[boost] [Boost-users] Run-time flavors of Boost (aka lib suffix / runtime-options)

From: Benoit Sigoure (tsuna_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-12-18 05:18:07

Hello list,
[I already sent this question to Boost-users but nobody replied  
there, so I guess that you people might have a better idea]

Boost libraries often ship compiled in various different
"flavors" (compiled with different runtime-options).  First off, is
there an official place where this is documented?  I didn't find any,
besides the header `boost/config/auto_link.hpp'.  Based on this
header, I tried to document the suffix used by Boost libraries as
follows:

> A suffix is one or more of the following letters: sgdpn (in that
> order).  s = static runtime, d = debug build, g = debug/diagnostic  
> runtime, p = STLPort
> build, n = (unsure) STLPort build without iostreams from STLPort  
> (it looks
> like `n' must always be used along with `p').  Additionally, it can  
> start
> with `mt-' to indicate for multi-thread builds.

Is this accurate?  What is a `static runtime'?  My guess is that `-s'
is Windows-specific, because on Windows it's common to see both
shared libraries and static libraries using the same naming scheme
`libfoo.lib' (because in the shared library case, `libfoo.lib' is not
a directly shared library but rather an import library), can anyone
confirm that?  This entails that for most UNIX-like OSes, the `-s'
variant doesn't exist, it's the `libfoo.a' static archive that is
used instead, is that correct?

Cheers,

-- 
Benoit Sigoure aka Tsuna
EPITA Research and Development Laboratory