Re: [Boost-build] What needs fixing for MinGW

Subject: Re: [Boost-build] What needs fixing for MinGW
From: Paul (paulsteyn1_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-05-01 09:40:17

On Tue, 01 May 2012 16:33:22 +0400
Vladimir Prus <ghost_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> For quite a while, we had users complaining about Boost.Build
> operation in Windows with MinGW. In particular, bootstrap.bat puts
> "using mingw ;" into project-config.jam, which does not work very
> well. Is that the only thing that needs fixing, or there are other
> MinGW issues, either in native or cross configuration?
> 
> [The reason I'm asking is that "fix mingw" is now at the top of my
> queue.]
> 
> Thanks,
> Volodya

I tried to compile boost on windows a while back, and had a horrible
time of it. As I recall, compiling bjam needed specifying mingw on the
command line, as it failed to detect my installed mingw, and defaulted
to the MSVC compiler, which it couldn't find.

The documentation for installing boost wasn't great. I'm not sure if
it's possible to autodetect mingw if it's installed outside of c:\mingw
(mine wasn't, and it still didn't find it), but the documentation at
least should be more helpful.

I had further problems building boost, and in the end had to build it
component by component, but I don't think that had to do with mingw
specifically.

Just my 2c, for what it's worth (probably not much with today's
inflation). You asked, so hoping this is helpful.

Paul