David Abrahams wrote:

Edward Diener writes:

...

When I attempt to build the Boost libraries for the Comeau compiler using vc71 as my backend, each build line fails with:

"Command-line error #595: too many arguments on command line"

Is there a workaround to this problem ? I am surprised to see that for compilers which support the use of a file to hold command line parameters the build process does not use this technique, which leads to such an error.

The build process generally does use this technique, and the como-win32 toolset uses it for linking where command-line overflows are common. Are you saying it's needed for compilation too?

Yes, appears so. I typical compile line on my machine would be: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- como-C++-action bin\boost\libs\date_time\build\boost_date_time.dll\como-win32\de bug\greg_month.obj Command-line error #595: too many arguments on command line 1 catastrophic error detected in the compilation of "H:\Utilities\Boost". Compilation terminated. call "H:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\vc7\..\Common7\Tool s\vsvars32" >nul set "COMO_MS_INCLUDE=H:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\vc7/ include" set "LIB=H:\Utilities\Comeau\libcomo;%LIB%" set "PATH=H:\Utilities\Comeau\bin\;%PATH%" set "COMO_BASE=H:\Utilities\Comeau" H:\Utilities\Comeau\bin\como --vc71 -c -e5 --no_version --no_prelink_verbos e --display_error_number --long_long --diag_suppress=9,21,161,748,940,962 -D__ST L_LONG_LONG -DBOOST_ALL_DYN_LINK=1 --a --no_inlining /Zi /Od -D_WIN32 --exce ptions -I"bin\boost\libs\date_time\build" -I"H:\Utilities\Comeau\libcomo H:\Ut ilities\Comeau\libcomo\cnames" -I"H:\Utilities\Boost Libraries\boost_1_32_0" - o "bin\boost\libs\date_time\build\boost_date_time.dll\como-win32\debug\greg_mont h.obj" "H:\Utilities\Boost Libraries\boost_1_32_0\libs\date_time\build\../src/g regorian/greg_month.cpp" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The only thing I am adding to this from the bjam command line is the -DBOOST_ALL_DYN_LINK=1. I do not think the error message means the line is too long but rather that some Comeau compiler limit for command line arguments has been exceeded, but I am just guessing. I do not see any information in my Comeau 4.3.3 distribution which says what error messages mean.