Frequently asked questions
I can't build with GCC on Mac OSX
On newer versions of Mac the latest versions of Clang use the
libc++ implementation of the C++ standard library, whereas
GCC uses libstdc++, which does not have as much newer C++11
feature support. There is an ABI incompatability between the two,
so on Mac something compiled with Clang can't be linked with something
compiled with GCC, because they use two differing implementations
of the C++ standard library. (On Linux both compilers use libc++ so this
isn't as much of an issue).
Consequently, if on your Mac you install some standard libraries, such as e.g. Boost, which might contain non-header-only (e.g. program options), then on Mac then brew will likely default to Clang. This can start to lead down a rabit hole of trying to compile everything with differing compilers and standard library versions.
Currently, the authors, who develop this on a Mac, haven't found a nice solution for this. Consequently, on Mac, we recommend using the Clang compiler suite as it has better native support.
Created: September 9, 2023