@com_github_grpc_grpc//:envoy_annotations_upb fails with error upb requires C99 or C++11 or MSVC >= 2015.

[basavaraj29]

What version of gRPC and what language are you using?

gRPC version v1.37.0
language python

What operating system (Linux, Windows,...) and version?

Linux. rhel 7.9

What runtime / compiler are you using (e.g. python version or version of gcc)

gcc gcc (GCC) 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-44)

What did you do?

cloned the latest version of grpc/grpc repository and did a bazel build @com_github_grpc_grpc//:envoy_annotations_upb
Also tried building with flags --cxxopt=-std=c++11, still didn't work

What did you expect to see?

that the target passes

What did you see instead?

ERROR: /home/basav/grpc/BUILD:3481:16: C++ compilation of rule '//:google_api_upb' failed (Exit 1): gcc failed: error executing command /usr/bin/gcc -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -fstack-protector -Wall -Wunused-but-set-parameter -Wno-free-nonheap-object -fno-omit-frame-pointer -g0 -O2 '-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=1' -DNDEBUG -ffunction-sections ... (remaining 40 argument(s) skipped)

Use --sandbox_debug to see verbose messages from the sandbox gcc failed: error executing command /usr/bin/gcc -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -fstack-protector -Wall -Wunused-but-set-parameter -Wno-free-nonheap-object -fno-omit-frame-pointer -g0 -O2 '-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=1' -DNDEBUG -ffunction-sections ... (remaining 40 argument(s) skipped)

Use --sandbox_debug to see verbose messages from the sandbox
In file included from external/upb/upb/upb.h:15:0,
                 from external/upb/upb/table.int.h:25,
                 from external/upb/upb/msg.h:15,
                 from src/core/ext/upb-generated/google/api/expr/v1alpha1/syntax.upb.c:10:
external/upb/upb/port_def.inc:27:2: error: #error upb requires C99 or C++11 or MSVC >= 2015.
 #error upb requires C99 or C++11 or MSVC >= 2015.
  ^

Anything else we should know about your project / environment?

NA

[drfloob]

Interesting. GCC 4.8.5 should support C++11 (https://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/gcc-4.8/cxx0x_status.html)
Can you run with bazel build -s --cxxopt='-std=c++11' to ensure that -std='c++11' is actually being passed to gcc?

@veblush maybe you have some extra insight here.

[basavaraj29]

Ran bazel build -s --cxxopt='-std=c++11' @com_github_grpc_grpc//:envoy_annotations_upb, still facing the same issue.

[veblush]

@basavaraj29 It isn't clear to me why upb fails to get proper __STDC_VERSION__ nor __cplusplus. This has been like this for a while, I suspect that this is bazel or rhel specific. Beside this error, gcc 4.8 is now too old to build gRPC so I recommend to use later versions of gcc, which possibly solves this very problem as well). It appears that you can use gcc 7 on RHEL 7 (doc).

[drfloob]

I'm going to close this, since gcc 4.8 isn't supported (see the list of supported compilers and environments here: https://grpc.io/docs/). Please feel free to reopen this if you're still facing the same problem with a newer compiler.

[basavaraj29]

Post upgrading to gcc 8.3.1, I still faced the same issue on rhel. Including the flag --incompatible_linkopts_to_linklibs solved the issue for me. bazelbuild/bazel#9254

And as you guys rightly pointed out, it didn't work with gcc 4.8 despite providing the flag. thank you @veblush, @drfloob