Re: [Boost-build] Using bjam in the sandbox

Subject: Re: [Boost-build] Using bjam in the sandbox
From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-11-05 07:58:42

Vladimir Prus wrote:
> On Sunday 01 November 2009 Edward Diener wrote:
> 
>>>> What is the reason fo the error message ? 
>>> Boost.Jam -- which is the low-level build engine -- has to locate
>>> Boost.Build -- which is the real build system. For that purpose, it searches
>>> for a file named 'boost-build.jam' that should contain directives where
>>> to search for Boost.Build. That 'boost-build ;' means to consult
>>> environment variable called 'BOOST_BUILD_PATH', which is probably
>>> not set, and usually is not required -- since boost-build.jam in Boost
>>> root contains direct path to Boost.Build.
>> I set the BOOST_ROOT environment variable, bu it still did not work.
> 
> I have looked into that more, and it appears that:
> 
> 1. The library setup needs some love. In particular, it uses non-standard
> variable names for everything.
> 
> 2. It does not actually have any BoostBook docs, only doxygen -- buildable
> by running doxygen directly.
> 
> Before I go on fixing (1), can you clarify the point (2) -- that is, what
> docs are you planning to build. If you're building docs for some other
> library, can you let me know which one, so that I can check it?

I went to John Torjo's logging implementation in the sandbox and 
attempted to run bjam there. Subsequently I saw a 
'generating_the_docs.txt' file in that directory which says how to
manually build the documentation using doxygen.

Nonetheless I am more concerned about the ease by which a user of 
Boost.Build can understand what is wrong than this particular situation. 
For instance the error message says:

"Unable to load Boost.Build: could not find build system.
---------------------------------------------------------
C:\Programming\VersionControl\sandbox\logging\boost-build.jam attempted 
to load
the build system by invoking

    'boost-build ;'

but we were unable to find "bootstrap.jam" in the specified directory

Please consult the documentation at 'http://www.boost.org'."

How is the user of bjam supposed to solve the problem based on this 
error message ? In particular, is there some Boost.Build documentation 
which explains how .bjam files are found ? I do not see this as a topic 
heading anywhere in the Boost.Build v2 documentation.