this is a small test to get the linker error CMakeLists.txt cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.18) project(example) find_package(Boost CONFIG REQUIRED COMPONENTS unit_test_framework) add_executable(example "main.cpp") target_link_libraries(example Boost::unit_test_framework) --- main.cpp #define BOOST_TEST_MODULE MyTest #include <boost/test/unit_test.hpp> BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE( my_test ) { BOOST_CHECK( true ); } --- how to build my build environment LLVM 14, cmake 3.23, VS2017 latest, Boost 1.79 build boost 1.79 with VS2017 1. boostrap.bat 2. b2 -j%NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS% toolset=msvc-14.1 address-model=64 --stagedir=.\lib64-msvc-14.1 --build-dir=.\__build --build-type=complete threading=multi architecture=x86 --with-test build example on console: 1. set my_ninja_dir=D:/temp/clang_cl_test/ninja-win 2. set my_llvm_dir=C:/Program Files/LLVM/bin 3. set my_boost_dir=D:/temp/clang_cl_test/boost_1_79_0/lib64-msvc-14.1 4. set path=%path%;%my_ninja_dir%;%my_llvm_dir% 5. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat" VS2017/cl build: 6. cmake -G Ninja -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="%my_boost_dir%" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="Debug" ..\example clang-cl build: 6. cmake -G Ninja -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER="clang-cl.exe" -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER="clang-cl.exe" -DBoost_COMPILER="vc141" -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="%my_boost_dir%" ..\example 7. ninja the VS2017/cl builds and the example exe works the clang-cl build got a link error: lld-link: error: could not open 'libboost_unit_test_framework-clangw14-mt-gd-x64-1_79.lib': no such file or directory even when boost is built with -layout=tagged