[Boost-users] Run-time flavors of Boost (aka lib suffix / runtime-options)

From: Benoit Sigoure (tsuna_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-12-13 04:37:07

Hello list,

Boost libraries often ship compiled in various different  
"flavors" (compiled with different runtime-options).  First off, is  
there an official place where this is documented?  I didn't find any,  
besides the header `boost/config/auto_link.hpp'.  Based on this  
header, I tried to document the suffix used by Boost libraries as  
follows:

> A suffix is one or more of the following letters: sgdpn (in that  
> order).  s = static
> runtime, d = debug build, g = debug/diagnostic runtime, p = STLPort  
> build,
> n = (unsure) STLPort build without iostreams from STLPort (it looks  
> like `n'
> must always be used along with `p').  Additionally, it can start  
> with `mt-' to
> indicate for multi-thread builds.

Is this accurate?  What is a `static runtime'?  My guess is that `-s'  
is Windows-specific, because on Windows it's common to see both  
shared libraries and static libraries using the same naming scheme  
`libfoo.lib' (because in the shared library case, `libfoo.lib' is not  
a directly shared library but rather an import library), can anyone  
confirm that?  This entails that for most UNIX-like OSes, the `-s'  
variant doesn't exist, it's the `libfoo.a' static archive that is  
used instead, is that correct?

Cheers,

-- 
Benoit Sigoure aka Tsuna
EPITA Research and Development Laboratory