undefined reference to boost system system category when compiling

Question

I m trying to compile a program on Ubuntu 11 10 that uses the Boost libraries  I have the 1 46-dev Boost libraries from the Ubuntu Repository installed  but I get an error when compiling the program   undefined reference to boost  system  system category    What is it that I do wrong

User · Accepted Answer

The boost library you are using depends on the boost_system library. (Not all of them do.)

Assuming you use gcc, try adding -lboost_system to your compiler command line in order to link against that library.

User · Answer

The above error is a linker error    the linker a program that takes one or more objects generated by a compiler and combines them into a single executable program   You must add -lboost system to you linker flags which indicates to the linker that it must look for symbols like boost  system  system category   in the library libboost system so   If you have main cpp  either   g   main cpp -o main -lboost system   OR  g   -c -o main o main cpp g   main o -lboost system

User · Answer

When using CMAKE and find package  make sure it is    find package Boost COMPONENTS system        and not   find package boost COMPONENTS system        Some people may have lost hours for that

User · Answer

Another workaround for those who don t need the entire shebang  use the switch   -DBOOST ERROR CODE HEADER ONLY    If you use CMake  it s add definitions -DBOOST ERROR CODE HEADER ONLY

User · Answer

Linking with a library that defines the missing symbol  -lboost system  is the obvious solution  but in the particular case of Boost System  a misfeature in the original design makes it use boost  system  generic category   and boost  system  system category   needlessly  Compiling with the flag -DBOOST SYSTEM NO DEPRECATED disables that code and lets a number of programs compile without requiring -lboost system  that link is of course still needed if you explicitly use some of the library s features    Starting from Boost 1 66 and this commit  this behavior is now the default  so hopefully fewer and fewer users should need this answer   As noticed by  AndrewMarshall  an alternative is to define BOOST ERROR CODE HEADER ONLY which enables a header-only version of the code  This was discouraged by Boost as it can break some functionality  However  since 1 69  header-only seems to have become the default  supposedly making this question obsolete

User · Answer

When I had this  problem  the cause was the ordering of the libraries   To fix it  I put libboost system last   g   mingw timer1 o -o mingw timer1 exe  -L usr local boost 1 61 0 stage lib       -lboost timer-mgw53-mt-1 61       -lboost chrono-mgw53-mt-1 61       -lboost system-mgw53-mt-1 61   This was on mingw with gcc 5 3 and boost 1 61 0 with a simple timer example

User · Answer

in my case  adding -lboost system was not enough  it still could not find it in my custom build environment  I had to use the advice at Get rid of  quot gcc -  usr bin ld  warning lib not found quot  and change my   configure command to     configure CXXFLAGS  -I HOME include  LDFLAGS  -L HOME lib -Wl -rpath-link  HOME lib  --with-boost-libdir  HOME lib --prefix  HOME   for more details see Boost 1 51    quot error  could not link against boost thread   quot

User · Answer

I got the same Problem   g   -mconsole -Wl --export-all-symbols -LC  Programme CPP-Entwicklung MinGW-4 5 2 lib  -LD  bfs ENTW deb lib   -static-libgcc -static-libstdc   -LC  Programme CPP-Entwicklung boost 1 47 0 stage lib      D  bfs ENTW deb obj test main filesystem obj    -o D  bfs ENTW deb bin filesystem exe -lboost system-mgw45-mt-1 47 -lboost filesystem-mgw45-mt-1 47      D  bfs ENTW deb obj test main filesystem obj main filesystem cpp   text 0x54     undefined reference to  boost  system  generic category     Solution was to use the debug-version of the system-lib   g   -mconsole -Wl --export-all-symbols -LC  Programme CPP-Entwicklung MinGW-4 5 2 lib  -LD  bfs ENTW deb lib   -static-libgcc -static-libstdc   -LC  Programme CPP-Entwicklung boost 1 47 0 stage lib      D  bfs ENTW deb obj test main filesystem obj    -o D  bfs ENTW deb bin filesystem exe -lboost system-mgw45-mt-d-1 47 -lboost filesystem-mgw45-mt-1 47   But why

User · Answer

and in case you wanted to link your main statically  in your Jamfile add the following to requirements    lt link gt static  lt library gt  boost system  boost system   and perhaps also    lt linkflags gt -static-libgcc  lt linkflags gt -static-libstdc

[c++] undefined reference to boost::system::system_category() when compiling

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