Linker error LNK2038: mismatch detected in Release mode

Question

I am trying to port a small app of mine from Win XP and VS 2005 to Win 7 and VS 2010.

The app compiles and runs smoothly in Debug mode, however in Release mode I get the following error:

pcrecpp.lib(pcrecpp.obj) : error LNK2038: mismatch detected for 
'_ITERATOR_DEBUG_LEVEL': value '0' doesn't match value '2' in LoginDlg.obj

Where should I start checking?

Answer 1

Your app is being compiled in release mode, but you're linking against the debug version of PCRE, which had /MTd (or similar) set, thus causing the mismatch in iterator debugging level in the CRT.

Recompile PCRE in release mode to match your own application.

The detect_mismatch pragma in VS 2010 is what causes this error to be emitted.

See http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2009/06/23/stl-performance.aspx (search for _ITERATOR_DEBUG_LEVEL)

Answer 2

I had the same error. In my case the solution is easy: I had one project A depending on another project B. B had a preprocessor definition _DEBUG in debug mode and A didn't.

Just add _DEBUG to project A(project->properties->c++->preprocessor->preprocessor definitions) and you're done.

Answer 3

This can also be caused by setting the preprocessor definition _HAS_ITERATOR_DEBUGGING=0 in project B and not in A where A produces a lib used by B.

Answer 4

My problem was that dependent project used "Use Multi-Byte Character Set"
under Generl-->Character set. while other project had "No Set" value