[Boost-build] Getting stated with boost and CMake

From: pbristow_at_[hidden]
Date: 2021-02-24 15:46:10

Having spent a decade watching the Cmake versus bjam/b2 battle, I had thought it wise to wait until the dust has settled.

It would appear that the enthusiasm for CMake and Boost is much greater among  consumers than producers ☹

But recently I have been working on a project that is possible Boost library and thought that I would dip my toe in the water.

After some research, I am still puzzled how I should replace a simple b2/bjam program (say a classic “hello World”) that is run like this

  \example >  b2 -a  toolset=msvc,gcc,clang cxxstd=14 release > my_log.log

The jamfile contains 

run hello_world.cpp ; # Simplest hello_world, no other includes apart from iostream.

And the b2 run .log contains some outputs of "Hello world" and 3 nice   **passed** lines and  ...updated 3(?) targets..., one for each compiler (and version too, perhaps with some potentially using build info too), and return exit_success value.

(I also would expect to get a simple setup to run a test using the /included version of unit_test_framework.
Trying to walk before I fall over running, I have avoided any pre-compiler libraries, at least at first.)

After some research (getting as far as generating a Visual Studio project, where I can intervene manually to build and run my hello_world program),
I am still unclear how to replicate this b2 test to end with a .exe run and some log file with pass/fail indications.

I am of course building on Windows 10 with three recent versions of MSVC, GCC and Clang compilers working, and in my bjam/b2 user-config.jam.

Advice from less-than-novice CMakers most welcome.

Thank you.

Paul