g++ undefined reference to symbol '__cxa_free_exception@@CXXABI_1.3' when building Point Cloud Library

Question

Im having quite a few problems building the Point Cloud Library. I am running Ubuntu and I have 3 versions of GCC and Clang (probably where the problem is). Im trying to use g++ 4.6 that comes bundled with Ubuntu in order to build PCL as it seems to have gotten the farthest of the compilers I've tried. However I have this problem:

> Linking CXX executable ../../bin/pcl_convert_pcd_ascii_binary cd /home/oni/Projects/pcl/build/io/tools && /usr/bin/cmake -E cmake_link_script CMakeFiles/pcl_convert_pcd_ascii_binary.dir/link.txt
--verbose=1 /usr/bin/g++   -lstdc++ -pthread -fopenmp  -Wno-deprecated -O2 -g  -lstdc++  -Wl,--as-needed CMakeFiles/pcl_convert_pcd_ascii_binary.dir/convert_pcd_ascii_binary.cpp.o
-o ../../bin/pcl_convert_pcd_ascii_binary -rdynamic -L/usr/local/lib -L/home/oni/Projects/OpenNI/Lib /usr/local/lib/libboost_serialization.so /usr/local/lib/libboost_mpi.so /usr/local/lib/libboost_system.so /usr/local/lib/libboost_filesystem.so /usr/local/lib/libboost_thread.so /usr/local/lib/libboost_date_time.so /usr/local/lib/libboost_iostreams.so -lpthread -lm ../../lib/libpcl_common.so.1.7.1 ../../lib/libpcl_io.so.1.7.1 ../../lib/libpcl_common.so.1.7.1 ../../lib/libpcl_io_ply.so.1.7.1 /usr/local/lib/libboost_serialization.so /usr/local/lib/libboost_mpi.so /usr/local/lib/libboost_system.so /usr/local/lib/libboost_filesystem.so /usr/local/lib/libboost_thread.so /usr/local/lib/libboost_date_time.so /usr/local/lib/libboost_iostreams.so -lm /usr/lib/libvtkWidgets.so.5.8.0 /usr/lib/libvtkHybrid.so.5.8.0 /usr/lib/libvtkParallel.so.5.8.0 /usr/lib/libvtkVolumeRendering.so.5.8.0 /usr/lib/libvtkRendering.so.5.8.0 /usr/lib/libvtkIO.so.5.8.0 /usr/lib/libvtkImaging.so.5.8.0 /usr/lib/libvtkGraphics.so.5.8.0 /usr/lib/libvtkFiltering.so.5.8.0 /usr/lib/libvtkCommon.so.5.8.0 /usr/lib/libvtksys.so.5.8.0 -ldl -lm -lpng -lusb-1.0 -lOpenNI
-Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/lib:/home/oni/Projects/pcl/build/lib:/usr/lib/openmpi/lib:/home/oni/Projects/OpenNI/Lib:
-Wl,-rpath-link,/usr/lib/openmpi/lib  /usr/bin/ld: CMakeFiles/pcl_convert_pcd_ascii_binary.dir/convert_pcd_ascii_binary.cpp.o: undefined reference to symbol '__cxa_free_exception@@CXXABI_1.3' /usr/bin/ld: note: '__cxa_free_exception@@CXXABI_1.3' is defined in DSO /usr/local/lib/libstdc++.so so try adding it to the linker command line /usr/local/lib/libstdc++.so: could not read symbols: Invalid operation collect2: ld returned 1 exit status make[2]: *** [bin/pcl_convert_pcd_ascii_binary] Error 1 make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/oni/Projects/pcl/build' make[1]: *** [io/tools/CMakeFiles/pcl_convert_pcd_ascii_binary.dir/all] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/oni/Projects/pcl/build' make: *** [all] Error 2

Invalid Operation from the Linker is really odd. One thing I tried also was this:

# include <iostream>
int main() {
  std::cout << "Hello, world!\n";
}

Followed by:

g++ hello.cpp  /tmp/cc29vkpU.o: In function `main': hello.cpp:(.text+0xa): undefined reference to `std::cout' hello.cpp:(.text+0xf): undefined reference to `std::basic_ostream<char, std::char_traits<char> >& std::operator<< <std::char_traits<char> >(std::basic_ostream<char, std::char_traits<char> >&, char const*)' /tmp/cc29vkpU.o: In function `__static_initialization_and_destruction_0(int, int)': hello.cpp:(.text+0x3d): undefined reference to `std::ios_base::Init::Init()' hello.cpp:(.text+0x42): undefined reference to `std::ios_base::Init::~Init()' collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

However if I try:

g++ hello.cpp -lstdc++

all is well.

 g++ -v
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=g++
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.6/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.6/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr --program-suffix=-4.6 --enable-shared --enable-linker-build-id --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.6 --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --enable-gnu-unique-object --enable-plugin --enable-objc-gc --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-tune=generic --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.6.3 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5) 

Im quite confused but Im sure its something to do with my current g++ setup and my libstdc++ library. I've tried apt-get reinstall but with little success

Cheers

Ben

Answer 1

I just ran into this same symptom, and the same solution (-lstdc++) worked for me. Had you recently upgraded from Ubuntu 12 to 14, or something equivalent in upgrading gcc?

I seem to be in the same boat as this blogger , having just upgraded from Ubuntu 12.04 to 14.04.

As he wrote:

Ubuntu 14.04 uses newer versions of the GCC compilers and libraries. The hint here is that its complaining about a core C++ symbol: __cxa_free_exception. Suggesting the linker to link with the standard C++ library fixed this error. You can do this by adding -lstdc++ to the linker invocation.