Help compiling and using boost c++ libraries

Question

I am working on a C++ project where I'd like to use boost's serialization libraries. I downloaded and installed the latest boost libraries from boost's home page.

When I tried to compile and run the one of boost's demo serialization examples, I got all sorts of errors that looked like this:

    /usr/local/include/boost/archive/detail/iserializer.hpp:173: undefined reference to `boost::archive::archive_exception::~archive_exception()'
./demo.o: In function `void boost::archive::detail::save_non_pointer_type<boost::archive::text_oarchive>::save_standard::invoke<bus_schedule::trip_info>(boost::archive::text_oarchive&, bus_schedule::trip_info const&)':
/usr/local/include/boost/archive/detail/oserializer.hpp:253: undefined reference to `boost::archive::detail::basic_oarchive::save_object(void const*, boost::archive::detail::basic_oserializer const&)'
./demo.o: In function `void boost::archive::save_access::end_preamble<boost::archive::text_oarchive>(boost::archive::text_oarchive&)':
/usr/local/include/boost/archive/detail/oserializer.hpp:83: undefined reference to `boost::archive::detail::basic_oarchive::end_preamble()'
./demo.o: In function `void boost::archive::detail::load_pointer_type<boost::archive::text_iarchive>::invoke<bus_route*>(boost::archive::text_iarchive&, bus_route*&)':
/usr/local/include/boost/archive/detail/iserializer.hpp:518: undefined reference to `boost::archive::detail::basic_iarchive::load_pointer(void*&, boost::archive::detail::basic_pointer_iserializer const*, boost::archive::detail::basic_pointer_iserializer const* (*)(boost::serialization::extended_type_info const&))'
./demo.o: In function `void boost::archive::detail::save_pointer_type<boost::archive::text_oarchive>::non_polymorphic::save<bus_route>(boost::archive::text_oarchive&, bus_route&)':

I am new to C++ and boost so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Rosario

@user475505 linker error. check if you have added the libs for linking. – Affairs

Answer 1

Thank you everyone for all your help. I finally got my problem solved, though my solution is fairly anti-climactic, and probably not that informative.

I had tried to install the boost libraries manually, by downloading them from boost's website directly, and found that all the libraries had been installed in /usr/local/lib, and /usr/local/include/boost/ . After repeatedly running into my original errors, I decided to see if the Synaptic Package Manager could do a 'better' job of installing the boost libraries. I selected 'libboost1.40-all-dev' to install everything, but still nothing was working.

Finally, I decided to start fresh so manually deleted the boost/ directory in /usr/local/include, and I deleted all the libboost files in /usr/local/lib. I then marked all the boost libraries for complete removal to remove everything. Once all the boost libraries were uninstalled, I went back to the Synaptic Package Manager, selected 'libboost1.40-all-dev' one more time.

I am not sure what exactly changed when I re-installed the libraries again, but everything started to work again. I first tested from the command line, and tried to compile the demo.cpp from boost's website one more time with the following command:

g++ demo.cpp -lboost_serialization

and it compiled immediately. Running the executable displayed exactly the results I was looking for. Furthermore, I moved the file back into my Eclipse project, added 'boost_serialization' to the Linker libraries, and tried to build the project. Everything worked perfectly again, as I could build the project and run the example code.

I don't really have an explanation for why this fixed my problem, but to anyone else experiencing similar problems, the best advice I can give is to NOT install the boost libraries directly, but rather have the Synaptic Package Manager handle everything.

Thanks again everyone, you've been extremely helpful.

Rosario

Answer 2

Presumably you need to link to the serialization library. Have a look in /usr/lib for something with a name similar to libboost_serialization. Then tell g++ (you didn't say which compiler you are using) you want to use (link to) this library:

g++ main.cpp -lboost_serialization

I.e. if the name of the library is /usr/lib/libboost_serialization.a you leave out the initial lib and the extension.

Good luck!

Pander

Thanks for the quick replies, I'm still having some trouble, but I think I'm at least heading on the right track. I forgot to mention in the original post that I am using the Eclipse CDT for development. I think that you were both right in that it was a linker problem, so after searching a little more, I found an article about setting up boost in eclipse where I had to add boost_serialization under the linker settings' library field. After doing this, I still get the same errors. Any more advice on how I can set up boost with Eclipse? Thanks – Rosario

Try to see what commandline parameters Ecplips is passing to g++. Then make sure the linking part is correct (you can try running the command outside of Ecplipse). Post it here if you don't get forward. – Joint

I'm still having problems, here is the linking command that Eclipse is using: "g++ -o"Testbench" ./demo.o -lboost_serialization" I get the same error from the command line outside of Eclipse. Thanks for your help so far – Rosario

Is g++ finding the library? If not, then you need to add the directory to libboost_serialization.a. Something like this: g++ -o Testbench demo.o -lboost_serialization -L/usr/lib – Joint

Answer 3

You need to link to Boost.Serialization library. See the Boost's getting started page.

Exoergic