error while loading shared libraries: libboost_system.so.1.45.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Question

I am building a C++ executable on Linux. The executable links into some boost libraries.

This is the output when I attempt to run the binary:

root@yourbox:~/work/dev/c++/projects/testfgci/dist/Debug/GNU-Linux-x86$ ./testfgci 
./testfgci: error while loading shared libraries: libboost_system.so.1.45.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I then run ldd on the binary to check dependencies:

root@yourbox:~/work/dev/c++/projects/testfgci/dist/Debug/GNU-Linux-x86$ ldd testfgci 
    linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0x00380000)
    libboost_system.so.1.45.0 => not found
    libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00b50000)
    libm.so.6 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libm.so.6 (0x005f6000)
    libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x0099a000)
    libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6 (0x001b3000)
    libpthread.so.0 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libpthread.so.0 (0x00110000)
    /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x00ea2000)

I am not sure why the liboos_system.sl.1.45.0 SO is not found. I built it successfully a little earlier on today. Can anyone explain?

Answer 1

The library cannot be found.

Libraries are by default looked for in /lib, /usr/lib and the directories specified by /etc/ld.so.conf.

Usually system libraries (like boost, if you installed it via your package manager) are located in /usr/lib, but it's probably not your case.

Where are your boost libraries located on your system? Did you compile them by yourself? In this case you should tell the dynamic linker to look for your libraries in the directory they're located by using the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH="your/boost/directory" ./testfgci

I'd suggest you to install boost libraries using your package manager, anyway, this will make your life a lot simpler.

Answer 2

I know that this is an old one, but you can run ldconfig to rebuild your ld cache. That way you don't need to update LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

Answer 3

I just wanted to add a note for users of Ubuntu (and Debian, I guess): these systems have a security "feature" that erases LD_LIBRARY_PATH. This doesn't work:

In either /etc/environemnt or ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/boost_1_54_0/stage/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

It will work for ~/.bashrc, but the path will be set just for this particular interactive shell. This means that if you invoke make from e.g. emacs or eclipse, it won't work, unless you've launched emacs from the shell and not from the launcher.

This is what worked for me:

echo -e "\n/usr/local/boost_1_54_0/stage/lib" | sudo tee -a /etc/ld.so.conf 
sudo ldconfig