C++ project compiled with modern compiler, but linked against outdated libstdc++

Question

Consider the situation when a C++ project is built and shipped within a Centos 7 virtual machine or container. Default gcc for Centos 7 is 4.8. In order to allow developers to use modern C++, the more recent version of gcc (for example, 6.3) is installed into Centos 7 which runs as a CI server. This provides -std=c++14 support.

[builder@f7279ae9f33f build (master %)]$ /usr/bin/c++ -v 2>&1 | grep version
gcc version 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-28) (GCC) 
[builder@f7279ae9f33f build (master %)]$ /opt/rh/devtoolset-6/root/usr/bin/c++  -v 2>&1 | grep version
gcc version 6.3.1 20170216 (Red Hat 6.3.1-3) (GCC) 
export CXX=/opt/rh/devtoolset-6/root/usr/bin/c++
make all -j4
...

This is short example of compilation and linkage command:

[ 78%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/ucsdos.dir/src/merge_operator_string.cpp.o
/opt/rh/devtoolset-6/root/usr/bin/c++  -Ducsdos_EXPORTS -I/home/builder/src/dos/libucsdos/./src -I/home/builder/src/dos/libucsdos/./include -I/home/builder/src/dos/libucsdos/build/schema/cpp -I/home/builder/src/dos/libucsdos/build/schema -isystem /usr/local/include  -O2 -g -DNDEBUG -fPIC   -frtti -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -Wcast-align -Wcast-qual -Wctor-dtor-privacy -Wdisabled-optimization -Wformat=2 -Winit-self -Wlogical-op -Wmissing-declarations -Wmissing-include-dirs -Wnoexcept -Wold-style-cast -Woverloaded-virtual -Wredundant-decls -Wshadow -Wsign-conversion -Wsign-promo -Wstrict-null-sentinel -Wstrict-overflow=5 -Wswitch-default -Wundef -Werror -Wno-unused -std=gnu++14 -o CMakeFiles/ucsdos.dir/src/merge_operator_string.cpp.o -c /home/builder/src/dos/libucsdos/src/merge_operator_string.cpp

[ 80%] Linking CXX shared library libucsdos.so
/usr/bin/cmake3 -E cmake_link_script CMakeFiles/ucsdos.dir/link.txt --verbose=1
/opt/rh/devtoolset-6/root/usr/bin/c++ -fPIC -O2 -g -DNDEBUG  -shared -Wl,-soname,libucsdos.so.0 -o libucsdos.so.0.3.23 CMakeFiles/ucsdos.dir/src/c.cpp.o CMakeFiles/ucsdos.dir/src/crdt_2p_set.cpp.o CMakeFiles/ucsdos.dir/src/crdt_pn_counter.cpp.o CMakeFiles/ucsdos.dir/src/errors.cpp.o CMakeFiles/ucsdos.dir/src/merge_index_document.cpp.o CMakeFiles/ucsdos.dir/src/merge_index_segment.cpp.o CMakeFiles/ucsdos.dir/src/merge_operator_string.cpp.o -Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/lib: schema/libschema.a /usr/lib64/librocksdb.so /usr/lib64/libjemalloc.so /usr/local/lib/libgrpc++_reflection.so /usr/local/lib/libgrpc++.so /usr/local/lib/libgrpc.so -ldl -lgrpc++ /usr/lib64/libprotobuf.so -lpthread /usr/lib64/libprotobuf-lite.so 

Anyway, the resulting artifacts appear to be linked with system default version of libstdc++:

[builder@f7279ae9f33f build (master %)]$ ldd libucsdos.so | grep libstdc++.so.6
libstdc++.so.6 => /lib64/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007f2a4a054000)

It's easy to find out that /lib64/libstdc++.so.6 version is 4.8.5:

[builder@f7279ae9f33f build (master %)]$ yum whatprovides "/lib64/libstdc++.so.6"
libstdc++-4.8.5-28.el7_5.1.x86_64 : GNU Standard C++ Library
Repo        : @Updates
Matched from:
Filename    : /lib64/libstdc++.so.6

Is this build environment configuration valid?

Weltpolitik

Are you using the headers for the older libstdc++ or the new one? – Schertz

@FireLancer I don't include libstdc++ headers, I thought that compiler should do it implicitly (updated the question). – Weltpolitik

Looks like a variant of gcc.gnu.org/faq.html#rpath – Orling

Answer 1

Anyway, the resulting artifacts appear to be linked with system default version of libstdc++:

Yes. The devtoolset-6-gcc-c++ package provides a custom version of GCC that uses a special linker script instead of a dynamic library for libstdc++.so. That means the binaries it produces do not depend on the newer libstdc++.so.6 and can be run on other CentOS machines that don't have devtoolset installed (i.e. they only have the older libstdc++ library from GCC 4.8).

Is this build environment configuration valid?

Yes. What you're seeing is completely normal, and how it's supposed to work.

The pieces of the newer C++ runtime from GCC 6.4.0 get statically linked into your binary, and at runtime it only depends on the old libstdc++.so which every CentOS system has installed.

That's the whole point of the devtoolset version of GCC.

Wheaten

Vitaly and Jonathan, Thank you both! Learned alot from the question and answer. – Thomson