g++ undefined reference to `boost::system::system_category()'

Question

I have searched high and low for answer to this issue. I am using boost 1.48 and the program is extremely simple, since I have broken it down to its simplest form in order to solve this issue.

#include <boost/filesystem.hpp>

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    return 0;
}

The g++ command executed from my Makefile is as follows:

g++ -m32 -Wall -o mapnik-test -L/usr/lib -I/usr/include -I/usr/include/freetype2 -lpthread -lboost_system mapnik-test.cpp

The complete list of errors during linking is as follows:

/tmp/ccIbmuee.o: In function `__static_initialization_and_destruction_0(int, int)':
mapnik-test.cpp:(.text+0x49): undefined reference to `boost::system::generic_category()'
mapnik-test.cpp:(.text+0x53): undefined reference to `boost::system::generic_category()'
mapnik-test.cpp:(.text+0x5d): undefined reference to `boost::system::system_category()'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [mapnik-test] Error 1

I have found many people suffering from the same issue, but in most cases, the solution has been to provide the boost_system library in the LDFLAGS. As you can see from the g++ command line, I already have this specified. I have even tried explicitly linking against the libboost_system.a library to no avail. Am I the only person with this complaint?

Answer 1

Put the source file at the beginning of the command line.

Try

g++ -m32 -Wall mapnik-test.cpp -o mapnik-test -L/usr/lib -I/usr/include -I/usr/include/freetype2 -lpthread -lboost_system

The libraries should be specified only after the source file so that the linker can resolve the undefined references in the source file.