Error building gcc 4.8.3 from source: libstdc++.so.6: version `CXXABI_1.3.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicuuc.so.55)

Question

I 'm using gcc (Ubuntu 5.2.1-22ubuntu2) 5.2.1 20151010 for the compile but I have also tried gcc 4.1.2 and I get the same error.

for gcc 5.2.1

strings /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6|grep CXXABI gives

CXXABI_1.3
CXXABI_1.3.1
CXXABI_1.3.2 
CXXABI_1.3.3
CXXABI_1.3.4
CXXABI_1.3.5
CXXABI_1.3.6
CXXABI_1.3.7
CXXABI_1.3.8
CXXABI_1.3.9
CXXABI_TM_1
CXXABI_FLOAT128

For the compiler being compiled gcc 4.8.3

strings gcc-build/build/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++-v3/src/.libs/libstdc++.so.6|grep CXXABI

CXXABI_1.3
CXXABI_1.3.1 
CXXABI_1.3.2 
CXXABI_1.3.3
CXXABI_1.3.4
CXXABI_1.3.5
CXXABI_1.3.6
CXXABI_1.3.7
CXXABI_TM_1
CXXABI_1.3
CXXABI_1.3.2
CXXABI_1.3.6
CXXABI_1.3.1
CXXABI_1.3.5
CXXABI_1.3.4
CXXABI_TM_1
CXXABI_1.3.7
CXXABI_1.3.3

i.e no 1.3.8

prior to running configure and make I also tried:

export LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/:$LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
../gcc-4.8.3/configure --build=x86_64-linux-gnu
make 

Error message:

msgfmt -o fr.mo ../../../../gcc-4.8.3/libstdc++-v3/po/fr.po
msgfmt: gcc-build/build/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++-v3/src/.libs/libstdc++.so.6: version `CXXABI_1.3.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicuuc.so.55)
msgfmt: Makefile:460: recipe for target 'de.mo' failed

When compiling with gcc 4.1.2 I get the same error:

msgfmt -o fr.mo ../../../../libstdc++-v3/po/fr.po
gcc-build/gcc-4.8.3/build/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++-v3/src/.libs/libstdc++.so.6: version `CXXABI_1.3.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicuuc.so.55)
Makefile:460: recipe for target 'de.mo' failed

When compiling with gcc 4.1.2 i did the following prior to configure and make

#where libraries i have compiled with gcc 4.1.2 are located i.e 
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/devtools/gcc-4.1.2/lib
#where libstdc++.so.6 is
export LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/gcc-4.1.2/lib64

strings /opt/gcc-4.1.2/lib64/libstdc++.so.6|grep CXXABI
CXXABI_1.3
CXXABI_1.3.1
CXXABI_1.3.1
CXXABI_1.3

which makes me wonder where CXXABI_1.3.8 is coming from. I also did a 'make distclean' between changing compiler

Answer 1

I stumbled upon the same problem with a bit newer compiler combination, i.e. using gcc (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.4) 5.4.0 20160609 while building GCC 4.8.5. The solution worked out so far apparently did the job and gives valuable general explanation of the problem. I offer further details and an alternative solution below.

The error message in question comes from the msgfmt program - part of gettext, an internationalization and localization system:

$ which msgfmt
/usr/bin/msgfmt
$ dpkg -S /usr/bin/msgfmt
gettext: /usr/bin/msgfmt

msgfmt gets called by the GCC build system to compile messages emited by the C++ standard library (libstdc++) that is currently being built. msgfmt is a dynamically linked executable, linked (among others) against libicuuc.so.55 - a cross-platform Unicode based globalization library:

$ ldd /usr/bin/msgfmt
    libicuuc.so.55 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicuuc.so.55 (0x00007ff133f47000)

(other dependencies not shown for clarity)

The icuuc library is a dynamically linked shared object itself that depends on the stdc++ library:

$ ldd /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicuuc.so.55
    libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007ff688a16000)

(other dependencies not shown for clarity)

The above listing was generated using my interactive shell environment, which resolves the dependency on libstdc++.so.6 to the system-wide version of the C++ library located in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu. However, the GCC build environment apparently resolves this dependency to the C++ library generated on the earlier stage of the current build process, i.e. to the one located in $TOP_BUILD_DIR/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++-v3/src/.libs - recall the originally posted error message:

msgfmt: gcc-build/build/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++-v3/src/.libs/libstdc++.so.6: version `CXXABI_1.3.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicuuc.so.55)

I get a fairly similar output:

msgfmt: /opt/build/gcc/gcc-4.8.4/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libstdc++-v3/src/.libs/libstdc++.so.6: version `CXXABI_1.3.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicuuc.so.55)

Now, answering the original question, the string 'CXXABI_1.3.8' comes from the libicuuc.so.55 library, which requires that the libstdc++.so.6 library it depends upon, provides a particular ABI version:

$ strings /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicuuc.so.55 | grep CXXABI
CXXABI_1.3.8
CXXABI_1.3

To summarize, the GCC build system creates a circular dependency, which mixes system-wide binaries with local libraries:

libstdc++ (currenlty built) > msgfmt > libicuuc.so.55 > libstdc++.so.6

by resolving libstdc++.so.6 to it's own library structure instead of the system-wide version.

The solution proposed by Mats Petersson, which involves rebuilding the libicuuc.so.55 library such that it depends on an older version of libstdc++.so.6, which is (hopefully) compatible with the GCC build system, is certainly valid. However, it seems a bit unnatural for my taste, as it requires playing around with dependencies of a system-wide binary, which is out of control of any non-root user.

My alternative solution involves building the custom version of the gettext package instead, such that the msgfmt binary is self-contained and its dependencies do not interfere with the GCC build system. It can be achieved by installing the custom version of gettext in /opt and adjusting the relevant paths using environment modules.

Answer 2

I had the same problem when I tried to build GCC 4.8.5 from source on Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS with GCC 5.4.0.

As a workaround I just dropped LD_LIBRARY_PATH only for msgfmt command in makefiles. To be precise I give the exact commands I executed to get the build successful:

1 - extract the sources

tar zxfv gcc-4.8.5.tar.gz 
cd gcc-4.8.5

2 - modify call of msgfmt (add LD_LIBRARY_PATH= ) and make sure it is correct

vi ./libstdc++-v3/po/Makefile.in
vi ./libstdc++-v3/po/Makefile.am
grep "MSGFMT =" ./libstdc++-v3/po/Makefile.in ./libstdc++-v3/po/Makefile.am
./libstdc++-v3/po/Makefile.in:MSGFMT = LD_LIBRARY_PATH= msgfmt
./libstdc++-v3/po/Makefile.am:MSGFMT = LD_LIBRARY_PATH= msgfmt

3 - configure (I restriced multilib to 64bit only, because I don't have libc6-dev-i386 installed on my 64bit host and don't want to do it only for this build), build and install

./configure --prefix=$HOME/gcc-4.8.5 --with-multilib-list=m64
make
make install