Build error with GCC 14.2.0 on MinGW due to implicit declaration of function 'vasprintf'

[tbeu]

Describe the bug

Build error with GCC 14.2.0 on MinGW on line

https://github.com/HDFGroup/hdf5/blob/0fe0459fc24d71be13d5f266513c2832b525671b/src/H5private.h#L881-L887

This is the compiler output:

In file included from C:\Users\runneradmin\.conan\data\hdf5\1.14.5\_\_\build\37b6ace5000ac67136a8ecfe8d28158bec4e4303\src\src\H5Eint.c:31:
C:\Users\runneradmin\.conan\data\hdf5\1.14.5\_\_\build\37b6ace5000ac67136a8ecfe8d28158bec4e4303\src\src\H5Eint.c: In function 'H5E__set_stack_entry':
C:\Users\runneradmin\.conan\data\hdf5\1.14.5\_\_\build\37b6ace5000ac67136a8ecfe8d28158bec4e4303\src\src\H5private.h:883:34: error: implicit declaration of function 'vasprintf'; did you mean 'vsprintf'? [-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
  883 | #define HDvasprintf(RET, FMT, A) vasprintf(RET, FMT, A)
      |                                  ^~~~~~~~~
C:\Users\runneradmin\.conan\data\hdf5\1.14.5\_\_\build\37b6ace5000ac67136a8ecfe8d28158bec4e4303\src\src\H5Eint.c:1591:13: note: in expansion of macro 'HDvasprintf'
 1591 |         if (HDvasprintf(&desc, fmt, *ap) < 0)
      |             ^~~~~~~~~~~
C:\Users\runneradmin\.conan\data\hdf5\1.14.5\_\_\build\37b6ace5000ac67136a8ecfe8d28158bec4e4303\src\src\H5private.h:883:34: warning: nested extern declaration of 'vasprintf' [-Wnested-externs]
  883 | #define HDvasprintf(RET, FMT, A) vasprintf(RET, FMT, A)
      |                                  ^~~~~~~~~
C:\Users\runneradmin\.conan\data\hdf5\1.14.5\_\_\build\37b6ace5000ac67136a8ecfe8d28158bec4e4303\src\src\H5Eint.c:1591:13: note: in expansion of macro 'HDvasprintf'
 1591 |         if (HDvasprintf(&desc, fmt, *ap) < 0)
      |             ^~~~~~~~~~~
mingw32-make[2]: *** [src\CMakeFiles\hdf5-static.dir\build.make:1126: src/CMakeFiles/hdf5-static.dir/H5Eint.c.obj] Error 1
mingw32-make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
mingw32-make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles\Makefile2:266: src/CMakeFiles/hdf5-static.dir/all] Error 2
mingw32-make: *** [Makefile:135: all] Error 2
hdf5/1.14.5: 
hdf5/1.14.5: ERROR: Package '37b6ace5000ac67136a8ecfe8d28158bec4e4303' build failed

Note that GCC 12.2.0 succeed with a warning though:

In file included from C:\Users\runneradmin\.conan\data\hdf5\1.14.5\_\_\build\8ab3a07e0a1cc9bdc28057905d33b5e79ddc844a\src\src\H5Eint.c:31:
C:\Users\runneradmin\.conan\data\hdf5\1.14.5\_\_\build\8ab3a07e0a1cc9bdc28057905d33b5e79ddc844a\src\src\H5Eint.c: In function 'H5E__set_stack_entry':
C:\Users\runneradmin\.conan\data\hdf5\1.14.5\_\_\build\8ab3a07e0a1cc9bdc28057905d33b5e79ddc844a\src\src\H5private.h:883:34: warning: implicit declaration of function 'vasprintf'; did you mean 'vsprintf'? [-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
  883 | #define HDvasprintf(RET, FMT, A) vasprintf(RET, FMT, A)
      |                                  ^~~~~~~~~
C:\Users\runneradmin\.conan\data\hdf5\1.14.5\_\_\build\8ab3a07e0a1cc9bdc28057905d33b5e79ddc844a\src\src\H5private.h:883:34: note: in definition of macro 'HDvasprintf'
  883 | #define HDvasprintf(RET, FMT, A) vasprintf(RET, FMT, A)
      |                                  ^~~~~~~~~
C:\Users\runneradmin\.conan\data\hdf5\1.14.5\_\_\build\8ab3a07e0a1cc9bdc28057905d33b5e79ddc844a\src\src\H5private.h:883:34: warning: nested extern declaration of 'vasprintf' [-Wnested-externs]
  883 | #define HDvasprintf(RET, FMT, A) vasprintf(RET, FMT, A)
      |                                  ^~~~~~~~~
C:\Users\runneradmin\.conan\data\hdf5\1.14.5\_\_\build\8ab3a07e0a1cc9bdc28057905d33b5e79ddc844a\src\src\H5private.h:883:34: note: in definition of macro 'HDvasprintf'
  883 | #define HDvasprintf(RET, FMT, A) vasprintf(RET, FMT, A)
      |                                  ^~~~~~~~~

Note that for both outputs vasprint was detected:

-- Looking for vasprintf
-- Looking for vasprintf - found

The error appeared with the windows-latest workflow change as announced by https://github.com/actions/runner-images/issues/12677.

Expected behavior

Compilation should not fail. The warning/error needs be fixed or at least circumvented.

Platform (please complete the following information)

• HDF5 version: 1.14.5 (0fe0459fc24d71be13d5f266513c2832b525671b)
• OS: Windows Server 2025
• Compiler and version: GCC 14.2.0 MinGW
• Build system: CMake 3.30.x via Conan 1.x

[slayoo]

@tbeu, @jhendersonHDF, we're encountering build failures on Github Actions with the very same error messages. Are there any updates here? Thanks!

[jhendersonHDF]

Hi @slayoo,

We're currently in the middle of finishing up a release, so may not be able to get to this issue for a little bit. Have you tried with the latest HDF5 development branch? We're currently testing MinGW on windows-latest (see https://github.com/HDFGroup/hdf5/blob/develop/.github/workflows/msys2.yml and https://github.com/HDFGroup/hdf5/actions/runs/18652476869/job/53173487439) and it seems that vasprintf is both found and also used with GCC 15.2.0. Maybe there's a difference in the way that we configure HDF5 for testing vs. how others do?

[tbeu]

It seems windows-2022 runner now also comes with GCC 14, hence there is no working CI via GitHub Actions possible with MinGW.

See https://github.com/actions/runner-images/pull/13172

[slayoo]

Thanks for the follow ups. We've ended up with this addition in CMakeLists.txt to workaround it:

if (MINGW)
  # https://github.com/HDFGroup/hdf5/issues/5885
  target_compile_definitions(hdf5-static PRIVATE _GNU_SOURCE)
endif()

[tbeu]

Is it available in v2.0.0?

[tbeu]

Edit: I needed to patch it differently, see https://github.com/tbeu/ModelicaTableAdditions/commit/97d8f0b504b0eb781428df43ac2aed8ab88240c4. Thanks.

[jhendersonHDF]

@tbeu I've put this on our 2.1.x milestone to look at. It should be a fairly simple fix, though I'd like to figure out why our CI isn't running into the issue.