Hello Chris, CR> The first question I have is "what config file formats does it CR> use/ want" ? I'm still reading all of the docs, so this may become CR> clear, but. The format is similar to windows INI files. I.e. key=value strings optionally grouped into sections. Also it may contain comments in lines that begin from #. Actual format is defined by the function common_config_file_iterator::get. If you provide your own implementation of basic_config_file_iterator you will be able to parse your own config file format. CR> The next question is, since this is one of the non-header-only CR> libraries, how hard would it be to pull segments out of the boost CR> distribution to ship with my suite of programs and build it along- CR> side? Just to get the program_options component. This is very easy. There is tool called bcp (acronym from boost copy), which you may use to copy only a single boost package. It automaticaly searches for all dependency and creates a working copy of several boost sub-libraries along with build files and documentation. I personally don't like program_options. -- -- Vyacheslav Andrejev -- System Architect, Optech International, Inc.