gcc vs clang common library issue

Question

I have two applications, one compiled with gcc(c++) and another compiled with clang++. I am to use common shared boost library for both the applications. My question is whether to compile boost shared library using clang compiler or gcc compiler. Can I use boost library compiled with gcc in my application that is being compiled using clang?

Answer 1

g++ and clang++ are compatible as compilers (because they both follow the Itanium ABI), but they may come with incompatible standard library implementations.

g++ comes with a standard library implementation called libstdc++. You can direct g++ to use a different implementation but this is not exactly trivial.

clang++ sometimes comes without a standard library implementation of its own (and is configured to use implementation provided by g++), and sometimes comes with an implementation called libc++. One can easily switch clang++ to use either libc++ or libstdc++ with a single command line option.

So your question boils down to what standard library implementation(s) your applications use. If they use the same implementation, you need to build Boost with that implementation (and either compiler). If they use different implementations, you need two separate builds of Boost.

Mixing components built against different standard library implementations in the same application can sometimes be done, but is not straightforward, entails a lot of restrictions, and with things like boost is either not feasible or downright impossible.