>Submitter-Id: net >Originator: Edward Welbourne >Organization: >Confidential: no >Synopsis: Linker error message is a triumph of misdirection >Severity: non-critical >Priority: low >Category: c++ >Class: sw-bug >Release: 3.3.4 (Debian 1:3.3.4-6sarge1) (Debian testing/unstable) >Environment: System: Linux whorl 2.4.26-1-686-smp #1 SMP Sat May 1 19:17:11 EST 2004 i686 GNU/Linux Architecture: i686 host: i486-pc-linux-gnu build: i486-pc-linux-gnu target: i486-pc-linux-gnu configured with: ../src/configure -v --enable-languages=c,c++,java,f77,pascal,objc,ada,treelang --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/3.3 --enable-shared --with-system-zlib --enable-nls --without-included-gettext --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-debug --enable-java-gc=boehm --enable-java-awt=xlib --enable-objc-gc i486-linux >Description: Feed the compiler the following erroneous code:
class Base { public: virtual void Method(void) /* = 0 */; }; // missing text class Derived : public Base { public: virtual void Method(void) {} }; int main(void) { Derived thing; Base *ptr = &thing; ptr->Method(); return 0; } You will get an error message which makes no mention of the actual problem (no definition of virtual function in base class, nor does the base class overtly = 0 it): g++ -Wall virtual.cpp -o virtual /usr/local/home/eddy/.sys/tmp/ccAtrV2C.o(.gnu.linkonce.t._ZN4BaseC2Ev+0x8): In function `Base::Base[not-in-charge]()': : undefined reference to `vtable for Base' /usr/local/home/eddy/.sys/tmp/ccAtrV2C.o(.gnu.linkonce.r._ZTI7Derived+0x8): undefined reference to `typeinfo for Base' collect2: ld returned 1 exit status Also present in 3.4.1: g++-3.4 -Wall virtual.cpp -o virtual /usr/local/home/eddy/.sys/tmp/ccNDFkO3.o(.gnu.linkonce.t._ZN4BaseC2Ev+0x8): In function `Base::Base()': : undefined reference to `vtable for Base' /usr/local/home/eddy/.sys/tmp/ccNDFkO3.o(.gnu.linkonce.r._ZTI7Derived+0x8): undefined reference to `typeinfo for Base' collect2: ld returned 1 exit status The complaint directs me to the constructor; I have seen it attribute this to a line in a header file from a third-party library. I have seen this (on larger and more complex code) without the message about typeinfo for Base being absent; only the vtable's absence was reported. >How-To-Repeat: When reporting a compiler error, preprocessor output must be included - OK, here it is: g++ -E virtual.cpp # 1 "virtual.cpp" # 1 "<built-in>" # 1 "<command line>" # 1 "virtual.cpp" class Base { public: virtual void Method(void) ; }; class Derived : public Base { public: virtual void Method(void) {} }; int main(void) { Derived thing; Base *ptr = &thing; ptr->Method(); return 0; } >Fix: