Rcpp not loading boost/asio.hpp

Question

I want to include some features from the boost library. But when including #include <boost/asio.hpp> the file will not compile, see my example:

// [[Rcpp::depends(BH)]]

#include <Rcpp.h>
#include <boost/asio.hpp>

// [[Rcpp::export]]
int main()
{
  return 0;
}

Error in dyn.load("/tmp/RtmpRZlOEQ/sourceCpp-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-0.12.14/sourcecpp_c4a63bcd586/sourceCpp_32.so") : unable to load shared object '/tmp/RtmpRZlOEQ/sourceCpp-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-0.12.14/sourcecpp_c4a63bcd586/sourceCpp_32.so': /tmp/RtmpRZlOEQ/sourceCpp-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-0.12.14/sourcecpp_c4a63bcd586/sourceCpp_32.so: undefined symbol: _ZN5boost6system15system_categoryEv

When removing #include <boost/asio.hpp> all works fine. Substituting asio.hpp with some other files, e.g., integer.hpp all works fine.

Here is my session.Info():

sessionInfo()
R version 3.4.3 (2017-11-30)
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)
Running under: Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS

Matrix products: default
BLAS: /usr/lib/libblas/libblas.so.3.6.0
LAPACK: /usr/lib/lapack/liblapack.so.3.6.0

locale:
 [1] LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8       LC_NUMERIC=C               LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8        LC_COLLATE=en_GB.UTF-8     LC_MONETARY=de_DE.UTF-8   
 [6] LC_MESSAGES=en_GB.UTF-8    LC_PAPER=de_DE.UTF-8       LC_NAME=C                  LC_ADDRESS=C               LC_TELEPHONE=C            
[11] LC_MEASUREMENT=de_DE.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C       

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
 [1] compiler_3.4.3  magrittr_1.5    rsconnect_0.8.5 tools_3.4.3     yaml_2.1.15     Rcpp_0.12.14    stringi_1.1.6   knitr_1.17     
 [9] stringr_1.2.0   BH_1.65.0-1

I also tried it on Windows 10 and loading is also not possible.

When compiling via g++, all works fine:

// test.cpp
#include <boost/asio.hpp>

int main()
{
  return 0;
}

g++ test.cpp -lboost_system

Dirk Eddelbuettel Dirk Eddelbuettel · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-12T21:07:44

Yes, that is how it is. Let me explain, and read on as there is a solution for you.

Package BH

This package is header-only. No linking. So that you (as package author or users) do not have to mess with -lboost_system which becomes a pain across systems quickly.

Wait, what?

Right. BH is header only. And hence does not include all of Boost as not all can be had without linking. E.g. no Asio.

Say that again? No Asio?

Right. Standard Boost builds leads to requiring Asio with linking. Which is not compatibale with how we do BH.

Sad

Fear not. At some point I discovered that the Asio authors also bundle it a second way, headers-only. So just use my CRAN package AsioHeaders along with BH.

Rcpp not loading boost/asio.hpp

1 Answers

Package BH

Wait, what?

Say that again? No Asio?

Sad