Re: [boost] m4 macro for boost?

From: Douglas Gregor (doug.gregor_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-12-29 11:04:19

On Dec 29, 2005, at 9:14 AM, Thomas Porschberg wrote:

> Thomas Porschberg <thomas.porschberg <at> osp-dd.de> writes:
>
>> But I note that a lot of software components come with a
>> m4 macro to support the configuration process.
>> I found a boost.m4 file at http://alien.cern.ch/cache/org.glite/ 
>> project/boost.
> m4.
>
> I discovered http://autoconf-archive.cryp.to/ which comes with
> some m4 macros for boost too.
> In the meanwhile I wrote a own m4 macro which does set
> BOOST_LDFLAGS and BOOST_CPPFLAGS and checks a version number.
> I call it with
> AX_BOOST_LIB_VERSION(1.33)
> in my configure.ac
> I post it here and hope it is not considered as spam.
> If someone has improvements please let me know. How
> I already mentioned I'm a GNU-build-tool-greenhorn by
> myself.

I hacked up the following M4 macro for Boost a while ago. The version  
detection might be a bit better in this macro, because it checks the  
Boost version in the Boost version header (instead of checking the  
include directory). Otherwise, the macro you've written looks fine.  
We don't have an "official" m4 macro for Boost.

        Doug

dnl AC_PATH_BOOST([MINIMUM-VERSION], [ACTION-IF-FOUND], [ACTION-IF- 
NOT-FOUND])
dnl Test for the Boost C++ libraries of a particular version (or newer)
dnl Defines:
dnl   BOOST_CXXFLAGS to the set of flags required to compiled Boost
AC_DEFUN([AC_PATH_BOOST],
[
   BOOST_CXXFLAGS=""
   path_given="no"

dnl Extract the path name from a --with-boost=PATH argument
   AC_ARG_WITH(boost,
     [  --with-boost=PATH absolute path name where the Boost C++  
libraries
     reside. Alternatively, the BOOST_ROOT environment variable will  
be used],
     if test "$withval" = no ; then
         path_given="no"
         BOOST_CXXFLAGS=""
     else
       if test "$withval" != yes ; then
         path_given="yes"
         BOOST_CXXFLAGS="-I$withval"
       fi
     fi
   )

dnl If no path with given and there is a BOOST_ROOT environment  
variable,
dnl use it
   if test "$path_given" = "no"; then
     if test "x$BOOST_ROOT" = "x"; then
       BOOST_CXXFLAGS=""
     else
       BOOST_CXXFLAGS="-I$BOOST_ROOT"
     fi
   fi

   boost_min_version=ifelse([$1], ,1.20.0,$1)

   AC_LANG_SAVE
   AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS
   OLD_CXXFLAGS=$CXXFLAGS
   CXXFLAGS="$CXXFLAGS $BOOST_CXXFLAGS"
   AC_MSG_CHECKING([for the Boost C++ libraries, version  
$boost_min_version or newer])
   AC_TRY_COMPILE(
     [
#include <boost/version.hpp>
],
     [],
     [
       have_boost="yes"
     ],
     [
       AC_MSG_RESULT(no)
       have_boost="no"
       ifelse([$3], , :, [$3])
     ])

   if test "$have_boost" = "yes"; then
     WANT_BOOST_MAJOR=`expr $boost_min_version : '\([[0-9]]*\)'`
     WANT_BOOST_MINOR=`expr $boost_min_version : '[[0-9]]*\.\([[0-9]]* 
\)'`
     WANT_BOOST_SUB_MINOR=`expr $boost_min_version : '[[0-9]]*\. 
[[0-9]]*\.\([[0-9]]*\)'`
     WANT_BOOST_VERSION=`expr $WANT_BOOST_MAJOR \* 100000 \+  
$WANT_BOOST_MINOR \* 100 \+ $WANT_BOOST_SUB_MINOR`

     AC_TRY_COMPILE(
       [
#include <boost/version.hpp>
],
       [
#if BOOST_VERSION >= $WANT_BOOST_VERSION
// Everything is okay
#else
#  error Boost version is too old
#endif

],
       [
         AC_MSG_RESULT(yes)
         ifelse([$2], , :, [$2])
       ],
       [
         AC_MSG_RESULT([no, version of installed Boost libraries is  
too old])
         ifelse([$3], , :, [$3])
       ])
   fi
   CXXFLAGS=$OLD_CXXFLAGS
   AC_LANG_RESTORE
])

        Doug