I am using boost::spirit:x3, shown below. I use it to import/parse some very large files and am trying to find a way to get some sort of progress from it so that I can use for a progress bar in app, but so far I've been unable to see a way. namespace parser { namespace x3 = boost::spirit::x3; using namespace x3; auto const string = lexeme[+graph]; auto const point = rule {"point"} = int_ >> double_ >> double_ >> double_; auto const element = rule {"element"} = int_ >> string >> int_ >> int_ >> int_ >> eol >> *(int_ >> int_ >> int_); auto lines = [](auto p) { return *(p >> eol); }; auto const input = lines(point) >> lines(element); } And I import a file like so. { namespace x3 = boost::spirit::x3; mapped_file_source map(filePath); std::istringstream iss(map.data()); map.close(); boost::spirit::istream_iterator iter(iss >> std::noskipws), eof; bool ok = phrase_parse(iter, eof, smf::parser::input, x3::blank, types); if (iter != eof) { // ... } } Would anyone have thoughts on how to get some sort of indicator during the parsing?