In that case, you can also put file named project-config.jam in the root of your
project and *do not* add it to any version control.

> But without fully understanding it, I put your
> above-mentioned line into the user-config.jam file, it does not work (it
> complains about not finding the boost library, or more specifically the
> specific file I included in the header of my .cpp file). Trying out:
> project myprojectname : requirements <include>/usr/local/include/boost-1_39
> ;
> also does not work.

This is fairly strange -- this functionality is available for years. Please
pass --debug-configuration and note which user-config.jam is being loaded --
maybe you have one in home.

I have figured it out. Whereas the Jamroot file can take a relative path, the user-config.jam needs the absolute path. Why would I use the relative path for the boost library? Simply because, I only have access to my home folder on the Linux machines, thus I put everything (bjam binary, boost-build 'library' and boost library) into my home folder and found it easier to use the relative path.

The user-config.jam method works [with the absolute path and the project name], the project-config.jam file does not work (according to --debug-configuration bjam never looks for a project-config.jam). But even if it worked, I probably would prefer the .bashrc route as I often check out multiple versions of my code, have to add a non-versioned file to each of these every time, is more cumbersome then by using an environment variable in the .bashrc file.

Thanks for your help anyway.

Markus