Linker error LNK2038: mismatch detected in Release mode

Question

I am trying to port a small app of mine from Win XP and VS 2005 to Win 7 and VS 2010.

The app compiles and runs smoothly in Debug mode, however in Release mode I get the following error:

pcrecpp.lib(pcrecpp.obj) : error LNK2038: mismatch detected for 
'_ITERATOR_DEBUG_LEVEL': value '0' doesn't match value '2' in LoginDlg.obj

Where should I start checking?

This happens when some of your projects are being compiled in Debug mode and some in Release. Make sure that all of them are in the same mode. — Karim Agha, Dec 24 '11 at 13:45
Incidentally, I did a clean build and it DID fix the problem, so if some passing reader hasn't yet: Give it a shot. — Mark Storer, May 09 '19 at 14:41

Alex Budovski · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-31T05:24:21.100

Your app is being compiled in release mode, but you're linking against the debug version of PCRE, which had /MTd (or similar) set, thus causing the mismatch in iterator debugging level in the CRT.

Recompile PCRE in release mode to match your own application.

The detect_mismatch pragma in VS 2010 is what causes this error to be emitted.

See http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2009/06/23/stl-performance.aspx (search for _ITERATOR_DEBUG_LEVEL)

score 25 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 21 '11 at 15:35

25

I had the same error. In my case the solution is easy: I had one project A depending on another project B. B had a preprocessor definition _DEBUG in debug mode and A didn't.

Just add _DEBUG to project A(project->properties->c++->preprocessor->preprocessor definitions) and you're done.

answered Jan 21 '11 at 15:35

Thomas

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Thank you! Or in release mode you might have `NDEBUG` defined in one and not the other. – Derek Sep 04 '12 at 14:15

score 6 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 28 '13 at 00:25

6

This can also be caused by setting the preprocessor definition _HAS_ITERATOR_DEBUGGING=0 in project B and not in A where A produces a lib used by B.

edited Dec 28 '13 at 00:25

Quonux

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answered Nov 09 '11 at 21:34

Art

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What if the problematic lib is a 3rd party software? – Tomáš Zato Oct 10 '18 at 13:58
@TomášZato Then either compile with the same options or request them to compile one for you. At work, I have made request to compile just for us and the 3rd party did it. – qqqqq May 07 '23 at 18:32

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 28 '11 at 11:07

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My problem was that dependent project used "Use Multi-Byte Character Set"
under Generl-->Character set. while other project had "No Set" value

answered Jun 28 '11 at 11:07

Roman Bober

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 20 '22 at 11:42

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In my case this error was caused by a missing project reference.

Presumably adding the conflicting project as a reference allowed the build system to make sure that the correct configuration (debug/release) was built.

answered Jan 20 '22 at 11:42

Iizuki

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Linker error LNK2038: mismatch detected in Release mode

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