Missing include "bits/c++config.h" when cross compiling 64 bit program on 32 bit in Ubuntu

I am running the 32bit version of Ubuntu 10.10 and trying to cross compile to a 64 bit target. Based on my research, I have installed the g++-multilib package.

The program is a very simple hello world:

#include <iostream>

int main( int argc, char** argv )
{
  std::cout << "hello world" << std::endl;
  return 0;
}

Compile:

g++ -m64 main.cpp

Error:

In file included from main.cpp:1:
/usr/include/c++/4.4/iostream:39: fatal error: bits/c++config.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.

I have found a c++config.h file but they reside under the i486-linux-gnu and i686-linux-gnu directories in /usr/include/c++/4.4/ There is not c++config.h in /usr/include/c++/bits.

Any ideas on what I am missing? Compiling without the -m64 flag works fine (a.out is created and runs correctly).

Edit Thanks to the hint from @nightcracker, I did a little more investigation into the include structure on the 32 and 64 bit systems. I have added an answer below that "fixes" the problem temporarily but I think it will break on the next update. Basically, I am missing a directory called /usr/include/c++/4.4/i686-linux-gnu/64 that should contain a subdirectory called bits that has the missing include file. Any idea what package should be taking care of this?

Adding this answer partially because it fixed my problem of the same issue and so I can bookmark this question myself.

I was able to fix it by doing the following:

sudo apt-get install gcc-multilib g++-multilib

If you've installed a version of gcc / g++ that doesn't ship by default (such as g++-4.8 on lucid) you'll want to match the version as well:

sudo apt-get install gcc-4.8-multilib g++-4.8-multilib

Did you try adding -I/usr/include/c++/4.4/i486-linux-gnu or -I/usr/include/c++/4.4/i686-linux-gnu?

While compiling in RHEL 6.2 (x86_64), I installed both 32bit and 64bit libstdc++-dev packages, but I had the "c++config.h no such file or directory" problem.

Resolution:

The directory /usr/include/c++/4.4.6/x86_64-redhat-linux was missing.

I did the following:

cd /usr/include/c++/4.4.6/
mkdir x86_64-redhat-linux
cd x86_64-redhat-linux
ln -s ../i686-redhat-linux 32

I'm now able to compile 32bit binaries on a 64bit OS.

Seems to be a typo error in that package of gcc. The solution:

mv /usr/include/c++/4.x/i486-linux-gnu /usr/include/c++/4.x/i686-linux-gnu/64

Basically It is used in HeapOverflows or other reversing type Problems i.e. If you want to change a 64 bit ELF to 32 bit ELF and it is showing error while converting.

You can simply run the commands

apt-get install gcc-multilib g++-multilib

which will update your libraries Packages upgraded:

>The following additional packages will be installed: g++-8-multilib gcc-8-multilib lib32asan5 lib32atomic1 lib32gcc-8-dev lib32gomp1 lib32itm1 lib32mpx2 lib32quadmath0 lib32stdc++-8-dev lib32ubsan1 libc-dev-bin libc6 libc6-dbg libc6-dev libc6-dev-i386 libc6-dev-x32 libc6-i386 libc6-x32 libx32asan5 libx32atomic1 libx32gcc-8-dev libx32gcc1 libx32gomp1 libx32itm1 libx32quadmath0 libx32stdc++-8-dev libx32stdc++6 libx32ubsan1 Suggested packages: lib32stdc++6-8-dbg libx32stdc++6-8-dbg glibc-doc The following NEW packages will be installed: g++-8-multilib g++-multilib gcc-8-multilib gcc-multilib lib32asan5 lib32atomic1 lib32gcc-8-dev lib32gomp1 lib32itm1 lib32mpx2 lib32quadmath0 lib32stdc++-8-dev lib32ubsan1 libc6-dev-i386 libc6-dev-x32 libc6-x32 libx32asan5 libx32atomic1 libx32gcc-8-dev libx32gcc1 libx32gomp1 libx32itm1 libx32quadmath0 libx32stdc++-8-dev libx32stdc++6 libx32ubsan1

similar to this will be shown to your terminal

On my 64 bit system I noticed that the following directory existed:

/usr/include/c++/4.4/x86_64-linux-gnu/32/bits

It would then make sense that on my 32 bit system that had been setup for 64bit cross compiling there should be a corresponding directory like:

/usr/include/c++/4.4/i686-linux-gnu/64/bits

I double checked and this directory did not exist. Running g++ with the verbose parameter showed that the compiler was actually looking for something in this location:

jesse@shalored:~/projects/test$ g++ -v -m64 main.cpp 
Using built-in specs.
Target: i686-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu/Linaro 4.4.4-14ubuntu5' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.4/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr --program-suffix=-4.4 --enable-shared --enable-multiarch --enable-linker-build-id --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.4 --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-objc-gc --enable-targets=all --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-tune=generic --enable-checking=release --build=i686-linux-gnu --host=i686-linux-gnu --target=i686-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.4.5 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.4.4-14ubuntu5) 
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-v' '-m64' '-shared-libgcc' '-mtune=generic'
 /usr/lib/gcc/i686-linux-gnu/4.4.5/cc1plus -quiet -v -imultilib 64 -D_GNU_SOURCE main.cpp -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -quiet -dumpbase main.cpp -m64 -mtune=generic -auxbase main -version -fstack-protector -o /tmp/ccMvIfFH.s
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/include/c++/4.4/i686-linux-gnu/64"
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/local/include/x86_64-linux-gnu"
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/lib/gcc/i686-linux-gnu/4.4.5/../../../../i686-linux-gnu/include"
#include "..." search starts here:
#include <...> search starts here:
 /usr/include/c++/4.4
 /usr/include/c++/4.4/backward
 /usr/local/include
 /usr/lib/gcc/i686-linux-gnu/4.4.5/include
 /usr/lib/gcc/i686-linux-gnu/4.4.5/include-fixed
 /usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu
 /usr/include
End of search list.
GNU C++ (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.4.4-14ubuntu5) version 4.4.5 (i686-linux-gnu)
	compiled by GNU C version 4.4.5, GMP version 4.3.2, MPFR version 3.0.0-p3.
GGC heuristics: --param ggc-min-expand=98 --param ggc-min-heapsize=128197
Compiler executable checksum: 1fe36891f4a5f71e4a498e712867261c
In file included from main.cpp:1:
/usr/include/c++/4.4/iostream:39: fatal error: bits/c++config.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.

The error regarding the ignoring nonexistent directory was the clue. Unfortunately, I still don't know what package I need to install to have this directory show up so I just copied the /usr/include/c++/4.4/x86_64-linux-gnu/bits directory from my 64 bit machine to /usr/include/c++/4.4/i686-linux-gnu/64/bits on my 32 machine.

Now compiling with just the -m64 works correctly. The major drawback is that this is still not the correct way to do things and I am guessing the next time Update Manager installs and update to g++ things may break.

This bug is fixed in "gcc-4.6".

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gcc-4.5/+bug/793411

From my experience, sudo apt-get install gcc-multilib g++-multilib helps. But my another issue is that I FORGET to clean the directory so I still get the same error. It is the first time to use clang or cmake. So I just delete my original directory and re-compile and it works. Hope it helps someone like me.

In my case, it only has been a path issue. I reduced the path length of my source files and it worked...