Error building Quantlib involving Boost (Ubuntu) - boost

Question

I am attempting to build QuantLib 1.9 on my machine (Xubuntu 16.04), and I got Boost via "sudo apt-get...."
QuantLib compiles fine until the following sequence of events:
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/Downloads/packages/QuantLib-1.9/test-suite'
There are two calls to libtool, the first looks like this:
/bin/bash ../libtool --tag=CXX --mode=link g++ -g -O2 -o quantlib-test-suite
Followed by nearly 100 *.o files, and terminated by this string:
libUnitMain.la ../ql/libQuantLib.la -lboost_unit_test_framework
There is a second call to libtool after that one:
libtool: link: g++ -g -O2 -o .libs/quantlib-test-suite
Also followed by 100 *.o files, and terminated by this string:
./.libs/libUnitMain.a ../ql/.libs/libQuantLib.so -lboost_unit_test_framework
Here is where the error crops up, and the build then fails:
quantlibtestsuite.o: In function `make_test_case':
/usr/include/boost/test/unit_test_suite_impl.hpp:255: undefined reference to boost::unit_test::ut_detail::normalize_test_case_name(boost::unit_test::basic_cstring<char const>)'
/usr/include/boost/test/unit_test_suite_impl.hpp:255: undefined reference to `boost::unit_test::ut_detail::normalize_test_case_name(boost::unit_test::basic_cstring<char const>)'
americanoption.o: In function `make_test_case':
/usr/include/boost/test/unit_test_suite_impl.hpp:255: undefined reference to `boost::unit_test::ut_detail::normalize_test_case_name(boost::unit_test::basic_cstring<char const>)'
/usr/include/boost/test/unit_test_suite_impl.hpp:255: undefined reference to `boost::unit_test::ut_detail::normalize_test_case_name(boost::unit_test::basic_cstring<char const>)'
americanoption.o: In function `boost::unit_test::make_test_case(boost::unit_test::callback0<boost::unit_test::ut_detail::unused> const&, boost::unit_test::basic_cstring<char const>)':
/usr/include/boost/test/unit_test_suite_impl.hpp:255: undefined reference to `boost::unit_test::ut_detail::normalize_test_case_name(boost::unit_test::basic_cstring<char const>)'
amortizingbond.o:/usr/include/boost/test/unit_test_suite_impl.hpp:255: more undefined references to `boost::unit_test::ut_detail::normalize_test_case_name(boost::unit_test::basic_cstring<char const>)' follow
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
Makefile:1075: recipe for target 'quantlib-test-suite' failed
make[1]: *** [quantlib-test-suite] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/Downloads/packages/QuantLib-1.9/test-suite'
Makefile:601: recipe for target 'all-recursive' failed
make: *** [all-recursive] Error 1

Answer 1

It's possible that you're compiling with a version of Boost and you're trying to link with another (you're saying that you got Boost via apt-get, which installs into /usr, but then you pass to ./configure a path in your home directory). This would explain why the linker is looking for a method in boost::unit_test::ut_detail that's not in the library.
If you want to use the version of Boost that came with apt-get, removing the boost paths from the call to ./configure should make it work. If you want to use the one you have installed locally, you should first check that you actually have the compiled libraries in /home/EmilioW/Downloads/boost_1_62_0/libs. If they are in fact there, and if you don't need Boost for something else, you can use apt-get to uninstall the packaged version. If you need both installed, you'll have to check the order in which the compiler and linker list the -I and -L paths and ensure that the ones you want come first...