Build of retdec-config fails with "undefined reference to Json::Value"

[rchatsiri]

I compile the Retdec source code. Error from compiling was showed an error as below.

[ 32%] Linking CXX executable retdec-config
../retdec-config/libretdec-config.a(architecture.cpp.o): In function `retdec_config::Architecture::getJsonValue() const':
architecture.cpp:(.text+0x4cd): undefined reference to `Json::Value::Value(std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)'
architecture.cpp:(.text+0x4da): undefined reference to `Json::Value::operator[](std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)'
architecture.cpp:(.text+0x521): undefined reference to `Json::Value::operator[](std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)'
architecture.cpp:(.text+0x5ce): undefined reference to `Json::Value::Value(std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)'
architecture.cpp:(.text+0x5db): undefined reference to `Json::Value::operator[](std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)'
architecture.cpp:(.text+0x616): undefined reference to `Json::Value::Value(std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)'
architecture.cpp:(.text+0x623): undefined reference to `Json::Value::operator[](std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)'

I check command line generate an error result again with $make VERBOSE=1. Error present as below.

cd /retdec/build/deps/fileformat/deps/retdec-config/src/retdec-configtool && cmake -E cmake_link_script CMakeFiles/retdec-configtool.dir/link.txt --verbose=1
/usr/local/bin/c++  -O3 -DNDEBUG   CMakeFiles/retdec-configtool.dir/retdec-configtool.cpp.o  -o retdec-config -Wl,-rpath,:::::::::::::: ../retdec-config/libretdec-config.a ../../../../../capstone2llvmir/deps/tl-cpputils/src/tl-cpputils/libtl-cpputils.a ../../../../../fnc-patterns/deps/fileformat/deps/retdec-config/deps/jsoncpp/jsoncpp-project-prefix/src/jsoncpp-project-build/src/lib_json/libjsoncpp.a /usr/local/lib64/libjsoncpp.a 
../retdec-config/libretdec-config.a(architecture.cpp.o): In function `retdec_config::Architecture::getJsonValue() const':
architecture.cpp:(.text+0x4cd): undefined reference to `Json::Value::Value(std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)'

Cross check library path of Jsoncpp library install in /usr/local/lib64/ completed.

[s3rvac]

Hi. Can you please provide the following details so we can investigate this further?

• What Linux distribution and version do you use?
• What CMake version do you use?
• What was the cmake command that you used before make?
• What compiler and version did you use for build?
• From what you have written, I assume that you have jsoncpp installed in your system. Correct?

[rchatsiri]

• Source code build on Linux-AWS-AMI
• Cmake version 3.10.1
• Yes, I was run Cmake before use a Make command line.
• GCC version 5.3.0
• That path to install the Jsoncpp files are /usr/local/lib64/. Path file contain library such as libjsoncpp.so.1.8.3 , libjsoncpp.so, libjsoncpp.so.a. Library and include files of the Jsoncpp compiled from source code.

[rchatsiri]

I think should close that issues because found the way to built step completed. The root cause $make -j4 command line instead of $make as manual suggested.

[s3rvac]

There is no need to close as make -j4 is valid. From the output that you provided, it seems that jsoncpp is linked twice on your system when building retdec-config:

/usr/local/bin/c++ [..] retdec-configtool.cpp.o [..]
    jsoncpp/jsoncpp-project-prefix/[..]/lib_json/libjsoncpp.a /usr/local/lib64/libjsoncpp.a

First, there is our version, and then the system version, which should not be linked. What is strange is that I also have jsoncpp installed in my system, but it links fine (i.e. just once, our version).

We will investigate this.

[pro-spero]

I also run into these undefined references using on my Linux boxes.
One runs redhat, the other funtoo.
The build compilers are gcc 7.2. cmake is at version 3.10 (also tried with 3.9.3).
Build was attempted with simple 'make' after 'cmake' as well as 'cmake --build .'

[s3rvac]

@pro-spero Thank you for the confirmation. May I ask if you have JsonCpp installed in your system on these boxes? I am trying to reproduce this issue, but no success so far.

[pro-spero]

On the redhat machine the libraries are installed, but the headers are not present.
The funtoo machine has both headers and the binaries.

[pro-spero]

Piping the build outputs to a log file and checking the details I found that the dependent projects do not all use the same compiler (7.2) as the top level one, e.g., llvm itself selected the system compiler on redhat, which is 4.8.5. Such mixing will not work. I will attempt to get a more consistent use of compilers.

[s3rvac]

That's a good point. We will need to properly propagate the compiler selected in the top-level project to all the external projects (e.g. jsoncpp).

[pro-spero]

It is not sufficient to have the compiler in the path to be picked up, but setting the CC and CXX variables before calling the top level cmake for configuration apparently allows to avoid the problem of undefined references.

[s3rvac]

I have improved the build of retdec-config and jsoncpp so that they both use the same compiler. Could you please try to build the current master branch of the retdec repository (without any need to set the CC or CXX variables) to verify whether this fixed the build for you?

[pro-spero]

I can confirm that I can now build successfully without special settings to the environment. I successfully compiled the master branch at revision 74ae5a5.

[s3rvac]

Perfect, thank you for the confirmation! I am closing the issue, but if anyone still has these jsoncpp-related problems, let us know.