#1421 MinGW 4.4.0: bfd is dependent on missing libintl library

[Dzmitry Liauchuk]

Trying to compile an application that uses bfd library (a part of beanutils) I face that bfd itself is in turn dependent on libintl which is missed. This leads to the following linkage error:

g++ -ostack_trace_win32.exe src\utils.o src\stack_trace_win32.o src\StackTrace.o src\Exception.o -lbfd -liberty -lopcodes
c:/programs/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.4.0/../../../libbfd.a(bfd.o):bfd.c:(.text+0x8fd): undefined reference to `libintl_dgettext'
c:/programs/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.4.0/../../../libbfd.a(bfd.o):bfd.c:(.text+0x964): undefined reference to `libintl_dgettext'
c:/programs/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.4.0/../../../libbfd.a(bfd.o):bfd.c:(.text+0x998): undefined reference to `libintl_dgettext'
c:/programs/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.4.0/../../../libbfd.a(bfd.o):bfd.c:(.text+0x9c6): undefined reference to `libintl_dgettext'
c:/programs/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.4.0/../../../libbfd.a(bfd.o):bfd.c:(.text+0x1115): undefined reference to `libintl_dgettext'
c:/programs/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.4.0/../../../libbfd.a(bfd.o):bfd.c:(.text+0x1157): more undefined references to `libintl_dgettext' follow
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
Build error occurred, build is stopped

Information about GCC:
C:\>gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
Target: mingw32
Configured with: ../gcc-4.4.0/configure --enable-languages=c,ada,c++,fortran,jav
a,objc,obj-c++ --disable-sjlj-exceptions --enable-shared --enable-libgcj --enabl
e-libgomp --with-dwarf2 --disable-win32-registry --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enab
le-version-specific-runtime-libs --prefix=/mingw --with-gmp=/mingw/src/gmp/root
--with-mpfr=/mingw/src/mpfr/root --build=mingw32
Thread model: win32
gcc version 4.4.0 (GCC)

C:\>ld -v
GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.18.50.20080625

[Keith Marshall]

Is it actually missing? Did you install libiconv? (The latter is stated as a mandatory prerequisite for gcc-4.4.0, and it also provides libintl). What does the output show, if you add the -### option to your g++ command line? -lintl is conspicuously absent from your explicit options; it also seems not to be added implicitly, which might be a built-in specs deficiency, or it may just be an omission on your part; (you will need to consult the GCC maintainers upstream, for clarification).

[Dzmitry Liauchuk]

Yes, it is acually missing, because a) there is no file named liblibintl.a b) search within the lib directory within file content by the libintl_dgettext function name returns nothing
libiconv distributed here http://www.mingw.org/wiki/Getting_Started is just a dll without the above mentioned fucntion within. So, this cannot help. I have another, static, version of libiconv and again it does not contain the function.
Neither -lintl nor -llibintl are presented within the command line just because there are no such libraries provided within binutils package for MinGW, so there is no sense to add them - it just will cause "missing library" linkage error.

Compilation with libinconv-2:
g++ -LC:\Projects\AFC\libintl\Debug -LC:\Programs\mingw\bin -shared -olibstack_trace_win32.exe src\utils.o src\stack_trace_win32.o src\StackTrace.o src\Exception.o -llibiconv-2 -lbfd -liberty
c:/programs/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.4.0/../../../libbfd.a(bfd.o):bfd.c:(.text+0x8fd): undefined reference to `libintl_dgettext'
c:/programs/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.4.0/../../../libbfd.a(bfd.o):bfd.c:(.text+0x964): undefined reference to `libintl_dgettext'
c:/programs/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.4.0/../../../libbfd.a(bfd.o):bfd.c:(.text+0x998): undefined reference to `libintl_dgettext'
c:/programs/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.4.0/../../../libbfd.a(bfd.o):bfd.c:(.text+0x9c6): undefined reference to `libintl_dgettext'
c:/programs/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.4.0/../../../libbfd.a(bfd.o):bfd.c:(.text+0x1115): undefined reference to `libintl_dgettext'
c:/programs/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.4.0/../../../libbfd.a(bfd.o):bfd.c:(.text+0x1157): more undefined references to `libintl_dgettext' follow
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

If it is ok to have a package inside MinGW which is not self-sufficient having only MinGW packages then of course this is not a bug. It is odd though.

[Keith Marshall]

It isn't a bug. However, you do seem to have discovered an hitherto unidentified dependency: you need to install gettext-0.17-1-mingw32-dev.tar.lzma, and likely also libintl-0.17-1-mingw32-dll-8.tar.lzma, both of which you will find it the MinGW gettext package set on our SF downloads page; (apologies for previously pointing you erroneously to the libiconv packages). After installing these, you will then need to add the `-lintl' selector (`-llibintl' would be very, very wrong!) to your command line.

Thanks for reporting this. This dependency has arisen with a more recent release of GNU binutils than was available when the Getting Started page was written. At the very least, we should update the page to reflect the change; we should also include the dependency within mingw-get's distribution manifest, for affected versions of the binutils package.

[Dzmitry Liauchuk]

Ok then. The only issue as for now is that https://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files does not provide any possibility to download these libraries. Or are they placed somewhere else?

[Keith Marshall]

Look again. They are precisely where I've already told you to look, on precisely that site where you claim they are not, (and for the record, I downloaded them myself, from there, just this morning).

[Dzmitry Liauchuk]

Yes indeed. I have found them. It was not an easy task, but these libs are actually there.

[Keith Marshall]

Earnie,

I set it as "remind" because I'm not yet sure if we'll need to add a dependency on libintl, for current binutils, in mingw-get's XML package description. I'd prefer to keep this open until we resolve that, one way or the other.

[Earnie Boyd]

Ping, Keith is this still an issue?