Problem

I was compiling code from someone using a Makefile. It gave this error:

/usr/bin/ld: main.o: undefined reference to symbol '_ZN5boost6system15system_categoryEv'

Solution

If you demangle the C++ symbol _ZN5boost6system15system_categoryEv using C++Filt you get the function boost::system::system_category(). So, the code was using this function, but was missing the library file. Adding the linker directive -lboost_system to include the library, fixed the error.

Tried with: Ubuntu 14.04