CXX11 ABI incompatibility when using Open3D + ROS + PyTorch/Tensorflow together

[zhoupengwei]

Do you have better suggestions to solve the link error with other libraries？eg. ros undefined reference to `ros::init(int&, char**, std::string const&, unsigned int)'

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Describe the bug
Errors occur when Open3D library is linked together with ros.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
When I want to use the latest version to develop with the ROS system, I encountered a link error

1. catkin build
2. undefined reference to `ros::init(int&, char**, std::string const&, unsigned int)'

Expected behavior
The code should compile and work on major platforms including Windows, macOS and linux.

Environment (please complete the following information):

• Operating system:
  Ubuntu 18.04
• Python version:
  Python 3.8
• Open3D version:
  0.12.0
• Is this remote workstation?:
  no
• How did you install Open3D?:
  build from source
• Compiler version (if built from source):
  gcc 9.3

Additional context
I have successfully used open3d 0.10.0 and ROS to develop laser slam before. Now when I update to the latest version, I encounter some link errors related to the ROS system, such as undefined reference to ros::init(int&, char**, std::string const&, unsigned int). After we search the relevant errors, like 2286. This error can be corrected by setting cmake flag -DGLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=ON. Unfortunately, this will make it impossible to compile open3d_ML modules, because they do not use C + + 11ABI both TensorFlow and PyTorch, as shown in note. cmake -DGLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=ON -DBUILD_TENSORFLOW_OPS=ON will lead to errors simultaneously. Is there any better solution instead of set the cmake flag? I want to use the open3d_ML module at the same time.

[ssheorey]

@benjaminum I see that libtorch has builds available both with and without the CXX11_ABI. Is libtorch sufficient for building Open3D instead of the full PyTorch? Something similar may be possible for Tensorflow, but I don't see a Tensorflow binary release with CXX11 ABI.

[ssheorey]

@zpw6106 Is it possible to build ROS with -D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0 ?

[zhoupengwei]

@ssheorey At present, it is impossible to do that, this leads to the link errors. I still haven't solved it.

[benjaminum]

Sry for the late reply @zpw6106 . libtorch should be sufficient but will require changes to the cmake files. There could be problems using an op library linking to libtorch with a different ABI than the pytorch libs.
For tensorflow you could check if the tensorflow in the anaconda channel uses the ABI you need.

[ssheorey]

@zpw6106 If you build either PyTorch or Tensorflow from source with the new CXX11_ABI, i.e. with _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=1 this combination of libraries will work, since Open3D now builds with _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=1 by default.

Closing this issue since it is up to PyTorch / TF to update their default build options.