Re: [Boost-users] [test] Is standalone use possible?

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] [test] Is standalone use possible?
From: Raffi Enficiaud (raffi.enficiaud_at_[hidden])
Date: 2017-10-02 12:40:34

Le 01.10.17 à 23:54, Adam Nielsen via Boost-users a écrit :
> Hi all,
>
> I'm in the process of trying to remove the Boost dependency from my
> project, as it is causing too many difficulties for non-developers
> trying to run my code.
>
> This has been mostly solved by switching to C++11 and using the std::
> implementations instead, however rather than rewrite all my unit tests
> I am hoping I can use a standalone version of Boost.Test, and
> distribute the code alongside my own.
>
> Unfortunately I am not quite sure how to extract the Test library out
> of the main Boost distribution.  I have compiled "bcp" and used it to
> copy "test" into a new folder, but it seems to copy a huge chunk of
> Boost as well, including a bunch of libraries (system, thread,
> date_time, etc.) and I end up with 29 MB of source files, which seems
> wrong (especially considering my own codebase is barely 500 kB).
>
> Am I doing something wrong?  I was hoping to use the header-only
> version of Boost.Test and this does seem to work when I #include the
> system-wide version of Boost (and don't link to any libraries), so it
> would seem that I don't need all those libraries that bcp copies.
>
> Is there any other way to access a slimmed-down standalone version of
> Boost.Test?

Hi,

Currently this is not possible. But (as one of the boost.test 
maintainer) I see this as an important feature for boost.test, so I'll 
be working on it.

The main chunks of dependencies boost.test relies on are:
- boost.config that indicates many of the compiler capabilities. I 
believe we can come up a header that the user can adapt from a general 
one (as some autoconf like tool would do)
- boost.mpl that can be replaced by c++11 features
- boost.preprocessor that is heavily used for getting the macro magics.

Apart from that, there are many utility functions, as John said for 
instance boost.chrono and boost.timer. I do not have a clear strategy 
for this, apart from duplicating those within boost.test.

I understand that this is an urgent feature for you, although I cannot 
commit to a precise date, I will work on this.

Best,
Raffi

>
> Many thanks,
> Adam.
>