Re: [Boost-build] [WIKI Entry] - How to run Boost Build standalone

From: Roland Schwarz (roland.schwarz_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-09-04 07:23:34

Peter Foley wrote:
> Can anyone see anything wrong with this document?

Sorry to tell you, but I see a couple of things:

1) bjam _is_ _not_ boost build, so the phrase:
    BJAM - Is a synonym within this document for Boost.Build.
    has the potential to confuse users.

2) The title:
    How do I run Boost Build standalone from the Boost Software Library
    is misleading insofar, as you still need a copy of the boost library.
    boost-build.jam is not boost-build, it's just a pointer to it.
    (Or did you mean to use a copy of BOOST_ROOT/tools/build/v2 subdir?)

I tried to understand how your setup is supposed to work, but have to 
admit I need a little longer to understand the details.

Perhaps I can look into it this evening.

However one warning:

bjam's behaviour with regard to BOOST_BUILD_PATH has been changed.
It now will try to pick up user-config.jam and site-config.jam
from the directory where the boost-build rule will point to _first_.
So if you have user-config.jam files there they will be used instead of 
yours.

Since the nightly snapshot will have default files there, these will be 
used instead of the others that follow later in BOOST_BUILD_PATH.

Please try this out with a bjam executable that you have compiled from 
trunk!

To pick up specific user-config.jam files you should use the new env. 
variable: BOOST_BUILD_USER_CONFIG instead.

Therefore to achieve the desired effect all you need is to set two
environment variables:

SET BOOST_BUILD_PATH=/Path/to/a/copy/of/v2/subdirectory/of/boost/build
SET BOOST_BUILD_USER_CONFIG=/Path/to/my/custom/user-config.jam

You will not need any boost-build.jam tricks. (This file is meant for
being part of a project, so a project could enforce to use it's own
private copy of the build system. You should not try to circumvent
this externally.)

N.B.: This behaviour only depends on the bjam executable used.
You should use the one from trunk.

Roland aka speedsnail