Re: [boost] RFC/patch: compile boost on Android for platform development

Subject: Re: [boost] RFC/patch: compile boost on Android for platform development
From: Antony Polukhin (antoshkka_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-11-13 01:33:58

2014-11-12 17:30 GMT+04:00 Wagner, David <david.wagner_at_[hidden]>:

>         Hi,
>
>
> We are evaluating the pros and cons of using Boost for platform
> development on Android. We have successfully built and run Asio's "chat"
> server and client examples on an Android device running Lollipop.
>

I've been using Boost on Andriod for a long time and can tell you that the
major part of Boost libraries work perfectly on Android platforms, even on
the ancient ones (like 2.3).

I've been doing some work to run all the regression tests on Andriod, see
https://github.com/apolukhin/regression_android But unfortunately I had not
enough time to finish the work. That repo could be a good point to start
with. Running regression tests is essential for a formal support of Android
platform.

You may also take a look at this thread, it describes the situation with
android http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2014/01/210885.php

> The C++ support seems to have been greatly improved since KitKat. Even
> though it is still early to say that all of Boost runs ok, all the Asio
> unit tests passed with "*** No errors detected" except the multicast test.
>
> I've attached a patch that adds Android makefiles to relevant libraries
> for compiling Boost.Asio. It's a first draft and it doesn't use the git
> submodules. The development of this patch has been made on top of the
> 1.56.0 tag.
>

> Platform development on android is different than native development
> ("NDK", used for JNI libraries). There seem to have been several efforts
> made for Boost support on NDK but we haven't found any for platform
> development (which is aimed at device support, e.g., HAL development,
> native tools).
>
>
>
> Is there an interest for maintaining a set of Android makefiles on vanilla
> Boost ? I understand someone would need to run the regression tests on
> Android; is there any other such requirement ?
>

I'll help you as much as I can, but you have to stick to the current Boost
build system, which is Bjam.

-- 
Best regards,
Antony Polukhin