Boost thread error: undefined reference

Question

#include <boost/thread/thread.hpp>
#include <iostream>

void hello()
{
  std::cout <<
    "Hello world, I'm a thread!"
    << std::endl;
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  boost::thread thrd(&hello);
  thrd.join();
  return 0;
}

I ran tried to compile this program, and got these errors:

/usr/include/boost/thread/pthread/mutex.hpp:40: undefined reference to
   `boost::thread_resource_error::thread_resource_error()'
/usr/include/boost/thread/pthread/mutex.hpp:40: undefined reference to 
   `boost::thread_resource_error::~thread_resource_error()'
/usr/include/boost/thread/pthread/mutex.hpp:40: undefined reference to 
   `typeinfo for boost::thread_resource_error'
./src/thread.o: In function `condition_variable':
/usr/include/boost/thread/pthread/condition_variable_fwd.hpp:33: 
  undefined reference to `boost::thread_resource_error::thread_resource_error()'
/usr/include/boost/thread/pthread/condition_variable_fwd.hpp:33: 
  undefined reference to `boost::thread_resource_error::~thread_resource_error()'
/usr/include/boost/thread/pthread/condition_variable_fwd.hpp:33: \
  undefined reference to `typeinfo for boost::thread_resource_error'
./src/thread.o: In function `thread_data_base':
/usr/include/boost/thread/pthread/thread_data.hpp:54: 
  undefined reference to `vtable for boost::detail::thread_data_base'
./src/thread.o: In function `thread<void (*)()>':
/usr/include/boost/thread/detail/thread.hpp:188: 
  undefined reference to `boost::thread::start_thread()'
./src/thread.o: In function `~thread_data':
/usr/include/boost/thread/detail/thread.hpp:40: 
  undefined reference to `boost::detail::thread_data_base::~thread_data_base()'
/usr/include/boost/thread/detail/thread.hpp:40: undefined reference to 
  `boost::detail::thread_data_base::~thread_data_base()'

Can any one tell me why i am getting this error?

Answer 1

compile with mt tag i.e -lboost_thread-mt

Answer 2

I had the same question, but -lboost_thread-mt is now deprecated see this answer on askubuntu.com. Instead what you now want in your makefile (at least for linux) is:

-lpthread -lboost_thread ...

Boost has simply given you the responsibility to link to your system's thread library.