Re: [Boost-users] [1.34] [showstopper] autolink doesn't work when not specifyingtoolset version

From: Kirit Sælensminde (kirit.saelensminde_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-05-06 11:09:20

John Maddock wrote:
> David Abrahams wrote:
>>>>> As a Boost user, my point of view that if the docs says I can use
>>>>> plain "msvc" and use autolink,
>>>> Where does it say that? If that's the case, that's doc bug.
>>> In /more/getting_started/windows.html in the Boost 1.34.0 beta
>>> package. Specifically look at section 5.2.4 and section 6.
>> Well, if it's not a Boost.Build / BoostAutolink bug, it's certainly
>> surprising.  In one context, boost code automatically detects the msvc
>> version and forces a request to a library whose name contains that
>> version number, and in another context, boost code generates a
>> complicated library name, ignoring the version number, that can
>> **never** be linked to by any Boost code unless autolinking is
>> disabled.  This should **just work**, and it's possible (probably
>> easy) to implement.  Sorry, I just can't accept that it's the fault of
>> the documentation.
> 
> I don't think there's anything that autolinking can do to fix this: it 
> requires that libraries are named consistently, and there's no way around 
> that.
> 
> So we either need to update the docs, or preferably fix Boost.Build to 
> detect the MSVC version.  As Dave says it does this in other contexts 
> already, so it should be possible.

Given the hint that the version number in the tool specification was 
important I managed to get the right build output names using 
--tools=msvc-7.1 (took me a couple of tries to work out the right tool 
name to use).

Personally I think a documentation change (clarification?) is enough if 
it's the only thing holding up the release.

It would be perfect if it could do this without the tool specification 
*and* it could hide warnings that clearly aren't of concern to the libs 
involved (C4511 no copy constructor can be made - seems to be one). If 
it is only a matter of getting different output libraries then I can't 
see that it really helps that much from a presentation point of view. 
The same benefit can be had from just telling people which --tools 
command to use and the default I guess works without auto-linking.

K