libpqxx3 tablereader doesn't compile with gcc 4.7 in C++11 mode

[Matt Amos]

With the following packages installed, architecture i386, in Ubuntu 13.04:

libpqxx-3.1 3.1-1.1
libpqxx3-dev 3.1-1.1
g++-4.7 4.7.3-1ubuntu1

Downloading the libpqxx3 sources from http://packages.ubuntu.com/source/raring/libpqxx3 and attempting to compile test/test080.cxx with `g++ -o /dev/null -fpermissive -std=gnu++11 -c test080.cxx` gives the following errors below.

Note that the -fpermissive comes from a previous bug report which appears to be related (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=672021) but apparently isn't a full fix in C++11 mode. Changes made in changeset 1834 of the upstream source appear to be related and possibly fix the problem (http://pqxx.org/development/libpqxx/changeset/1834/branches/3.1/include/pqxx/util.hxx).

I've separately compiled the upstream 3.1.1 release of libpqxx, and `make check` passes without compile errors.

--- Compile errors ---

/usr/include/pqxx/util.hxx:412:5: error: no matching function for call to ‘to_string(__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<const std::basic_string<char>*, std::vector<std::basic_string<char> > >::value_type)’
/usr/include/pqxx/util.hxx:412:5: note: candidates are:
In file included from /usr/include/c++/4.7/string:54:0,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/locale_classes.h:42,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/ios_base.h:43,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.7/ios:43,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.7/ostream:40,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.7/iostream:40,
                 from test080.cxx:1:
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2915:3: note: std::string std::to_string(long double)
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2915:3: note: no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<const std::basic_string<char>*, std::vector<std::basic_string<char> > >::value_type {aka std::basic_string<char>}’ to ‘long double’
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2906:3: note: std::string std::to_string(double)
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2906:3: note: no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<const std::basic_string<char>*, std::vector<std::basic_string<char> > >::value_type {aka std::basic_string<char>}’ to ‘double’
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2897:3: note: std::string std::to_string(float)
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2897:3: note: no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<const std::basic_string<char>*, std::vector<std::basic_string<char> > >::value_type {aka std::basic_string<char>}’ to ‘float’
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2891:3: note: std::string std::to_string(long long unsigned int)
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2891:3: note: no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<const std::basic_string<char>*, std::vector<std::basic_string<char> > >::value_type {aka std::basic_string<char>}’ to ‘long long unsigned int’
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2885:3: note: std::string std::to_string(long long int)
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2885:3: note: no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<const std::basic_string<char>*, std::vector<std::basic_string<char> > >::value_type {aka std::basic_string<char>}’ to ‘long long int’
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2879:3: note: std::string std::to_string(long unsigned int)
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2879:3: note: no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<const std::basic_string<char>*, std::vector<std::basic_string<char> > >::value_type {aka std::basic_string<char>}’ to ‘long unsigned int’
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2874:3: note: std::string std::to_string(long int)
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2874:3: note: no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<const std::basic_string<char>*, std::vector<std::basic_string<char> > >::value_type {aka std::basic_string<char>}’ to ‘long int’
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2868:3: note: std::string std::to_string(unsigned int)
/usr/include/c++/4.7/bits/basic_string.h:2868:3: note: no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<const std::basic_string<char>*, std::vector<std::basic_string<char> > >::value_type {aka std::basic_string<char>}’ to ‘unsigned int’
...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Nathan Kennedy (ntk)]

I can confirm that this affects Saucy as well (gcc 4.8.1-10ubuntu9, libpqxx3-dev 3.1-1.1). This is causing similar errors compiling other libpqxx client software with gcc 4.7 and newer. -fpermissive does not resolve all errors.

The problem was indeed properly fixed upstream in revision 1834 and released in libpqxx 3.1.1 with no need for the -fpermissive workaround, but libpqxx3-dev 3.1-1.1 does not incorporate this fix and in particular the #include "pqxx/strconv" in /usr/include/pqxx/util.hxx

The libpqxx-dev version in Trusty (libpqxx3-dev_3.1.1-0ubuntu4) does have this fix.