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

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] [Build/make tools] My strong interest in some 'boost-config' script...
From: Vladimir Prus (vladimir_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-03-11 18:03:43

Esben Mose Hansen wrote:

> On Wednesday 11 March 2009 11:54:24 François Mauger wrote:
> 
>> 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...
> 
> [...]
> 
>> So I have a few questions:
>> - Is there such a script hidden in the Boost source tree?
> I am not an expert in Boost, but I do not believe there is such a script, or
> even a pkg-config file. From the archives, the post
> 
> http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2007/02/116513.php
> 
> which is essentially identical to yours, received no replies. It seems most
> people use either the GNU autotools or the CMake build system to automatically
> find and use Boost headers and libraries. Of these, CMake is what I would
> recommend, unless you plan to deploy or compile on obscure Unix platforms.
> CMake provides the FindBoost.cmake, which in recent versions is quite decent.
> 
>> - If not, is there any plan to provide one?
> 
> Not that I can see. It is not so easy to do as it first appears, though.
> Essentially, you would need to generate a pkg-config file containing the base
> include for boost, the path to the library install dir and the names of all
> the relevant libraries for the boost installation. However
>  * such a file would need to be generated by the build system
>  ** The build system in Boost is the little-known or used bjam system.

There's no "bjam system". The build tool used by C++ Boost is called Boost.Build.

- Volodya