar problems
It turns out my project was using gcc 7 and g++ 9 and tried to link together object files compiled by those two and it all messed up.
Make sure you use the same compiler versions in all your project.

g++ linker error despite specifying the lib files [duplicate]

I use c++11, but also some libraries that are not configured for it, and need some type conversion. In particular I need a way to convert std::__cxx11::string to regular std::string, but googling I can't find a way to do this and putting (string) in front does not work.
If I do not convert I get linker errors like this:
undefined reference to `H5::CompType::insertMember(std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&, unsigned long, H5::DataType const&) const'
Is it possible that you are using GCC 5?
If you get linker errors about undefined references to symbols that involve types in the std::__cxx11 namespace or the tag [abi:cxx11] then it probably indicates that you are trying to link together object files that were compiled with different values for the _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI macro. This commonly happens when linking to a third-party library that was compiled with an older version of GCC. If the third-party library cannot be rebuilt with the new ABI then you will need to recompile your code with the old ABI.
Source: GCC 5 Release Notes/Dual ABI
Defining the following macro before including any standard library headers should fix your problem: #define _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI 0
If you can recompile all incompatible libs you use, do it with compiler option
-D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=1
and then rebuild your project. If you can't do so, add to your project's makefile compiler option
-D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0
The define
#define _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI 0/1
is also good but you probably need to add it to all your files while compiler option do it for all files at once.
When I had similar issue it's happened because my lib was build using clang++, and it's linked to libstdc++.so by default on my system. While app binary was build using clang and linked with -lc++ option.
Easiest way to check dependencies is to perform ldd libName.so
To fix it you should use the same library on in app and library.
Easiest way. Build library using clang++ and compile app using clang++. Without extra linking options on both steps. Default stdlib will be used.
Build library with -stdlib=c++ and compile app with -lc++. In this case both library and app will use libc++.so.
Build library without extra options and link binary to -lstdc++. In this case both library and app will use libstdc++.so.
Answers here mostly focus on short way to fix it, but if that does not help, I'll give some steps to check, that helped me (Linux only):
If the linker errors happen when linking other libraries, build those libs with debug symbols ("-g" GCC flag)
List the symbols in the library and grep the symbols that linker complains about (enter the commands in command line):
nm lib_your_problem_library.a | grep functionNameLinkerComplainsAbout
If you got the method signature, proceed to the next step, if you got no symbols instead, mostlikely you stripped off all the symbols from the library and that is why linker can't find them when linking the library. Rebuild the library without stripping ALL the symbols, you can strip debug (strip -S option) symbols if you need.
Use a c++ demangler to understand the method signature, for example, this one
Compare the method signature in the library that you just got with the one you are using in code (check header file as well), if they are different, use the proper header or the proper library or whatever other way you now know to fix it
I got this, the only way I found to fix this was to update all of mingw-64 (I did this using pacman on msys2 for your information).
For me -D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0 didn't help.
It works after I linked to C++ libs version instead of gnustl.
I had a similar issue recently while trying to link with the pre-built binaries of hdf5 version 1.10.5 on Ubuntu 16.04. None of the solutions suggested here worked for me, and I was using g++ version 9.1. I found that the best solution is to build the hdf5 library from source. Do not use the pre-built binaries since these were built using gcc 4.9! Instead, download the source code archives from the hdf website for your particular distribution and build the library. It is very easy.
You will also need the compression libraries zlib and szip from here and here, respectively, if you do not already have them on your system.
In my case, I was having a similar problem:
/usr/bin/ld: Bank.cpp:(.text+0x19c): undefined reference to 'Account::SetBank(std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >)' collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
After some researches, I realized that the problem was being generated by the way that Visual Studio Code was compiling the Bank.cpp file. So, to solve that, I just prompted the follow command in order to compile the c++ file sucessful:
g++ Bank.cpp Account.cpp -o Bank
With the command above, It was able to linkage correctly the Header, Implementations and Main c++ files.
OBS: My g++ version: 9.3.0 on Ubuntu 20.04
I've encountered similar problems
It turns out my project was using gcc 7 and g++ 9 and tried to link together object files compiled by those two and it all messed up.
Make sure you use the same compiler versions in all your project.

Converting std::__cxx11::string to std::string

I use c++11, but also some libraries that are not configured for it, and need some type conversion. In particular I need a way to convert std::__cxx11::string to regular std::string, but googling I can't find a way to do this and putting (string) in front does not work.
If I do not convert I get linker errors like this:
undefined reference to `H5::CompType::insertMember(std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&, unsigned long, H5::DataType const&) const'
Is it possible that you are using GCC 5?
If you get linker errors about undefined references to symbols that involve types in the std::__cxx11 namespace or the tag [abi:cxx11] then it probably indicates that you are trying to link together object files that were compiled with different values for the _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI macro. This commonly happens when linking to a third-party library that was compiled with an older version of GCC. If the third-party library cannot be rebuilt with the new ABI then you will need to recompile your code with the old ABI.
Source: GCC 5 Release Notes/Dual ABI
Defining the following macro before including any standard library headers should fix your problem: #define _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI 0
If you can recompile all incompatible libs you use, do it with compiler option
-D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=1
and then rebuild your project. If you can't do so, add to your project's makefile compiler option
-D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0
The define
#define _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI 0/1
is also good but you probably need to add it to all your files while compiler option do it for all files at once.
When I had similar issue it's happened because my lib was build using clang++, and it's linked to libstdc++.so by default on my system. While app binary was build using clang and linked with -lc++ option.
Easiest way to check dependencies is to perform ldd libName.so
To fix it you should use the same library on in app and library.
Easiest way. Build library using clang++ and compile app using clang++. Without extra linking options on both steps. Default stdlib will be used.
Build library with -stdlib=c++ and compile app with -lc++. In this case both library and app will use libc++.so.
Build library without extra options and link binary to -lstdc++. In this case both library and app will use libstdc++.so.
Answers here mostly focus on short way to fix it, but if that does not help, I'll give some steps to check, that helped me (Linux only):
If the linker errors happen when linking other libraries, build those libs with debug symbols ("-g" GCC flag)
List the symbols in the library and grep the symbols that linker complains about (enter the commands in command line):
nm lib_your_problem_library.a | grep functionNameLinkerComplainsAbout
If you got the method signature, proceed to the next step, if you got no symbols instead, mostlikely you stripped off all the symbols from the library and that is why linker can't find them when linking the library. Rebuild the library without stripping ALL the symbols, you can strip debug (strip -S option) symbols if you need.
Use a c++ demangler to understand the method signature, for example, this one
Compare the method signature in the library that you just got with the one you are using in code (check header file as well), if they are different, use the proper header or the proper library or whatever other way you now know to fix it
I got this, the only way I found to fix this was to update all of mingw-64 (I did this using pacman on msys2 for your information).
For me -D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0 didn't help.
It works after I linked to C++ libs version instead of gnustl.
I had a similar issue recently while trying to link with the pre-built binaries of hdf5 version 1.10.5 on Ubuntu 16.04. None of the solutions suggested here worked for me, and I was using g++ version 9.1. I found that the best solution is to build the hdf5 library from source. Do not use the pre-built binaries since these were built using gcc 4.9! Instead, download the source code archives from the hdf website for your particular distribution and build the library. It is very easy.
You will also need the compression libraries zlib and szip from here and here, respectively, if you do not already have them on your system.
In my case, I was having a similar problem:
/usr/bin/ld: Bank.cpp:(.text+0x19c): undefined reference to 'Account::SetBank(std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >)' collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
After some researches, I realized that the problem was being generated by the way that Visual Studio Code was compiling the Bank.cpp file. So, to solve that, I just prompted the follow command in order to compile the c++ file sucessful:
g++ Bank.cpp Account.cpp -o Bank
With the command above, It was able to linkage correctly the Header, Implementations and Main c++ files.
OBS: My g++ version: 9.3.0 on Ubuntu 20.04
I've encountered similar problems
It turns out my project was using gcc 7 and g++ 9 and tried to link together object files compiled by those two and it all messed up.
Make sure you use the same compiler versions in all your project.

What is "system-supplied DSO" that gdb references?

I'm running gdb with set verbose on and I'm trying to understand one of the messages I am getting:
Reading symbols from system-supplied DSO at 0x7ffff7ffb000...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
What is thesystem-supplied DSO? After some search I think that DSO might stand for "dynamic shared object". But I still don't understand exactly what gdb is doing here and how I might solve the problem with the debugging symbols not being found (or if it even matters).
Also the program that I am debugging is being compiled with llvm-gcc and has an LLVM pass applied to it. I think that is effecting the behavior of gdb, but I"m not exactly sure how.
So essentially my question is what does the message that gdb prints mean, is it likely to cause a problem, and if so any suggestions on how I could help gdb find the debugging symbols.
According to this document a DSO is:
A dynamic shared object (DSO) is an object file that’s meant to be
used simultaneously— or shared—by multiple applications (a.out files)
while they’re executing.
I believe that a system supplied DSO is just a DLL provided by the OS and loaded by the main executable. Since this is an external library you don't have the debugging symbols of such object unless you download them separately. Typically the release binaries are stripped of debugging symbols but they can have a link to a separate file. A typical Linux distribution provides a package containing the debugging symbols of such binaries ( like the xxx-debuginfo-xxx.rpm for RedHat based distributions).
In this context, system-supplied-DSO means a shared library provided directly by the linux kernel such as VDSO. Debuginfo is indeed available for them, but is packaged along with the kernel rather than userspace. Use debuginfod to automatically fetch them if your distro supports that.

Avoid linking in unused symbols when linking against static libs

I'm using the apple gcc to compile a dylib that I'm going to redistribute. For various reasons I'm using some libraries, let's say libz to keep it simple.
Since this library is not typically found on a Mac system I wish to static link in used symbols into the dylib by passing the path to the .a-file to simplify deployment.
Now, the linker links in all symbols from the lib into the resulting dylib although I only reference a subset. On linux I've never encountered this problem, the linker happily discards all unreferenced symbols and creates a very slim executable, so it should be possible. The dylib file I have now is ~10 times larger than it should.
I've tried fiddle around with the -dead_code linker flag, but to no avail. Perhaps I just don't understand it?
Does anyone know the solution to this?
Try -Wl,--gc-sections.
As regards -dead_strip (what you probably meant by -dead_code):
Before turning on the -dead_strip
option your project will first have to
be "ported" to work with dead code
stripping. This will include changing
from -gused (the default for -g) to
-gfull and re-compiling all of the objects files being linked into your
program with the new compiler from the
Mac OS X June 2004 release. Also if
your building an executable that loads
plugins, which uses symbols from the
executable, you will have to make sure
the symbols the plugins use are not
stripped (by using
attribute((used)) or the -exported_symbols_list option). If you are using an export list and building
a shared library, or an executable
that will be used with ld(1)'s
-bundle_loader flag, you need to include the symbols for exception
frame information in the export list
for your exported C++ symbols. These
symbols end with .eh and can be seen
with the nm(1) tool.
and:
To enable dead-code stripping from the
command line, pass the -dead_strip
option to ld. You should also pass the
-gfull option to GCC to generate a complete set of debugging symbols for
your code. The linker uses this extra
debugging information to dead strip
the executable.
Hope this helps.
All content in this answer was located within the first few Google search results for "apple ld static link unused symbols". :)