[Boost-users] [Build/make tools] My strong interest in some 'boost-config' script...

Subject: [Boost-users] [Build/make tools] My strong interest in some 'boost-config' script...
From: François Mauger (mauger_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-03-11 06:54:24

Dear boosters,

As a  programmer under Unix-like  systems, I really appreciate  when a
library (say  `mylib') provides some `mylib-config'  script that helps
its  users  to  build  compiler flags.   Several  industrial  strength
libraries have such  a tool: GSL, MySQL and, in  the field of particle
physics software I work: CLHEP, ROOT, CERNLIB...

Here is an example for the GSL (GNU Scientific Library):

 >>> $ gsl-config
Usage: gsl-config [OPTION]

Known values for OPTION are:

  --prefix              show GSL installation prefix
  --libs                print library linking information, with cblas
  --libs-without-cblas  print library linking information, without cblas
  --cflags              print pre-processor and compiler flags
  --help                display this help and exit
  --version             output version information

An external CBLAS library can be specified using the GSL_CBLAS_LIB
environment variable. The GSL CBLAS library is used by default.
<<<

I makes  really easy to  write rather portable makefiles  using things
like:

CPPFLAGS+=$(shell  gsl-config  --cflags)  
LDFLAGS+=$(shell  gsl-config --libs)

Up to now  and AFAIK it seems Boost does not  provide such script that
could  be generated  at  build  stage for  any  Unix-like system.   Of
course, I  wrote my own  script for my  own usage (and for  people who
work with me).  But at the end, I  think it would be better  to use an
`official' tool.  For  my experience, it is also  a strong argument to
convince newbies to use Boost on top of standard C++, because it comes
in some rather transparent way.

So I have a few questions:
- Is there such a script hidden in the Boost source tree?
- If not, is there any plan to provide one?
- Is someone else interested with it?

Thank you very much for your comments.

[hope this topic has not been addressed in the past! I apologize in 
advance for that!]

regards
frc
[PS: I previously posted this mail within the wrong thread... sorry!]
--
F.Mauger