[Boost-users] [build] Library suffix on mingw/win32

From: John Femiani (JOHN.FEMIANI_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-07-05 18:28:29

I have used boost for some time on windows with msvc, but I am trying to
install & use it with mingw-g++.
I'm no gcc expert, but it seems that ld requires specific extensions for
libraries, and bjam is not generating the right ones.

In particular, under mingw, the flag 
   -lboost_unit_test_framework 
Will match 
   boost_unit_test_framework.lib  (the import library for the dll)
Or
   libboost_unit_test_framework.a
But NOT
   libboost_unit_test_framework.lib   
Which is what bjam produces.

Here is an approach that WONT work:
Using 
   -llibboost_unit_test_framework 
Or    
   -llibboost_unit_test_framework.lib
Fails because the leading 'lib' is automatically stripped out by ld.

As a solution I just renamed all lib*.lib files to lib*.a, but something
seems basically wrong with the situation. I don't know WHY bjam used a
'.lib' suffix, since I built the libraries using gcc. The static
libraries I generate from gcc should be linkable from gcc...

I use mingw + msys to build boost as follows:

1) I installed MinGW Automated Installer, MingW GCC 4.3.0, and then MSYS
via its installer.
    - this creates C:\MingW and C:\msys\1.0. The gcc-4.3.0 files are
extraced into C:\mingw
2) I open the MSYS shell by running msys.bat
3) I fetch boost/trunk into my home directory using svn.
4) I run tools/jam/build_dist.sh to create bjam
5) I copy bjam.exe to /mingw/bin 
6) from within the msys shell, I run 
     bjam --toolset=gcc --layout=system --build-type=complete
--prefix=/mingw

When I am done, under /mingw/lib I have files with names like:
        boost_*.dll
      boost_*.lib
        libboost_*.lib   
In particular, the static libraries have a '.lib' suffix.

I have googled and searched the boost site, and I can find issues
related to mingw/etc but nobody else seems to have _this_ problem. Is
there something I am just doing wrong here? 

BTW: --toolset=mingw failed to find the mingw toolset, but when I build
with gcc is seems to know what to do.

Thanks,
--John Femiani