Re: [Boost-users] How well does Boost support cross-compilation?

From: Hughes, James (jhughes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-10-19 04:54:34

> -----Original Message-----
> From: boost-users-bounces_at_[hidden] 
> [mailto:boost-users-bounces_at_[hidden]] On Behalf Of 
> Vladimir Prus
> Sent: 19 October 2007 09:29
> To: boost-users_at_[hidden]
> Subject: Re: [Boost-users] How well does Boost support 
> cross-compilation?
> 
> n.torrey.pines_at_[hidden] wrote:
> 
> > I'm dreaming of compiling MinGW, OS X (Intel and PowerPC) and Linux
> > x86 versions of my program in one go, perhaps on Linux. The program 
> > uses little other than several Boost libraries. Is this a 
> possible and 
> > reliable usage scenario?
> > 
> > This doesn't seem like a particularly original idea, so I'm sure 
> > others explored it. Are there any how-to's? I couldn't find any.
> 
> Several folks did Linux->{various embedded systems} compile, 
> and it worked. That's good news. The bad news is that 
> Linix->MinGW compile won't 100% work out of box.
> 
> You can do cross-compiling by setting up a user-config.jam, 
> where you configure gcc toolset, explicitly specifying a 
> command, which would be like i686-mingw32-g++, or some such. 
> I think the compilation will even work. The problem is that 
> you'll end up with libraries named .a and .so and executables 
> named without any suffix. This is because while Boost.Build 
> has <target-os> feature, the code that determines file 
> extension looks at host os, not target-os. It's not hard to 
> fix, but it need somebody to do that. Patches welcome :-)
> 
> - Volodya
> 

As an example, here is the command line I use to compile boost for an
ARM processor.

bjam "-sGCC_ROOT_DIRECTORY=<location of cross compiler>"
"-sGCC=iwmmxt_le-gcc" "-sGXX=iwmmxt_le-g++" stage

Where the compilers and associated bits and pieces are preceeded with
-wmmxt_le-<whatever>

Seems to work OK.

James

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