Strange MFC / VC++ Linker Error (std::list already defined)

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I've got a really odd error message that only occurs when I add the following line to my project:

std::list<crect> myVar;
It's worth noting that it doesn't have to be a std::list, it can be std::vector or any other STL container I assume.

Here is the error message:

Error 1 error LNK2005: "public: __thiscall std::list

::list >(void)" (??0?$list@VCRect@@V?$allocator@VCRect@@@std@@@std@@QAE@XZ) already defined in SomeLowLevelLibrary.lib

The low level library that's referenced in the error message has no idea about the project I am building, it only has core low level functionality and doesn't deal with high level MFC GUIs.

I can get the linker error to go away if I change the line of code to:

std::list<crect*> myVar;
But I don't want to hack it for the sake of it.

Also, it doesn't matter if I create the variable on the stack or the heap, I still get the same error.

Does anyone have any ideas whatsoever about this? I'm using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1 on Vista Enterprise.

Edit: The linker error above is for the std::list<> constructor, I also get an error for the destructor, _Nextnode and clear functions.

Edit: In other files in the project, std::vector won't link, in other files it might be std::list. I can't work out why some containers work, and some don't. MFC linkage is static across both libraries. In the low level library we have 1 class that inherits from std::list.

Edit: The low level library doesn't have any classes that inherit from CRect, but it does make use of STL.

Posted 9-Mar-11 21:57pm

santosh dhanawade

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Answer 1 · 2011-03-09T23:03:00

This is funny. What you say is "hack" is the only write thing to do. You see, std::list in not a type. This is template type, it needs to be instantiated with type parameter(s). You cannot have an instance of std::list, you can have std::list<int>, std::list<std:string>, etc.

C++ compiler/linker messages can be very misleading. You probably use different ones. I have more sensible error message "Error 1 error C2955: 'std::list' : use of class template requires template argument list". This is quite clear.

You need to read about C++ templates in order to use STL library in development.

—SA

Olivier Levrey · Answer 2 · 2011-03-09T23:30:00

Solution 3

I don't use STL much, but as far as I know list is a template class and you must specialize it if you want to use it:

std::list<YourTypeHere> myVar;

Posted 9-Mar-11 23:30pm

Olivier Levrey

Ryan Zahra · Answer 3 · 2011-03-09T22:25:00

Solution 1

Probably you have the

#include <list>

defined in multiple header file. Make sure to include it only once.

Posted 9-Mar-11 22:25pm

Ryan Zahra

Comments

[no name] 10-Mar-11 4:27am

But obeous
i included this.

Ryan Zahra 10-Mar-11 4:28am

Yes you need to include it. But you need to include it only once in the whole project!

[no name] 10-Mar-11 4:31am

i included it in stdafx.h
only there is no repetation of this in whole code

Ryan Zahra 10-Mar-11 4:44am

Did you include #pragma once in stdafx.h?

[no name] 10-Mar-11 4:55am

yes i am included this also
at top of stdafx