Re: Can we get rid of auto-linking?

From: John Maddock (jz.maddock_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-04-28 08:08:17

On 27/04/2024 22:08, Glen Fernandes via Boost wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 27, 2024 at 4:56 PM René Ferdinand Rivera Morell wrote:
>
>> Can we get rid of auto-linking?
>>
>>
> I've always felt that auto-linking should have been disabled by default.
>
> But then I remember users complaining when it is:
> https://github.com/boostorg/boost_install/issues/54

The problem is one of "which of the many library variants do I link 
to?".  My experience was always that users are terrible at picking the 
right one, and if they do do that, then the result is some very hard to 
track down errors arising from two different std libraries (memory 
managers) being in play.  And that means more bug reports for us :(

But.... if you're using Boost.Build, or even CMake to build everything 
at once then it's obviously not an issue.

So... I'm not sure I have an answer for you, John.