Re: [boost] New getting started guide

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-12-09 16:42:37

"Robert Ramey" <ramey_at_[hidden]> writes:

> It looks to me that the old system of using environmental variables
> has been preplaced with with the new user-config.jam system.  

Not exactly.

* There never was a "system of using environmental variables;" it was
  always a system of using Jam variables.  It just so happens that, as
  with Make, Jam sucks its initial global variable values out of the
  environment.  It has always been a principle of Boost.Build to avoid
  a design that forces the user to litter his environment with
  variable settings to make Boost.Build work.

* user-config.jam and site-config.jam form a system for setting up a
  semi-permanent description of your system's configuration, e.g. what
  compilers and libraries you have installed, where they are, etc.
  There never really was a system for doing that with v1.  What I did
  with v1 was to hack together a script called "myjam" that prepared a
  bunch of variable settings and then invoked bjam.

* That is not the only way to configure your compilers; you can do it
  from the command-line unless you have a truly bizarre installation.

> So it would seem that I have to edit user-config.jam to specify the
> paths of the vc compilers ( as well as others).  On the other hand,
> there is no mention of anything like this in the "getting started"
> guide.

That's because you don't need to do it.

> Indeed, invoking
>
> bjam --v2 msvc-7.1 >bjam.log &
>
> returns - among other things - warning: No toolsets are configured.

You're not following the guide.

       bjam --v2 toolset=msvc-7.1
                 ^^^^^^^^

will work.

> So, the "getting started" guide seems incomplete to me.

I think you just started with a different set of directions and failed
to read the guide carefully.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com