Linking errors (symbol already defined) with a specific Windows user account

Aurélien Ducournau 1

Hello.

Recently, some linking errors (no compilation errors) occur while building some C++ projects (with Visual Studio 2017). Errors look like this:

legacy_stdio_definitions.lib(legacy_stdio_definitions.obj) : error LNK2005: __imp_fprintf already defined in libcholmod.lib(libcholmod.dll)

Other projects that do not use additional libs (like legacy_stdio_definitions.lib in the above example) are building without any problem. The strangest thing is that the projects are building well when using another Windows user account. So the problem seems linked with my user account. Where does that come from? I already tried to completely reinstall Visual Studio 2017, erased my user files in %AppData%, or remove some user environment variables, none of the above worked.

Minxin Yu 11,506 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-09-20T02:32:08.1+00:00

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!
To solve your problem, a few points need to be clarified:

when using another Windows user account.

Do you mean you are logged into another computer account or another account of Visual Studio?

Was the project property configuration of the error project the same as that of the other project? Try creating a new project and copying the properties of the well-built project.

According to the document: Errors involving CRT functions If the error involves printf or scanf, make sure that you don't privately define either function without including stdio.h. If so, either remove the private definitions or link to legacy_stdio_definitions.lib.
Aurélien Ducournau 1 Reputation point

2022-09-20T08:27:59.513+00:00

Thank you for the answer. Actually "when using another Windows user account" means that I use another computer account (but the same Visual Studio account). I cannot modify the properties of the project because it is shared with every devoloper in my company. And all my colleagues are building the project just fine.

Also, the project is already linking to legacy_stdio_definitions.lib, not linking to it produces undefined symbols errors.
Minxin Yu 11,506 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-09-21T01:54:58.283+00:00

Log in to your account on your colleague's machine, will the problem recur?
Aurélien Ducournau 1 Reputation point

2022-09-21T08:14:45.757+00:00

No, it works in that case. It should mean that the problem is linked to some user-specific file or parameter on my computer but I have no clue on what it could be.
Minxin Yu 11,506 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-09-21T08:18:28.37+00:00

Try copying the successfully built project to the error computer and rebuild.
Aurélien Ducournau 1 Reputation point

2022-09-21T08:33:48.747+00:00

I built the project using a shared link through the local network, so the successfully built project is already on the error computer. The rebuild did not work.

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Linking errors (symbol already defined) with a specific Windows user account

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