Re: [Boost-build] Output directories of Boost Build

Subject: Re: [Boost-build] Output directories of Boost Build
From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-09-19 14:21:32

On 9/19/2015 11:49 AM, Vladimir Prus wrote:
> Edward,
>
> Let me use an example with shorter paths, so that I can actually type on
> a small screen. Say you have Boost source in /tmp/boost, then the
> build-directory property in jamroot will cause build to go to
> /tmp/boost/bin.v2/gcc/...
>
> If you specify --build-dir=/tmp/build, that will change to
> /tmp/build/boost/gcc/... - note that bin.v2 is completely overridden,
> and 'boost' is added, taken from project declaration in Jamroot. This
> allows --build-dir to work if the build spans multiple Jamroot files.

Unfortunately you have confused me somewhat.

Using your example above you say that currently without specifying a 
--build-dir the output goes to '/tmp/boost/bin.v2/some-toolset', but if 
I set a --build-dir on the b2 command line the output goes to 
'build-dir/boost/some-toolset' instead of 'build-dir/some-toolset' ? Why 
would passing a --build-dir on the command line insert a project 
declaration to the total path when not passing a --build-dir on the 
command line does not insert a project declaration to the total path ?

This also means that if I currently do not pass a --build-dir on the 
command line, and the output is going to the sub-directory bin.v2 of my 
Boost source, then I can never duplicate the same place by setting a 
--build-dir on the command line.

Or have I misunderstood you ?

>
> Stage and install dirs are not handled by Boost.Build, but by Boost C++
> libraries. If you run b2 --help in Boost C++ root, you will see two
> options that control those directories.

Are stage and install dirs only relevant when building from the Boost 
C++ root and specifying either 'install' or 'stage' as the target ? Or 
are they relevant in other situations ? I do see where I can set the 
directories for the 'install' and 'stage' builds via --prefix ( and 
possibly other choices ) and --stagedir respectively.

Finally I notice a 'dist' sub-directory off of my Boost C++ root where a 
few tools, boostdep and inspect, have built their executables in 
'./dist/bin'. Is this sub-directory relative to the --build-dir setting ?

My goal is to move the Boost git repository to a common partition shared 
by multiple Windows OSs ( Vista, 7, 8.1, 10 ), but have any Boost build 
actions go to the same local directories for each OS I have now, where I 
have not been previously explicitly setting --build-dir or any of the 
--prefix or --stagedir for 'install' or 'stage'. I realize I will have 
to add these options to the b2 command line in my new setup but that 
isn't a problem since I already have batch files performing all Boost 
Build actions. I am just trying to determine how I can do this, thus my OP.

>
> HTH,
> Volodya
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 19, 2015, 17:45 Edward Diener <eldiener_at_[hidden]
> <mailto:eldiener_at_[hidden]>> wrote:
>
>     On 9/19/2015 8:38 AM, Niklas Angare wrote:
>      > "Edward Diener" <eldiener_at_[hidden]
>     <mailto:eldiener_at_[hidden]>> wrote:
>      >> Is there a general way to control the location of Boost Build output
>      >> directories, or are they always relative to the source directory, or
>      >> perhaps relative to the Boost top-level directory ?
>      >
>      > I found this in Jamroot with a quick search for bin.v2 in the
>     repository :
>      >
>      > project boost
>      > ...
>      >     : build-dir bin.v2
>      >
>      >> I would like to share my Boost git repository between different
>     Window
>      >> OSs in a multi-boot machine, using a common NTFS drive. But I
>     want to
>      >> have the output from Boost build go to different local drives
>     for each
>      >> OS.
>      >
>      > With a further search I found the --build-dir command-line option
>     to b2
>      > that would seem to solve your problem.
>      >
>      > http://www.boost.org/build/doc/html/bbv2/overview/invocation.html
>
>     I am not sure what this means in the documentation.
>
>     If currently my local Boost git repository from source is at
>     C:/Programming/VersionControl/modular-boost do I specify the --build-dir
>     as 'C:/Programming/VersionControl/modular-boost' to ensure that the
>     output of tests goto C:/Programming/VersionControl/modular-boost/bin.v2
>     ? What about install and stage directories ? Do they then go to
>     sub-directories relative to C:/Programming/VersionControl/modular-boost
>     if I set --build-dir as 'C:/Programming/VersionControl/modular-boost' ?