Question

I just seem to hit one error after another when dealing with larger projects in Xcode. This time, GCC is complaining of a duplicate definition for a struct-printing function – one where it is actually defined (in a different file), and one where it is used (in the driver).

The specific error I’m getting is this:

ld: duplicate symbol _fprintConfiguration in
/.../bits.build/Objects-normal/x86_64/Block.o and
/.../bits.build/Objects-normal/x86_64/bits.o

where Block.o contains the definition and bits.o contains the driver.

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I’ve done some research on this already, but it seems that every problem exists with people actually defining it twice by virtue of #include, but in all my files I only use #import. Isn’t the #import directive supposed to ‘intelligently’ include files? Are there any other reasons I could be getting this error? Are there any other solutions I can try?

Thanks for your help 🙂

Answer 1

The problem is that you’re including the same definition in multiple translation units (both Block.o and bits.o). To fix this, declare the function inline or move the definition to a (single) source (non-header) file.

This is orthogonal to the question of #include vs. #import. That’s about including the same code multiple times in the same translation unit.