Re: [boost] Boost and pkg-config support

Subject: Re: [boost] Boost and pkg-config support
From: Steve M. Robbins (steve_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-02-28 22:43:56

Boosters, please see the following for background:

[1]  https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/1094
[2]  http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=248674
[3]  http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=593876
  

On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 08:08:42PM +0000, Roger Leigh wrote:

> https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/1094
> is the upstream ticket for adding pkg-config support.  I've already
> done the bulk of the work, the patches are all there.  Do you have
> any knowledge of bjam?  

Vladimir is the bjam expert ;-)

> boost-pkg-config-gen.cc is the program to acquire the information
> and generate the .pc file.  It just needs building with these defines:
>   TEST_HEADER - the header to include for a given boost library
>   PREFIX - the bjam prefix (however you get at it)
>   LIBDIR - the bjam libdir (however you get at it)

I have spent some time trying to patch bjam and have no inclination to
spend any more time with that code.  For Debian purposes, could we
obtain PREFIX and LIBDIR directly from debian/rules?  (In fact, they
would be constants, of course).  What about TEST_HEADER?

> So the program just needs building and running once for each Boost
> library (bjam must have a list of libraries, or at least provide some
> means for us to get at the information).  

Bjam has a list of the libraries that are *compiled* to a so/dll.  Is
that enough?  The root of the problem [3] is inlined code and there's
no guarantee that a header-only library won't similarly inline
something that requires, say, -lboost_system.

Boost Developers: is there a machine readable list of libraries 
somewhere in the boost source tree?

Thanks,
-Steve