Re: [Boost-build] Cygwin DLLs not named properly and installed in the right location

Subject: Re: [Boost-build] Cygwin DLLs not named properly and installed in the right location
From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-04-20 13:12:27

On Monday 20 April 2009 19:28:05 Ronald Landheer-Cieslak wrote:
> I'm trying to use Boost Build v2 on a software package that will run on
> Cygwin, MinGW and other platforms. On Cygwin, DLLs are installed in the bin
> directory and import libraries are installed in lib, and DLLs are prefixed
> with "cyg" and have a ".dll" extention.Boost.Buildv2 currently sees Cygwin
> as a UNIX platform, generates .so files and does not add the cyg prefix.
> Also the .so files are installed in lib, not bin (which is good for UNIX
> platforms).

Hi Ronald,

can you explain the problem(s) with the current naming and placement
as well as why the proposed changes are the right ones. I am not saying
these are wrong, but Cygwin&Mingw is the constant source of confusion,
so it would be nice to have some background to add as comments.

I am sure that when I last tried, one could directly link to a shared
library with .so extension, without any import library. A more recent
comment in source has this about search paths:

        # windows (mingw,cygwin) -Bdynamic -lxxx
        #    libxxx.dll.a
        #    xxx.dll.a
        #    libxxx.a
        #    xxx.lib
        #    cygxxx.dll (*)
        #    libxxx.dll
        #    xxx.dll
        #    libxxx.a

So, it looks like you change would make Boost.Build create shared
libraries that cygwin linker would pick and directly link to,
and therefore it's not clear why import library is needed -- can you
clarify.

> The attached patch fixes the absence of the cyg prefix and has the build
> system generate import libraries, but does not place the DLLs in the bin
> directory, which I can't seem to figure out how to do. 

Why is that required? Can 'lib' directory be added to PATH?

- Volodya