Build fails with `undefined reference` errors

[Felix]

Hi,

When trying to build xapian-core-1.2.21 on a Linux box (RHEL4), after a few minutes, the build fails with lots of undefined reference errors:

$ ./configure --prefix=/home/ahriman
$ make
make  all-recursive
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/ahriman/src/xapian/xapian-core-1.2.21'
Making all in .
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/ahriman/src/xapian/xapian-core-1.2.21'
/bin/sh ./libtool  --tag=CXX   --mode=link g++ -fshow-column -Wall -W -Wredundant-decls -Wpointer-arith -Wcast-qual -Wcast-align -Wno-long-long -Wformat-security -fno-gnu-keywords -Wundef -Woverloaded-virtual -fvisibility=hidden -m64  -L/home/ahriman/lib  -o bin/xapian-check bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check.o bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check-brass.o bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check-chert.o bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check-flint.o  libbrasscheck.la libchertcheck.la libflintcheck.la libxapian.la
libtool: link: g++ -fshow-column -Wall -W -Wredundant-decls -Wpointer-arith -Wcast-qual -Wcast-align -Wno-long-long -Wformat-security -fno-gnu-keywords -Wundef -Woverloaded-virtual -fvisibility=hidden -m64 -o bin/.libs/xapian-check bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check.o bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check-brass.o bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check-chert.o bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check-flint.o  -L/home/ahriman/lib ./.libs/libbrasscheck.a ./.libs/libchertcheck.a ./.libs/libflintcheck.a ./.libs/libxapian.so /home/ahriman/lib/libuuid.so -lz -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/home/ahriman/lib
bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check.o(.text+0x56f): In function `main':
: undefined reference to `Xapian::Flint::open(std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)'
bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check.o(.text+0x57b): In function `main':
: undefined reference to `Xapian::Database::get_lastdocid() const'
bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check.o(.text+0x602): In function `main':
: undefined reference to `Xapian::Database::~Database()'
bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check.o(.text+0x61e): In function `main':
: undefined reference to `Xapian::Database::~Database()'
bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check.o(.text+0x666): In function `main':
: undefined reference to `Xapian::Error::get_description() const'
bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check.o(.text+0x887): In function `main':
: undefined reference to `file_exists(std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)'
bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check.o(.text+0xaa3): In function `main':
: undefined reference to `Xapian::Chert::open(std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)'
bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check.o(.text+0xaaf): In function `main':
: undefined reference to `Xapian::Database::get_lastdocid() const'
bin/bin_xapian_check-xapian-check.o(.text+0xb27): In function `main':
: undefined reference to `Xapian::Database::~Database()'
...
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [bin/xapian-check] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/ahriman/src/xapian/xapian-core-1.2.21'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/ahriman/src/xapian/xapian-core-1.2.21'
make: *** [all] Error 2

Disabling backends doesn't help either... This is a summary of my environment:

• zlib 1.2.8
• libuuid 1.0.0
• autoconf 2.69
• automake 1.15
• libtool 2.4.6
• gcc 3.4.6

Please any ideas on what could I do?

Thank you!

[Felix]

I've noticed that the latest version that compiles well here is 1.2.10. All versions after this one end with an error while building.

[Olly Betts]

I suspect it's probably the ancient GCC - we don't regularly test with anything that old. As INSTALL says:

If you're using GCC, we currently recommend GCC 4.1 or newer (this is the oldest version we regularly test with).

The minimum required GCC version is 3.1

That said, if there's a way to get it to build with 3.4, I'd be happy to allow that.

Nothing immediately jumps out from the changes between 1.2.10 and 1.2.11.

Can you attach config.log?

[Olly Betts]

No submitter response in ~3 months, so closing this ticket as "incomplete".

If you still want us to investigate, please attach config.log as requested, and we'll happily reopen the ticket.