Is this a bug in the boost library

Question

I'm compiling a project with autotools and am using g++ in version gcc version 5.3.1 and boost version 1_63 . After aclocal , autoconf , autoheader , automake --add-missing, I ran configure with some options, which succedded and build make a Makefile. Running make fails and gives me the error (excerpt):

In file included from /usr/local/include/boost/ratio/ratio.hpp:46:0,
             from /usr/local/include/boost/chrono/duration.hpp:41,
             from /usr/local/include/boost/chrono/time_point.hpp:33,
             from /usr/local/include/boost/thread/lock_types.hpp:22,
             from /usr/local/include/boost/thread/pthread/mutex.hpp:16,
             from /usr/local/include/boost/thread/mutex.hpp:16,
             from src/cosupport-initializer/cpp/BasicInitializer.cpp:39:
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:83:46: error: 'CHAR_MIN' was not declared in this scope
public detail::integer_traits_base<char, CHAR_MIN, CHAR_MAX>
                                          ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:83:56: error: 'CHAR_MAX' was not declared in this scope
public detail::integer_traits_base<char, CHAR_MIN, CHAR_MAX>
                                                    ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:83:64: error: template argument 2 is invalid
public detail::integer_traits_base<char, CHAR_MIN, CHAR_MAX>
                                                            ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:83:64: error: template argument 3 is invalid
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:89:53: error: 'SCHAR_MIN' was not declared in this scope
public detail::integer_traits_base<signed char, SCHAR_MIN, SCHAR_MAX>
                                                 ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:89:64: error: 'SCHAR_MAX' was not declared in this scope
 public detail::integer_traits_base<signed char, SCHAR_MIN, SCHAR_MAX>
                                                            ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:89:73: error: template argument 2 is invalid
public detail::integer_traits_base<signed char, SCHAR_MIN, SCHAR_MAX>
                                                                     ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:89:73: error: template argument 3 is invalid
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:95:58: error: 'UCHAR_MAX' was not declared in this scope
public detail::integer_traits_base<unsigned char, 0, UCHAR_MAX>
                                                      ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:95:67: error: template argument 3 is invalid
public detail::integer_traits_base<unsigned char, 0, UCHAR_MAX>
                                                               ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:131:47: error: 'SHRT_MIN' was not declared in this scope
public detail::integer_traits_base<short, SHRT_MIN, SHRT_MAX>
                                           ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:131:57: error: 'SHRT_MAX' was not declared in this scope
public detail::integer_traits_base<short, SHRT_MIN, SHRT_MAX>
                                                     ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:131:65: error: template argument 2 is invalid
public detail::integer_traits_base<short, SHRT_MIN, SHRT_MAX>
                                                             ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:131:65: error: template argument 3 is invalid
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:137:59: error: 'USHRT_MAX' was not declared in this scope
public detail::integer_traits_base<unsigned short, 0, USHRT_MAX>
                                                       ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:137:68: error: template argument 3 is invalid
public detail::integer_traits_base<unsigned short, 0, USHRT_MAX>
                                                                ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:143:45: error: 'INT_MIN' was not declared in this scope
public detail::integer_traits_base<int, INT_MIN, INT_MAX>
                                         ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:143:54: error: 'INT_MAX' was not declared in this scope
public detail::integer_traits_base<int, INT_MIN, INT_MAX>
                                                  ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:143:61: error: template argument 2 is invalid
public detail::integer_traits_base<int, INT_MIN, INT_MAX>
                                                         ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:143:61: error: template argument 3 is invalid
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:149:57: error: 'UINT_MAX' was not declared in this scope
public detail::integer_traits_base<unsigned int, 0, UINT_MAX>
                                                     ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:149:65: error: template argument 3 is invalid
public detail::integer_traits_base<unsigned int, 0, UINT_MAX>
                                                             ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:155:46: error: 'LONG_MIN' was not declared in this scope
public detail::integer_traits_base<long, LONG_MIN, LONG_MAX>
                                          ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:155:56: error: 'LONG_MAX' was not declared in this scope
public detail::integer_traits_base<long, LONG_MIN, LONG_MAX>
                                                    ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:155:64: error: template argument 2 is invalid
public detail::integer_traits_base<long, LONG_MIN, LONG_MAX>
                                                            ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:155:64: error: template argument 3 is invalid
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:161:58: error: 'ULONG_MAX' was not declared in this scope
public detail::integer_traits_base<unsigned long, 0, ULONG_MAX>
                                                      ^
/usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp:161:67: error: template argument 3 is invalid
public detail::integer_traits_base<unsigned long, 0, ULONG_MAX>

This means eg that in /usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp on line 83, the constructor initialization fails:

template<>
class integer_traits<char>
  : public std::numeric_limits<char>,
    public detail::integer_traits_base<char, CHAR_MIN, CHAR_MAX>
{ };

This means in the file /usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp and headers included in it, there's no definition of CHAR_MIN . So this is a bug in boost? Or what am I missing here?

UPDATE

The relevant code excerpts. Before the move:

#include <CoSupport/compatibility-glue/nullptr.h>
#include <CoSupport/Initializer/BasicInitializer.hpp>
#include <boost/thread/mutex.hpp>
#include <cassert>

namespace CoSupport {
...
}

After the move:

#include <boost/thread/mutex.hpp>
#include <CoSupport/compatibility-glue/nullptr.h>
#include <CoSupport/Initializer/BasicInitializer.hpp>
#include <cassert>

namespace CoSupport {
...
}

Answer 1

This means in the file /usr/local/include/boost/integer_traits.hpp and headers included in it, there's no definition of CHAR_MIN

Which is as it should be - CHAR_MIN is defined in <climits> .

So this is a bug in boost? Or what am I missing here?

With 99% certainty, this is not a bug in boost. You probably have some include files of your own, in your project's include directories, masking climits or limits.h , or possibly another file which interger_traits.hpp includes and itself includes climits or limits.h .