Re: [Boost-build] Choosing vc++ setup for 14.1

Subject: Re: [Boost-build] Choosing vc++ setup for 14.1
From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2018-10-22 17:53:16

On 10/22/2018 1:24 PM, Steven Watanabe via Boost-build wrote:
> AMDG
> 
> On 10/22/2018 10:55 AM, Edward Diener via Boost-build wrote:
>> In my user_config.jam I have for msvc-14.1:
>>
>> using msvc : 14.1 ;
>> using msvc : 14.1c14 : : <cxxflags>"/std:c++14" ;
>> using msvc : 14.1c17 : : <cxxflags>"/std:c++latest" ;
>>
>> If I invoke b2 with "toolset=msvc-14.1" the msvc-setup.bat shows:
>>
>> REM "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual
>> Studio\2017\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars32.bat"
>> SET CommandPromptType=Native
>> SET DevEnvDir=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual
>> Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\
>>
>> among many other lines, which is certainly correct for vc++ 14.1. But if
>> I invoke b2 with "toolset=msvc-14.1c14" or "toolset=msvc-14.1c17" the
>> msvc-setup.bat shows:
>>
>> REM "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio
>> 14.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat" x86
>> SET DevEnvDir=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio
>> 14.0\Common7\IDE\
>>
>> which is the setup for msvc-14.0 and not msvc-14.1.
>>
>> Is this a known bug or is my usage of the msvc toolset incorrect ? I am
>> able to use the pattern above to invoke other toolsets ( gcc, clang,
>> intel ) with different cxxflags.
>>
> 
> msvc depends on the version to find the location
> of the compiler.  Mangling the version prevents
> this from working correctly.  Just pass cxxstd=14
> or cxxstd=17 to b2 when building.

There are more flags I would like to pass than just cxxstd for different 
invocations and you are saying I need to pass them manually all the time 
using a single 'using' declaration for a particular version of msvc. 
That is also a bit of a pain since I must also pass any flags, which 
contain the colon character, in quotes since b2 treats the colon in some 
special way. Could not Boost Build logic parse the version number from 
any cruft that comes after it by looking for a non-numeric non-dot as 
the end of the version number, and just use that version number to 
determine the msvc-setup ? In other words, for example, Boost Build 
parses 14.1 as release 14.1 but parses 14.1c14 as release 14 for the 
purpose of creating the correct msvc-setup.bat. How hard would it really 
be to correct the latter to release 14.1 ?

> 
> In Christ,
> Steven Watanabe