Cannot compile any C++ programs; error: unknown type name 'uint8_t'

Question

EDIT2: The problem was NOT a simple typographical error. I made a typo in the logs below, which I corrected, but the problem was still there.

EDIT: I mistakenly ran with gcc instead of g++, once, after attempting below. The problem was there before with g++ and it is there now.

I am currently on a MacOS High Sierra box. I recently moved a lot of files from a MacBook Air to this machine, including what I assume were all of Xcode's junk. Now, when I try to compile a very simple C++ program:

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    // VAR_DEC
    int a = 4;
    // VAR_MANIP
    a = a*2;
    // VAR_PRINT
    std::cout << a << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

I get the following ridiculous error:

jrfarah@Josephs-MBP: [config_file_script] $ g++ test.cpp -o test
In file included from test.cpp:1:
In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/include/c++/v1/iostream:38:
In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/include/c++/v1/ios:216:
In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/include/c++/v1/__locale:15:
In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/include/c++/v1/string:470:
In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/include/c++/v1/string_view:171:
In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/include/c++/v1/__string:56:
In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/include/c++/v1/algorithm:640:
In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/include/c++/v1/memory:629:
In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/include/c++/v1/typeinfo:61:
In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/include/c++/v1/exception:82:
In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/include/c++/v1/cstdlib:86:
In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/include/c++/v1/stdlib.h:94:
In file included from /usr/include/stdlib.h:65:
In file included from /usr/include/sys/wait.h:110:
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:196:2: error: unknown type name 'uint8_t'
        uint8_t  ri_uuid[16];
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:197:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_user_time;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:198:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_system_time;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:199:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_pkg_idle_wkups;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:200:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_interrupt_wkups;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:201:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_pageins;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:202:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_wired_size;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:203:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_resident_size;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:204:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_phys_footprint;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:205:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_proc_start_abstime;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:206:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_proc_exit_abstime;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:210:2: error: unknown type name 'uint8_t'
        uint8_t  ri_uuid[16];
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:211:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_user_time;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:212:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_system_time;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:213:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_pkg_idle_wkups;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:214:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_interrupt_wkups;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:215:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_pageins;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:216:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_wired_size;
        ^
/usr/include/sys/resource.h:217:2: error: unknown type name 'uint64_t'
        uint64_t ri_resident_size;
        ^
fatal error: too many errors emitted, stopping now [-ferror-limit=]
20 errors generated.

I've tried installing and reinstalling everything I could think of related to the problem, such as gcc, g++, cc, brew, Xcode, command-line-tools, etc. I've also tried all the suggestions on the following pages:

and more, but those summarize it pretty well. None of the solutions have worked.

I think the last one has the most likely solution. (If you search for "unknown" on the page you'll see the fix.) According to the developer:

Fix: Remove /opt/local/include/** and /opt/local/lib/** from the "Header Search Paths" build settings. Replace them with much more specific paths to the desired include directories. In my particular case, this meant replacing them with /opt/local/include/glib-2.0 /opt/local/lib/glib-2.0/include /opt/local/include/. It's up and running again!

However, I didn't install Xcode, I only installed the command line developer tools. Therefore, I don't have an easy way to access the "Header Search Paths" build settings, and thus, I can't try out his solution.

I am looking for a solution to this problem, preferably one that doesn't require me installing the entire OS. Alternatively, if someone could kindly guide me through finding the build settings file, I would be very grateful.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/162198/discussion-on-question-by-joseph-farah-cannot-compile-any-c-programs-error-u). — Bhargav Rao, Dec 30 '17 at 00:16

Chengcheng Zhang · Answer 1 · 2018-07-18T01:56:16.083

18

Maybe you can try:

mv /usr/local/include /usr/local/include.old

then:

brew install llvm

edited Jul 18 '18 at 01:56

answered Mar 20 '18 at 08:00

Chengcheng Zhang

474
5
9

2

This solution worked for me. The issue occurred after a migration from another laptop, and reinstalling xcode/devtools did not work, nor did any other suggested solution. While this is not the accepted answer, it is much simpler. I would recommend that you mv /usr/local/include ~/include.old rather than rm. – Lorenzo Mar 28 '18 at 00:36

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 01 '18 at 00:50

4

It's fairly obvious that you borked your system GCC installation. Please note that GCC is a suite of compilers and that G++ is the C++ front-end. Package managers often have a separate package called gcc-g++, however, when compiling from source, you simply do --enable-languages=c,c++. Now if reinstalling XCode doesn't resolve the problem (you should've already done this, if "it takes up too much space" just remove it), then you can try compiling GCC from source. Adapted from the GNU wiki:

First, grab your desired GCC tar ball from here
Untar it with tar zxvf gcc*
cd gcc* then ./contrib/download_prerequisites
Do an out of source build: mkdir build && cd build
../gcc*/configure --prefix=$HOME/gcc-install --enable-languages=c,c++
make and make install

Now just add $HOME/gcc-install/bin to your path and you should be good to go.

answered Jan 01 '18 at 00:50

OwO

361
3
7

2

This solved my problem! I'd also like to add that I had to manually remove the command line tools directory *manually* before attempting to this; other than that this worked! Thanks man! Also, I wish I could upvote this twice for pristine usage of the word "borked." – Joseph Farah Jan 01 '18 at 00:54
What worked? You couldn't possibly have compiled GCC that fast. – OwO Jan 01 '18 at 00:57
These were generally the steps I used to solve my problem--compiling GCC from source and adding it to my path. I've been having some small issues--which is why I didn't post something similar as an answer--but I've narrowed the problem down to a previous installation of ROOT, and I've been working on fixing that for the last few hours. Sorry for any confusion! – Joseph Farah Jan 01 '18 at 00:59
I'd like to confirm again that your answer worked fully. I recently had to solve a similar problem on a colleague's computer, and following your exact steps solved it. Apparently the manual removal of the `command-line-tools` directory was only required on my machine. Thanks again for the help! – Joseph Farah Jan 24 '18 at 18:48

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 21 '21 at 17:18

I experienced this error during compilation of Perl-5.34.0 from source. An alternative solution that worked for me was setting the SDK environment variable:

export SDK=`xcrun --show-sdk-path`

Sometimes, you may need to set SDKROOT in the same way:

export SDKROOT=`xcrun --show-sdk-path`

Placing it into your ~/.profile file will (conveniently) make this setting permanent.

Cannot compile any C++ programs; error: unknown type name 'uint8_t'

3 Answers3

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