Some symbols exported by gcc-4.4.6 would not be exported by gcc-4.7.0. If the visibility of struct __cook is hidden, the function "myopen" keeps "hidden" too. [root@djt-17-109-v06 tmp]# cat tvisi.cpp extern "C" typedef struct __cook cook_t; extern "C" cook_t* myopen(); struct __attribute__ ((visibility ("hidden"))) __cook { virtual ~__cook() = 0; }; //__attribute__ ((visibility ("default"))) cook_t* myopen() { return 0; } [root@djt-17-109-v06 tmp]# g++ tvisi.cpp -o libxx.so -shared -fPIC && nm -D libxx.so | fgrep myopen 00000000000005cc T myopen [root@djt-17-109-v06 tmp]# # I can see the symbol myopen be exported by gcc-4.4.6 [root@djt-17-109-v06 tmp]# g++47 tvisi.cpp -o libxx.so -shared -fPIC && nm -D libxx.so | fgrep myopen [root@djt-17-109-v06 tmp]# # I can not see the symbol myopen be exported by gcc-4.7.0