GCC __static_initialization_and_destruction_0 (__initialize_p=1, __priority=65535) - c++

Question

Pursuant to the post, Standalone functions/data in C++, I proceeded to put my "common data" in an anonymous namespace as below and everything worked great on Windows (Vista 64 bit) on VS 2005/2008/2010
namespace {
...
static std::string mystrings[] = {
str1,
str2,
...,
strN
};
...
}
namespace mynamesp {
...
use mystrings[] here..
...
}
But on Linux (so far tested RHEL5 built with GCC-4.1.2) I promptly got a segmentation fault.
$>myprog
Segmentation fault
$>gdb myprog
GNU gdb Fedora (6.8-27.el5)
Copyright (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu"...
(gdb) r
Starting program: <path/to>/myprog
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
[New Thread 0x2b8901a9da60 (LWP 32710)]
Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x0000003e4ce9c928 in std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >::basic_string ()
from /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6
(gdb) bt
#0 0x0000003e4ce9c928 in std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >::basic_string ()
from /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6
#1 0x00002b88ffde482b in __static_initialization_and_destruction_0 (__initialize_p=1, __priority=65535)
at <path/to>/mysource.cpp:140
#2 0x00002b88ffde4d65 in global constructors keyed to _ZN91_GLOBAL__N__underscore_separated_path_to_mysource.cpp_00000000_6994A7DA2_1E () at <path/to>/mysource.cpp:12139
#3 0x00002b890011a296 in __do_global_ctors_aux ()
from <path/to/libs>/debug/libmylibd.so
#4 0x00002b88ffcd7f33 in _init () from <path/to/libs>/debug/libmylibd.so
#5 0x00002b8901672e40 in ?? ()
#6 0x000000326940d22b in call_init () from /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
#7 0x000000326940d335 in _dl_init_internal () from /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
#8 0x0000003269400aaa in _dl_start_user () from /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
#9 0x0000000000000001 in ?? ()
#10 0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()
(gdb)
Line 140 in the backtrace call stack item #1 basically points to the end of my array of strings definition. I've seen some others get this error; but no obvious fixes. Appreciate any thoughts/ideas/corrections as always. Thanks!

Answer 1

Your problem could be releated to a static initialization order fiasco.
This happens when you initialize a static variable using another static variable. When the latter one has not been initialized yet, then the first one is using a non-initialized variable for its initialization.
The root cause is that the order, in which static variables are initialized, is undefined.
Further reading:
https://isocpp.org/wiki/faq/ctors#static-init-order
A typical workaround would be to wrap the static variables inside a function. Example:
T& GetStaticA() {
T static_var_A; // <--initialization here
return A;
}
T static_var_B = GetStaticA(); // <-- static_var_A is guaranteed to be initialized

Answer 2

I had this problem and it turned out that in my compiling line I had missed the final output file in the linking.
g++ main.o logger.o timer.o keyboard.o -o main -lSDL -lSDL_image -lSDL_ttf -Wall
should have been
g++ main.o logger.o timer.o keyboard.o drawer.o -o main -lSDL -lSDL_image -lSDL_ttf -Wall
(Notice the now inclusion of drawer.o?)
It was easy to miss because my actual bash compilation script had many more lines to it.