g++ undefined reference to typeinfo

This occurs when declared (non-pure) virtual functions are missing bodies. In your class definition, something like:

virtual void foo();

Should be defined (inline or in a linked source file):

virtual void foo() {}

Or declared pure virtual:

virtual void foo() = 0;

One possible reason is because you are declaring a virtual function without defining it.

When you declare it without defining it in the same compilation unit, you're indicating that it's defined somewhere else - this means the linker phase will try to find it in one of the other compilation units (or libraries).

An example of defining the virtual function is:

virtual void fn() { /* insert code here */ }

In this case, you are attaching a definition to the declaration, which means the linker doesn't need to resolve it later.

The line

virtual void fn();

declares fn() without defining it and will cause the error message you asked about.

It's very similar to the code:

extern int i;
int *pi = &i;

which states that the integer i is declared in another compilation unit which must be resolved at link time (otherwise pi can't be set to it's address).

This can also happen when you mix -fno-rtti and -frtti code. Then you need to ensure that any class, which type_info is accessed in the -frtti code, have their key method compiled with -frtti. Such access can happen when you create an object of the class, use dynamic_cast etc.

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