[Boost-build] building Boost for multiple platforms on a single machine

From: eh-boost.build_at_[hidden]
Date: 2007-11-12 19:02:58

I have been having enormous difficulty with what I had thought to be simple 
problem.  I'm maintaining build testing for a number of environments on a 
single machine, and I need to keep multiple copies of Boost libraries all 
separated out into their own sandboxes.  Here are my requirements:
         (1) Boost source tree needs to be treated as read-only.  No files 
altered or added in that tree.  This is primarily a version-control criterion.
         (2) Invocation of bjam in an environment-specific directory 
without any necessity of command-line parameters or shell-scripts or batch 
files or setting environment variables.  This is the criterion for 
use-right-out-of-the-box.

As a user, I really don't care about Boost Jam.  I don't plan on using it 
except to compile Boost.  I don't plan on using for anything else.  I want 
to learn as little as possible about it.  I have spent many hours on the 
documentation, all but the first of which I consider too many.  There's no 
tutorial for what I want to do, which is slightly more complicated that the 
"getting started" pages and far less that the entirety of the system.

I'm on Windows XP.  I've had no problem compiling for the default (MSVC), 
nor for the standard toolset gcc.  I have the following combinations to 
worry about:
         -- msvc
         -- cygwin gcc
         -- cygwin gcc cross-compiling for mingw (incidentally, bjam 
--toolset=gcc-nocygwin does not work at all; it omits the -mno-cygwin flag)
         -- mingw gcc 3
         -- mingw gcc 4
I'm maintaining software for other people, unknown to me, and these are my 
platforms.  So I need four different configurations of gcc, which means use 
site-config and user-config are out (unless there's some syntax I haven't 
been able to puzzle out.

Directory layout:
         -- Boost
                 -- source-1.34.1 (this contains the 
unpacked-without-modification source distribution)
                 -- build-1.34.1
                         -- gcc3-cygwin-for-mingw
                         [etc.]

The contents of Boost/build-1.34.1/gcc3-cygwin-for-mingw/project-root.jam 
is as follows:
>project /my-boost
>         : source-location ../../source-1.34.1
>         : build-dir my-boost-bin
>         : requirements
>                 <toolset>gcc
>         ;
>
>build-project /my-boost ;

Here are the contents of boost-build.jam (it's in the parent directory):
>boost-build ../source-1.34.1/tools/build/v2 ;

Here's a sample run.  I'm using the pre-compiled bjam.
>$ bjam --debug-configuration
>Unable to load Boost.Build: could not find "boost-build.jam"
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>Attempted search from C:\WINDOWS\system32 up to the root
>
>Please consult the documentation at 'http://www.boost.org'.

OK.  That's clearly a defect, since if I nuke the project-root.jam file, it 
finds boost-build.jam just fine.  So I set BOOST_BUILD_PATH 
explicitly.  Now I get the following output:
>notice: found boost-build.jam at 
>c:\Development\Boost\source-1.34.1\boost-build.jam
>notice: loading Boost.Build from 
>c:\Development\Boost\source-1.34.1\tools\build\v2
>notice: searching "C:\Documents and Settings\Eric" "c:\Documents and 
>Settings\Eric" "C:\Documents and Settings\Eric" 
>"c:\Development\Boost\source-1.34.1\" 
>"c:\Development\Boost\source-1.34.1\tools/build/v2" 
>"c:/Development/Boost/source-1.34.1/tools/build/v2/kernel" 
>"c:/Development/Boost/source-1.34.1/tools/build/v2/util" 
>"c:/Development/Boost/source-1.34.1/tools/build/v2/build" 
>"c:/Development/Boost/source-1.34.1/tools/build/v2/tools" 
>"c:/Development/Boost/source-1.34.1/tools/build/v2/new" 
>"c:/Development/Boost/source-1.34.1/tools/build/v2/." for "site-config.jam"
>notice: loading site-config.jam from 
>c:\Development\Boost\source-1.34.1\tools\build\v2\site-config.jam
>notice: searching "C:\Documents and Settings\Eric" "c:\Documents and 
>Settings\Eric" "C:\Documents and Settings\Eric" 
>"c:\Development\Boost\source-1.34.1\" 
>"c:\Development\Boost\source-1.34.1\tools/build/v2" 
>"c:/Development/Boost/source-1.34.1/tools/build/v2/kernel" 
>"c:/Development/Boost/source-1.34.1/tools/build/v2/util" 
>"c:/Development/Boost/source-1.34.1/tools/build/v2/build" 
>"c:/Development/Boost/source-1.34.1/tools/build/v2/tools" 
>"c:/Development/Boost/source-1.34.1/tools/build/v2/new" 
>"c:/Development/Boost/source-1.34.1/tools/build/v2/." for "user-config.jam"
>notice: loading user-config.jam from 
>c:\Development\Boost\source-1.34.1\tools\build\v2\user-config.jam
>warning: No toolsets are configured.
>warning: Configuring default toolset "msvc".
>warning: If the default is wrong, you may not be able to build C++ programs.
>warning: Use the "--toolset=xxxxx" option to override our guess.
>warning: For more configuration options, please consult
>warning: 
>http://boost.org/boost-build2/doc/html/bbv2/advanced/configuration.html
>notice: msvc-8.0express detected, command: 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft 
>Visual Studio 8\VC\bin\cl.exe'
>msvc: condition: 
>'<toolset>msvc-8.0express/<architecture>/<address-model>',  msvc: 
>condition: 
>'<toolset>msvc-8.0express/<architecture>/<address-model>32',  msvc: 
>condition: 
>'<toolset>msvc-8.0express/<architecture>x86/<address-model>',  msvc: 
>condition: 
>'<toolset>msvc-8.0express/<architecture>x86/<address-model>32',  command: 
>'call "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\vcvarsall.bat" x86 >nul
>'
>msvc: condition: 
>'<toolset>msvc-8.0express/<architecture>/<address-model>64',  msvc: 
>condition: 
>'<toolset>msvc-8.0express/<architecture>x86/<address-model>64',  command: 
>'call "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\vcvarsall.bat" 
>x86_amd64 >nul
>'
>msvc: condition: 
>'<toolset>msvc-8.0express/<architecture>ia64/<address-model>',  msvc: 
>condition: 
>'<toolset>msvc-8.0express/<architecture>ia64/<address-model>64',  command: 
>'call "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\vcvarsall.bat" 
>x86_iPF >nul
>'
>error: no Jamfile in current directory found, and no target references 
>specified.

Oh, the things wrong with this picture:
1-- It's searching the home directory three times.  That can't be a good sign.
2-- It's finding toolset msvc, when I thought I had configured the project 
to use gcc.
3-- I have no clue what the "current directory" is where it's looking for a 
Jamfile, because it didn't tell me.  (Perhaps it's C:\WINDOWS\system32 again.)
4-- Insofar as I can tell, it never gets even to the point of creating the 
build directory.

It gets worse.  Just prior to writing this message, I was getting two 
searches for site-config and user-config, it was finding the first and 
choking on the second (with the same message "unable to load 
Boost.Build").  I can't even replicate that behavior, even though I've 
reverted everything (albeit manually).

So, in essence, my question is this: How do pass parameters to a 
pre-existing project, particularly its toolset, and use an entire source 
tree without modifying it?  Secondly, how do I build just that project and 
nothing else, preferably not even some phantom target?

Eric