[Boost-build] Dangerous library tagging?

From: Roland Schwarz (roland.schwarz_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-01-13 07:50:01

Just by accident I found out that it is possible to say e.g. from 
boost_root:

bjam --toolset=gcc-17.04 --with-thread stage

and will get libraries with e.g.:

libboost_thread-gcc1704-mt.a

Clearly 1704 is not an existing compiler version, but the point is, it 
gets compiled! So one cannot be sure, that the library indeed has been 
compiled with a certain compiler.

If I had said:

bjam --toolset=gcc-3.3.5 --with-thread stage

how can I be sure it really has been compiled with this version and not 
say the default, which is 4.1 in my case?

I would have expected that the build simply refuses to compile if the 
correct version isn't available.

What I am missing?

Roland