Suddenly I remember why I wanted the directory structure change... I could achieve what I want by moving BOOST_ROOT/boost into my INCLUDE directory. But the disadvantage with that is that I need to perform a move operation. *** In my current development environment, my source control directory structure mirrors my release directory structure exactly. *** So, in source control I have: /include --/BOOST_ROOT ----/boost <- headers are here --/my_lib <- headers are here But, in my release I want to have: /include ----/boost <- headers are here ----/my_lib <- headers are here I was suggesting the change so that source control and relase could be the same. This would necessitate that documentation and source for boost would have to be within the boost (include) directory. Some might find that a worse alternative I suppose.