undefined reference to boost::program_options in xubuntu

Question

I have this file

#include <boost/program_options.hpp>
namespace po = boost::program_options;

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main(int ac, char* av[])
{
    try {

    po::options_description desc("Allowed options");
        desc.add_options()
            ("help", "produce help message")
        ;

    }
    catch(exception& e) {
        cerr << "error: " << e.what() << "\n";
        return 1;
    }
    catch(...) {
        cerr << "Exception of unknown type!\n";
    }

    return 0;
}

Now I am trying to compile like this:

g++ -I /usr/include/boost/ -I /usr/include/boost/program_options main.cpp -L /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ -lboost_program_options

and I am receiving this

undefined reference to `boost::program_options::options_description::options_description(std::__cxx11::basic_string, std::allocator > const&, unsigned int, unsigned int)'

I don't know why it is failing, the library is there and the header file too. What goes wrong? I am using boost 1.55.0

administrator@administrator-VirtualBox:~/l/b$ sudo updatedb
administrator@administrator-VirtualBox:~/l/b$ locate libboost_program_options
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_program_options.a
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_program_options.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_program_options.so.1.55.0

Can you do a sudo updatedb followed by a locate libboost_program_options and paste the results of the latter? — Ami Tavory
Possible duplicate of Link error in Boost program_options code on Ubuntu — jww

Maxim Egorushkin Maxim Egorushkin · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-20T10:58:48

Looks like boost was compiled with pre-C++11 std::basic_string, whereas your code is compiled with C++11 std::basic_string.

Try re-compiling your code with -D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0 compiler command line option. See GCC5 and the C++11 ABI for more details:

In most cases, it will be obvious when this flag is needed because of errors from the linker complaining about unresolved symbols involving __cxx11.

undefined reference to boost::program_options in xubuntu

1 Answers