Is _d prefix actually needed? That is:
- is linking to release version of ICU gonna cause problems due to ABI changes? - is _d prefix used by official distribution of ICU?
If so, it's easy to change.
Yes, icu release links to MSVC90.DLL and icu debug to MSVC90D.DLL and this is very bad idea to link an application to both MSVC90.DLL **and** MSVC90D.DLL (I spend few weeks trying to figure out where is the problem and why my application does not start). And this is not "_d" prefix but rather "d" -> icuuc.lib/icuucd.lib and this is for MSVC builds only.
I recommend you wait for a week. While it's certainly possible to improve ICU autodetection for your library, an convenient and consistent interface for such checks was one of my goals for 1.43 and is being designed right now.
Ok this is very good. Because without such checks Boost.Build is quite... underpowered.
You would use <include>whatever or <library-path>whatever in the requirements of Jamroot, or in project-config.jam
Ok, so meanwhile I'll add explicit parameters to bjam. Artyom P.S.: To be honest... This is second build system I learn for last several month. I was quite frustrated by moving to CMake from autotools just in order to add MSVC support... I really hope that Boost.Build would be little bit simpler after my frustration with CMake.