Boost Serialization : Linker errors in XCode 5 project, generated from CMake (w/ minimal complete example)

Question

In our main project, the build management is deferred to CMake. Everything was going fine for our different dependencies, including Boost::System, but we cannot get it to compile this minimal example for Boost::Serialization.

CMake file

# Untested with previous versions, yet should work
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.11)

project(SerialCmake)

# Boost dependency
set(BOOST_ROOT CACHE PATH "Path to Boost library")
find_package(Boost 1.55 COMPONENTS serialization system)

# Create the target
add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} main.cpp)

include_directories(${Boost_INCLUDE_DIR})

target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME}
    ${Boost_LIBRARIES})

CPP main file

#include <fstream>
#include <boost/archive/text_oarchive.hpp>

class Serializable
{
    friend class boost::serialization::access;

public:
    Serializable(int a): a(a)
    {}

private:
    template <class Archive>
    inline void serialize (Archive &ar, const unsigned int version)
    {
        ar & a;
    }

    int a;
};

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    Serializable s1(1);

    // Save
    {
        std::ofstream ofs(argv[1]);
        boost::archive::text_oarchive oa(ofs);
        oa << s1;
    }
    return 0;
}

Some more info

Our versions :

• XCode 5.0.2
• CMake 2.8-12
• Boost 1.55
• OSX 10.8

EDIT:

The two Boost libraries listed in the CMake are actually found (They are listed on CMake output as such).

Boost has been built first time with default parameters and a second time following the instructions in this post. The errors are the same with the two builds. (Actually, I think both builds are alright, since using the libraries in a non CMake project, by adding them to XCode as described in the same post, does work.)

The problem

We are getting several (undefined symbols) linker errors :

Undefined symbols for architecture x86_64:
"boost::archive::text_oarchive_impl::save(std::string const&)", referenced from: void boost::archive::save_access::save_primitive(boost::archive::text_oarchive&, std::string const&) in main.o
"boost::archive::text_oarchive_impl::text_oarchive_impl(std::ostream&, unsigned int)", referenced from: boost::archive::text_oarchive::text_oarchive(std::ostream&, unsigned int) in main.o
"boost::archive::basic_text_oprimitive::~basic_text_oprimitive()", referenced from: boost::archive::text_oarchive_impl::~text_oarchive_impl() in main.o ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture x86_64

Any direction ? (As you can see, we are asking to link the application against both Boost::Serialization and Boost::System).

Answer 1

You need to check that all libraries is actually found by find_package command. Easiest way to do it is to add REQUIRED sub-option:

find_package(Boost 1.55 REQUIRED system serialization)

Works fine for me. Xcode 5.0.2, Boost 1.55, CMake 2.8.12.1, OS X 10.9. I'm using custom boost build (not system) with static libraries.

PS

IMHO there is no need to clear BOOST_ROOT variable:

set(BOOST_ROOT CACHE PATH "Path to Boost library")

If boost is already found (by other parent project) you will do find-work twice, if project use custom boost location, you will rewrite it.

Answer 2

For what its worth, I had a similar problem after adding back in serialization to one of my targets, and it was just that cmake wasn't picking up the change in CMakeLists.txt so had to remove the cache:

I merely added the "serialization" to:

FIND_PACKAGE(Boost REQUIRED COMPONENTS system filesystem date_time serialization)

and had this error:

  The following Boost libraries could not be found:

      boost_serialization

so solved with:

rm CMakeCache.txt
cmake ./