MinGW binary installer for Boost?
Hi all, Is there such a thing as a binary for Boost under MinGW? As far as I can tell, the correct way to get started with Boost on MinGW is to download the .EXE installer, unpack to c:\Boost, then run bjam "-sMINGW_ROOT_DIRECTORY=c:\MinGW" "-sTOOLS=mingw" install I found that this didn't install the libraries where I expected, however. I found this comment: http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~dfischer/manual/manual_topic38.html#topic41 which says that I have to do a bunch of manual file moving/renaming. Is that right? Really? There must be a better way, surely? Please let me know if I'm missing something, or if there is a better way to get started with Boost under MinGW/MSYS. Cheers JP
John Pye wrote:
Hi all,
Is there such a thing as a binary for Boost under MinGW? As far as I can tell, the correct way to get started with Boost on MinGW is to download the .EXE installer, unpack to c:\Boost, then run
bjam "-sMINGW_ROOT_DIRECTORY=c:\MinGW" "-sTOOLS=mingw" install
I found that this didn't install the libraries where I expected, however.
Where did it install them to? And where did you expect them?
I found this comment: http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~dfischer/manual/manual_topic38.html#topic41
which says that I have to do a bunch of manual file moving/renaming. Is that right? Really? There must be a better way, surely?
That document is wrong in the general case (it may be some strange requirement of that alwis project). There should be no need to rename, relocate, or otherwise post process the libraries generated from the regular Boost build.
Please let me know if I'm missing something, or if there is a better way to get started with Boost under MinGW/MSYS.
Is there something is specific that isn't working for you? Any errors? Did you add the "c:\Boost\lib" dir to your library search path? -- -- Grafik - Don't Assume Anything -- Redshift Software, Inc. - http://redshift-software.com -- rrivera/acm.org - grafik/redshift-software.com -- 102708583/icq - grafikrobot/aim - grafikrobot/yahoo
Rene Rivera wrote:
John Pye wrote:
Hi all,
Is there such a thing as a binary for Boost under MinGW? As far as I can tell, the correct way to get started with Boost on MinGW is to download the .EXE installer, unpack to c:\Boost, then run
bjam "-sMINGW_ROOT_DIRECTORY=c:\MinGW" "-sTOOLS=mingw" install
I found that this didn't install the libraries where I expected, however.
Where did it install them to? And where did you expect them?
I just assumed that because I was specifying MinGW, it would install the files in the MinGW file tree. My assumption was wrong: If I want that I have to specify --prefix=c:\MinGW, it seems. The files were installed to c:\Boost, but again this was a little not-as-expected: it installs to c:\Boost\include\boost-1_33_1\boost. Why not just to c:\Boost\include\boost ? I guess this is so that you can have multiple versions present? But in that case wouldn't it be neater to use c:\Boost1331, c:\Boost114 or whatever, similar to Python?
I found this comment: http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~dfischer/manual/manual_topic38.html#topic41
which says that I have to do a bunch of manual file moving/renaming. Is that right? Really? There must be a better way, surely?
That document is wrong in the general case (it may be some strange requirement of that alwis project). There should be no need to rename, relocate, or otherwise post process the libraries generated from the regular Boost build.
Perhaps it would be good if there were (a) a binary installer for MinGW users. Would presumably be bound to a specific version of GCC, but otherwise portable?
Please let me know if I'm missing something, or if there is a better way to get started with Boost under MinGW/MSYS.
Is there something is specific that isn't working for you? Any errors? Did you add the "c:\Boost\lib" dir to your library search path?
The specific problem I'm having now is that the libraries don't work for
me. Here is a snippet from my SCons output:
scons: Configure: Checking for Boost libraries...
.sconf_temp\conftest_6.cpp <-
|
|#include <sstream>
|#include
On Thu, 10 May 2007, John Pye wrote:
Perhaps it would be good if there were (a) a binary installer for MinGW users. Would presumably be bound to a specific version of GCC, but otherwise portable?
mingw has a "package" maker. It's a set a shell macro that can build a lib/prog automatically, by applying patches, doing things during, before or after each step of the installation (configure, make make install) Vincent Torri
John Pye wrote:
Rene Rivera wrote:
John Pye wrote:
Where did it install them to? And where did you expect them?
I just assumed that because I was specifying MinGW, it would install the files in the MinGW file tree. My assumption was wrong: If I want that I have to specify --prefix=c:\MinGW, it seems.
Yep :-) The default build and install behavior on Windows is designed to mostly follow the Unix behavior. The one exception is the top level install location. Since there is no *standard* system location it installs to a recognizable location.
The files were installed to c:\Boost, but again this was a little not-as-expected: it installs to c:\Boost\include\boost-1_33_1\boost. Why not just to c:\Boost\include\boost ? I guess this is so that you can have multiple versions present?
Yes that's the reason.
But in that case wouldn't it be neater to use c:\Boost1331, c:\Boost114 or whatever, similar to Python?
Perhaps. But then it would mean changing the install structure across platforms. Which means more documentation.
Perhaps it would be good if there were (a) a binary installer for MinGW users.
Sure, and we welcome others in making such packages available.
Would presumably be bound to a specific version of GCC, but otherwise portable?
It would be bound to the version of MinGW which means more than just the version of GCC. In particular it would be bound to the versions of any libraries and headers that Boost uses.
Please let me know if I'm missing something, or if there is a better way to get started with Boost under MinGW/MSYS.
Is there something is specific that isn't working for you? Any errors? Did you add the "c:\Boost\lib" dir to your library search path?
The specific problem I'm having now is that the libraries don't work for me. Here is a snippet from my SCons output:
scons: Configure: Checking for Boost libraries... .sconf_temp\conftest_6.cpp <- | |#include <sstream> |#include
|#include | |int main(void){ | std::stringstream ss; | int x1=1; | const int &x = x1; | boost::archive::text_oarchive oa(ss); | oa & x; | return 0; |} | g++ -o .sconf_temp\conftest_6.o -c -g -Wall -IC:\mingw\include -IC:\Boost\include\boost-1_33_1 .sconf_temp\conftest_6.cpp g++ -o .sconf_temp\conftest_6.exe .sconf_temp\conftest_6.o -LC:\mingw\lib -LC:\Boost\lib -lcppunit -lgcov -lgsl -lgslcblas -lm -lboost_serialization c:\MinGW\bin\..\lib\gcc\mingw32\3.4.2\..\..\..\..\mingw32\bin\ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_serialization collect2: ld returned 1 exit status scons: Configure: no Perhaps I am supposed to add -mgw to my library name? That seems like a strange design choice? What I am doing wrong?
I don't know what Scons may be doing in addition to just adding the -l option. But yes, you need to specify the a specific variant of the libraries built. The getting started guide has a section describing the names of libraries generated. As for the design choice... It's a requirement as many options in compiling C++ programs changes the ABI and code compatibility. -- -- Grafik - Don't Assume Anything -- Redshift Software, Inc. - http://redshift-software.com -- rrivera/acm.org - grafik/redshift-software.com -- 102708583/icq - grafikrobot/aim - grafikrobot/yahoo
Rene Rivera wrote:
John Pye wrote:
Rene Rivera wrote:
John Pye wrote:
Where did it install them to? And where did you expect them?
I just assumed that because I was specifying MinGW, it would install the files in the MinGW file tree. My assumption was wrong: If I want that I have to specify --prefix=c:\MinGW, it seems.
Yep :-) The default build and install behavior on Windows is designed to mostly follow the Unix behavior. The one exception is the top level install location. Since there is no *standard* system location it installs to a recognizable location.
I found some files here without the special -mgw-.... stuff: c:\Boost\bin\boost\libs\serialisation\build Are they temp files? Should I use them? Or are they precompiled MSVC files or something?
The files were installed to c:\Boost, but again this was a little not-as-expected: it installs to c:\Boost\include\boost-1_33_1\boost. Why not just to c:\Boost\include\boost ? I guess this is so that you can have multiple versions present?
Yes that's the reason.
But in that case wouldn't it be neater to use c:\Boost1331, c:\Boost114 or whatever, similar to Python?
Perhaps. But then it would mean changing the install structure across platforms. Which means more documentation.
I guess so. Or perhaps one more build option like --suppress-versioned-subdirs? I'd note that the typical user experience coming from Linux is that there are no such versioned subdirectories. The files are just straight there in /usr/lib and /usr/include. Or perhaps such machinations are the job of someone who takes it upon themselves to produce a special MinGW binary installer for Boost.
Perhaps it would be good if there were (a) a binary installer for MinGW users.
Sure, and we welcome others in making such packages available.
I will put it on my list of would-like-to-do tasks.
Would presumably be bound to a specific version of GCC, but otherwise portable?
It would be bound to the version of MinGW which means more than just the version of GCC. In particular it would be bound to the versions of any libraries and headers that Boost uses.
Please let me know if I'm missing something, or if there is a better way to get started with Boost under MinGW/MSYS.
Is there something is specific that isn't working for you? Any errors? Did you add the "c:\Boost\lib" dir to your library search path?
The specific problem I'm having now is that the libraries don't work for me. Here is a snippet from my SCons output:
scons: Configure: Checking for Boost libraries... .sconf_temp\conftest_6.cpp <- | |#include <sstream> |#include
|#include | |int main(void){ | std::stringstream ss; | int x1=1; | const int &x = x1; | boost::archive::text_oarchive oa(ss); | oa & x; | return 0; |} | g++ -o .sconf_temp\conftest_6.o -c -g -Wall -IC:\mingw\include -IC:\Boost\include\boost-1_33_1 .sconf_temp\conftest_6.cpp g++ -o .sconf_temp\conftest_6.exe .sconf_temp\conftest_6.o -LC:\mingw\lib -LC:\Boost\lib -lcppunit -lgcov -lgsl -lgslcblas -lm -lboost_serialization c:\MinGW\bin\..\lib\gcc\mingw32\3.4.2\..\..\..\..\mingw32\bin\ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_serialization collect2: ld returned 1 exit status scons: Configure: no Perhaps I am supposed to add -mgw to my library name? That seems like a strange design choice? What I am doing wrong?
I don't know what Scons may be doing in addition to just adding the -l option. But yes, you need to specify the a specific variant of the libraries built.
OK, so I added stuff for the correct extra library name stuff, namely -mgw-mt-d-1_33_1, and it worked. I note that I also needed to set my PATH to include c:\Boost\lib.
The getting started guide has a section describing the names of libraries generated. As for the design choice... It's a requirement as many options in compiling C++ programs changes the ABI and code compatibility.
I think that something that would make things a lot easier for MinGW users with Boost would be the provision of a shell script a la "pkg-config". Such scripts are used with a lot of more complex libraries in Linux, as well as GTK on Windows. Something like the following: If I typed: boost-config serialisation --cppflags it would output "-Ic:\Boost\include\boost-1_33_1" and if I typed boost-config --tools=mingw serialisation --libs it would output "-Lc:\Boost\libs" "-lboost_serialisation-mgw-mt-d-1_33_1" This would be particularly useful in the case of GNU Makefiles and SCons files. In the case of GNU Make, one can then have CPPFLAGS=`boost-config --cppflags serialisation` LDFLAGS=`boost-config --libs serialisation` and in the case of SCons env.ParseConfig("boost-config --libs --cppflags serialisation") and the correct flags, with all the bells and whistles, would be added to the environment. This 'boost-config' file would need to be prepared at build-time and would be installed in c:\MinGW\bin or some other path that would be defined by build-time options. Again I note that GTK+ uses this technique to help users set the necessary compiler flags on Windows as well as Linux. Cheers JP
participants (3)
-
John Pye -
Rene Rivera -
Vincent Torri