g++ linking issues: undefined reference to functions - c++

I used CMake and Visual C++ to build the HyDE library. Then, still in VC++, I was able to successfully create code and build an executable that links into HyDE.lib and the HyDE header files.
I then discovered that in order to work with others at my company, it would be preferable to develop in Eclipse CDT. Knowing very little about Eclipse CDT, I created a default hello world project, deleted the code and then dumped in all of my code into the src folder. Then I attempted to change the includes and lib path and libs to mirror what had worked in VC++. At this point everything seems to compile, but I get an error in linking:
/cygdrive/c/EclipseWorkspace/425HyDE/Debug/../src/FS5HyDE.cpp:16: undefined reference to `HyDEAPI::HyDE::HyDE(HyDESystemModel::SystemModel*, bool)'
(There are many more errors like this, all referring to HyDE methods.) Here is what is being run at the command line:
g++ -L"C:\Progra~1\boost\boost_1_42\lib" -L"C:\EclipseWorkspace\HyDE" -o"425HyDE.exe" ./src/Adapter_FS5HyDE.o ./src/EPSCommands.o ./src/EPSCurrentSensor.o ./src/EPSFault.o ./src/FS5HyDE.o ./src/HyDEObservation.o ./src/MCDH.o ./src/MCDH_Module.o ./src/PDBComponent.o ./src/PowerSystem.o ./src/Program.o ./src/SSPCComponent.o ./src/Telemetry.o ./src/TelemetryReport.o -l:libboost_thread-vc90-mt-gd-1_42.lib -lHyDE
This is definitely not a library ordering problem because I've the other ordering as well (there are only two). Is it possible that there is a problem with compiling HyDE.lib in VC++ (which uses a Windows compiler) and compiling my program with g++? Could there be a problem in the way that Eclipse CDT is autogen'ing the makefiles? Any other ideas?
(Note: there appear to be plenty of others questions on SO with similar problems, but after reading through them I have yet to find one that addresses my problem.)

Classic missing symbol error. Which source file defines:
HyDEAPI::HyDE::HyDE(HyDESystemModel::SystemModel*, bool)' ?
Was this file added to the compilation? Can you spot it on the command line you pasted?
If this symbol belongs to an external library, after adding the directory path with -L , you could add the name of the specific library you want to link with your program using -l.
I'm going to suggest that you try to add to the compilation command the directory path to HyDE.lib, followed immediately by the library name, like this:
-L"C:\path_to_hyde_library" -l:HyDE.lib
and then tell us what happened.

Solution: Since the HyDE library was compiled with the Visual Studios compiler and I'm attempting to build the code that links to it with the Cygwin toolchain the two compilers use different name mangling schemes so that the latter linker can not find the expected symbols in the HyDE library. The only solution that I've found is to recompile the HyDE library with the Cygwin toolchain or compile the new code with whatever compiler Visual Studios is using. (grumble grumble)

./src/FS5HyDE.o and ./src/HyDEObservation.o should be the latest parameter if other object files (*.o files) need them, it means that the most needed object files should be appeared as last as possible in the parameters list.

Related

Locating "undefined" references in a C/C++ Project

I am building a C++ project on my Ubuntu 64bit system using a provided Makefile, and this project also provides an API library for developers.
The compilation was successful, no errors at all, but when I try to include in my files the API libraries provided in the "api" folder, then g++ complains about undefined references.
It is not a problem about dependencies (I already built the project succesfully), in fact the missing references are about classes and functions provided by the project, but they are in some specific (sub-)folders (I don't know which ones!), I guess in some .so files, and g++ is not finding them, probably because it does not know they are in those specific subfolders.
It is not the first time this happens when trying to use APIs from any project, then I think I am missing something or I am doing something wrong in general when trying to use the libraries provided in a project.
In particular, the main problem is that I don't know how to tell the compiler where some classes or data structures are declared, and moreover I don't know how to locate them in order to know where they are.
Usually, a workaround I use to avoid this problem is to run make install (as root or using sudo) so that libraries and APIs are installed in standard folders (like /usr/include or /usr/lib) and if I do this thend I can include the API libraries using #include <library>, but in this last case it didn't work either, because perhaps some required files containing the not found classes/structures are not properly installed in the right folders in the system.
Another workaround I used sometimes is to try to put all the project files in the same folder instead of using the project folder structure, but clearly this is not good! :-)
But I noticed that several other people managed to use the APIs, then apparently they know some way of finding the files containing the "undefined" references and including them in the compilation.
Then my general question is: given a "classic" C++ project based on "Makefile" files and with usual folder names like src, lib, build, bin, etc., if I want to write C++ files using the libraries provided by the project, but the compiler complains about undefined references, how can I find the files (.so or .o or .cpp) containing such references? Is there any tool to find them? And how can I tell the compiler where they are? Should I use some command-line option for g++ or should I use the #include macro in some smart way?
PS I also tried to use the pkc-config linux tool to get right options to use for compilation and they were available, but the compiler still complains about the undefined references.
Some more degails about the project i tried:
For interested people a link to the project is below:
https://github.com/dreal/dreal3
And instructions on how to build it:
http://dreal.github.io/download/
Look into the -rpath linker option - specifically with the "$ORIGIN" argument. That lets you find libraries relative to your executable location so you don't have to install them to the standard locations but just need to put them somewhere known, relative to the executable. That should help you with one piece of the puzzle.
Note: -Wl, can be used to pass arguments to the linker via g++.
As for pointing the compiler/linker at a library so it can resolve undefined references by using that library, use the -l (that's lowercase L) option to specify the library name and -L to specify directories to search for libraries.
As for looking into a library (.so) file to see what symbols are in there, you have a few tools at your disposal: objdump, nm, readelf and objcopy.

How can i compile a project with libqrencode?

I am trying to compile this code but it always gives me "Undefined reference to QRcode_encodeString and QRcode_free". I have done the ./configure, make and make install, no errors where shown. I have no idea what flags i need to use in other to compile it. I'm currently using slackware 3.10 i686. I'm only trying to compile with gcc -Wall main.c. I'm still trying to understand linux libraries and shared objects. Any clue to what might be the problem? My source code is in the same directory as the qrencode.h file. I tried #include and "qrencode.h".
You're forgetting to link with your library.
In other words, the compiler knows what to do with the code (since you're including the header and so on), but the linker does not (since it doesn't "know" where to find the implementation of that --- you need to tell it!).
Add -lqrencode to your compiler flags. If the library is in some directory not searched by default, you also need to add -L/path/to/libdir.
This may be of some help (it gives a few examples for compiling and linking): https://www3.ntu.edu.sg/home/ehchua/programming/cpp/gcc_make.html
One additional node: The linker is already involved in building your program: It links your separate object files (assuming you have multiple *.c files) into one. It also it links with at least libc; however, that library is special in that GCC links it implicitly (that is, you don't have to say -lc), since it's the C standard library.

Issues with linking library C++

My problem is I am not able to include a library into my current project. [The way to include a library in netbeans into a project is to link it via linker to the project]. However, in my current project(which is written by another programmer who left the organization) the option of linker is not appearing. I have attached a screenshot. I am faced with the issue that the option of linking the library via linker to my current project is not appearing in IDE. Can someone please please help me out. I'll be highly thankful to you for the same.
Please guide me as to how should I link the library to my project. I have really spent a lot of days doing it but I did not succeed.
Assuming you are only interesting in libspatialindex:
Make sure you have the appropriate files installed: try a locate libspatialindex and see where it is installed. You could have a *.a, *.so or similar extension. Note the path.
Go into your project root directory, i.e: /home/keira/netbeans/projects/myproject
Try: gcc -i main.cpp -L/usr/lib/ -lspatialindex -o myfile
Replace the -L/usr/lib with the actual location where you know the library is at.
The cxx link flag is usually the name of the library with an -l prefix. If for example the name found in the system is libspatialindex.so then its a good bet to try with -lspatialindex.
There is a way to find the actual flags on Debian & Ubuntu systems but I cannot atm remember it. Alternatively you can always look on google or read the library documentation.
When you usually see linker errors with undefined functions, etc, it means you're not linking, provided you have included the headers and they are found.
Now for Netbeans, I assume there is the option of passing extra arguments to the compiler. In this case, all you need is the -lspatialindex flag, provided Netbeans knows where to find the library and the headers. That is how it works in KDevelop and other IDE's I have used.
Alternatively if you want more control and more automation, you may want use a tool like cmake.

Eclipse-CDT/C++: Undefined reference-errors although right .o-files are created and passed to the linker

At first: I am not using an already compiled library.
Here's the situation: I've got a C++ project in eclipse CDT that has a folder structure like this:
project
somefoldername
src
include
library
src
include
somefoldername/src and library/src are defined as source folders and somefoldername/include as well as library/include are defined as include folders (under C/C++ General->Paths and Symbols, which also affects the compilers -I option).
The "library" folder contains the source code of a library used by my own code (which can be found in "somefolder"). Well, compiling of the whole project works fine, but linking crashes with a whole bunch of "undefined reference" errors in the library's source.
The undefined reference errors occur, although *.o-files are created in which the missing functions should be found - and also are passed to the linker afterwards.
What am I doing wrong?
Edit: Updated to current configuration and the attempts to solve the problem.
Edit2: The accepted answer helped me out a bit, but the biggest problem seemed to be the "linking everything at once"-policy followed by eclipse. I went to autoconf and built the library first, before linking it to the main application. Although it's more work, it's a cleaner approach.
Three possibilities:
1) The "undefined" symbols aren't actually in your library
This is unlikely, but you can verify using the "nm" Linux command
2) You aren't setting the library search path ("dash-big-L") correctly in Eclipse
link static lib in eclipse cdt
... or ...
3) Perhaps you built the library with "C" linkage, but your program is using C++ linkage (or vice versa). If you're using the "C" (gcc") compiler, or have any "*.c" source files, then make sure all functions have prototypes in your .h header, and all prototypes use "extern "C"" as appropriate:
& http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0603949d%28v=vs.80%29.aspx

Linking libpng with Borland C++

I made a program on Mac OS X using OpenGL and dynamically linking libpng. I'm now trying to port it to Windows. Whenever I try to compile and link my ported program in Borland it gives me this error and about 10 more that are the same, but with a different '_png_create_read_struct':
Error: Unresolved external '_png_create_read_struct' reference from C:\PROGRAMMING\PNGTEST.OBJ
I assume it's because I have not properly set up libpng with Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32. I've put png.h and pngconf.h into the include folder into C:\Borland\BCC55\Include, and I have put libpng12.dll.a, libpng13.a, libpng13.dll.a, libpng.a, libpng.dll.a, libpng12.def, libpng.def, libpng12.la, and libpng.la into C:\Borland\BCC55\Lib (there is probably no need for them all, but as a noob I have no idea which ones are needed and not).
Do I need to put a libpng.obj file in there too? And if so how would I make/get one? I have tried using makefile.bc32 to set up libpng, yet that gives me a missing separator error.
Here are my command-line options:
bcc32 -tW pngtest.cpp -lpng
I include png.h in my code. What am I doing wrong or is there an even better way to load images with alpha that doesn't need libpng, or even a better compiler to get for Windows?
You're probably better off with the MinGW compiler than Borland. Borland is not well supported any longer.
You could also download DevC++ and see if it has a libpng package in its addon mechanism.
DevC++ is an IDE that uses the MinGW C/C++ compiler.
That said, if you feel you must use BCC, you'll either have to
a) Build libpng with Borland. This is the best solution if you're going to use borland.
b) Use, I think, Impdef to create an import library from libpng.dll. You'll find impdef.exe or imp(something).exe in the borland bin directory.
Note that some libraries will not work with impdef as there is static code linked to the dll that causes it to fail without the proper runtime.
First of all, I would not have "polluted" the BC55 installation with third-party libraries; it will make moving the project to other build environments much more difficult. It would have been better to place them in a folder within your project.
Secondly do you know that the export library you are attempting to link is built for BC55? The .a extension suggests a GNU library (Borland libraries conventionally use .lib extension), in which case it would not link with BC55 which uses a different object file format. If this is the case you will need to rebuild the library as you attempted to do, so I suggest that you should really be asking a question about the problem you had with doing just that. I wonder whether the makefile is written for Borland make or GNU make, since they have differing syntax?
The command line option -lpng might be correct for GCC (where it will link libpng.a), but is meaningless to BCC. The -l option merely passes the text that follows to the linker. The linker command line, requires that the complete name be passed, and if no extension is provided, .lib is added implicitly.
You should probably just use coff2omf to convert the library. The DLL files are almost certainly in "Microsoft" COFF format.
See COFF2OMF.EXE, the Import Library Conversion Tool.