strange mingw linker errors with boost?

Question

I've been working on this for a while now, and can't seem to make sense of the situation - partly bceause I don't fully understand what's going on (which is why I came here).

I'm doing a sort of boost hello world as follows:

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


void helloworld() {
    std::printf("HELLO FROM A BOOST THREAD!");
}

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    boost::thread t(&helloworld);
    t.join();
}

This is on Windows. I stored the Boost directory in C:\Boost. I ran bootstrap and bjam, and now have a stage/lib folder that contains all the .lib files. The lib files relating to the boost/thread library are:

libboost_thread-vc100-mt.lib
libboost_thread-vc100-mt-1_46_1.lib
libboost_thread-vc100-mt-gd.lib
libboost_thread-vc100-mt-gd-1_46_1.lib

Now I compile:

g++ -c main.cpp -I/Boost

that line works fine, I get main.o. Then:

g++ -o test.exe main.o -L/Boost/stage/lib -llibboost_thread-vc100-mt

And that's where the trouble happens. First of all, If I didn't type the -l argument the way I did, MinGW couldn't even find the file. Meaning, if I tried:

-lboost_thread-vc100-mt

instead of the way I typed it above (and how I thought it should be done), ld would exit with no such file. Anyway, this is now the output I'm getting from that line:

main.o:main.cpp:(.text+0x47): undefined reference to `_imp___ZN5boost6thread4joinEv'
main.o:main.cpp:(.text+0x55): undefined reference to `_imp___ZN5boost6threadD1Ev'
main.o:main.cpp:(.text+0x70): undefined reference to `_imp___ZN5boost6threadD1Ev'
main.o:main.cpp:(.text$_ZN5boost6threadC1IPFvvEEET_NS_10disable_ifINS_14is_convertibleIRS4_NS_6detail13thread_move_tIS4_EEEEPNS0_5dummyEE4typeE[boost::thread::thread<void (*)()>(void (*)(), boost::disable_if<boost::is_convertible<void (*&)(), boost::detail::thread_move_t<void (*)()> >, boost::thread::dummy*>::type)]+0x23): undefined reference to `_imp___ZN5boost6thread12start_threadEv'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

Now somewhere in there, I can tell that these are apparently the functions I'm supposed to be getting from boost/thread, and apparently it does find the lib file, so why isn't it linking correctly?

Thank you very much for any help!

EDIT:

I've rebuilt boost using the bjam "stage" option

bjam toolset=gcc stage

Now, after the build completes, I'm left with a stage/lib folder with .a files, as is to be expected. These are the boost/thread related libraries:

libboost_thread-mgw45-mt-1_46_1.a
libboost_thread-mgw45-mt-d-1_46_1.a

However, linking as follows:

g++ -o test.exe main.o -L/Boost/stage/lib -lboost_thread-mgw45-mt-1_46_1

outputs the exact same errors. Also tried:

g++ -o test.exe main.o -L/Boost/stage/lib -lboost_thread-mgw45-mt-1_46_1 -static

I'm at a loss, still.

Answer 1

Solved the problem. Boost's headers are configured to be dynamically linked, but the dynamic libraries (dll's) are not built unless you specify:

--build-type=complete

when invoking bjam. After that, copy the appropriate dll to your application directory, but still use the

-L/BOOST_DIR/stage/lib -lname

when linking.