Re: [boost] Which Boost libraries support which compilers/versions

From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-07-29 19:08:17

Robert Ramey wrote:
> Edward Diener wrote:
>> Robert Ramey wrote:
> 
>> You believe that every end user who wants to use a particular Boost
>> library should run a test script just to determine whether or not that
>> library is supported by Boost for the compiler/version which that
>> person
>> uses ?
>>
>> That would be fine if Boost supplied such a test script for each
>> library
>> for any particular version of Boost, or even intends to support such a
>> test script in the future. Is there presently such a script ? If so,
>> and
>> it were as easy to run as specifying a command on a command line
>> within whatever is the shell for the particular operating system the
>> user runs,
>> or even if it were a Python script which requires some version of the
>> free Python product on the end users machine, I would be glad to use
>> it,
>> and I imagine many other end users would also.
> 
> That's what I think as well.
> 
> Currently in tools/regression there is runtest.sh.  I should be in your 
> local
> copy of boost.  Take a look at it.

It is there but it does me little good if I am running Windows.

> 
> The last steps in this script run bjam, process_jam_log, and compiler_status
> programs to build a table to view the results of all the tests with the
> local tools.  This table can be browsed with any html browser.
> 
> There is a similar version within the serialization library which does
> the samething for just that library. ( libs/serialization/test).  Included
> there are scripts for *nix shell and *.bat file for windoz.  I was much
> disappointed to find that these scripts wouldn't run with V2 and
> I'm in the process of making adjustments.  This will be very useful
> to me and perhaps others.
> 
> Ideally, I would like to see the boost "getting started" documentation
> include a final section" named something like "Validating your boost
> Installation" which runs such a script.  Perhaps there might be a
> mechanism for uploading the results somewhere as the testers do
> but that would not be important to me.
> 
> One pay off for me would be to be able to ask a user who is having
> ABI problems or something like that to "validate his local boost
> installation" so that a whole class of possible causes could be eliminated
> at the start.

Peter Dimov suggested running the tests for each library in which one is 
interested. Fair enough, but the compiler names and the version numbers 
one needs to use for a particular compiler, as well as the bjam command 
line, are obscure to me. In general I find the bjam documentation 
well-intentioned but very difficult to understand. There has to be an 
easier way.