Boost Download and Installation
The boost libraries are intended for easy download and installation; many libraries require nothing more
that downloading and unpacking to be ready for use, including full
documentation. When required, see Building Boost Libraries to create object
libraries.
Download
The boost libraries are available in various formats:
- HTTP download
all of Boost as a single archive file (.zip or .tar.gz) file from our SourceForge HTTP site. Older
versions also available. (This option is suggested first since it
doesn't count against our web site host's monthly fee.)
- ZIP download all of Boost as a
single archive file from our web site.
- Download individual files from links in the documentation on the
web site. Because of the number of files involved, and header dependencies, this option usually
isn't very useful.
The .zip format is widely supported by both free decoders and commercial
compress/archive utilities. If you don't already have a .zip file
decoder, download one from the Info-ZIP web site, which supplies versions
for many operating systems.
Text file line endings in the .zip file are as supplied by each
library developer. This works fine for Windows, but not for
Unix/Linux. The .tar.gz file supplies Unix/Linux friendly line
endings.
The .tar.gz format is widely supported on Unix/Linux platforms. Some
Windows compress/archive utilities can read the format as well.
Because the gzip format compresses the archive as a single file rather
than compressing each file individually, the .tar.gz file is smaller that
the .zip file.
Text file line endings in the .tar.gz file have been converted to
newlines for ease of use on Unix/Linux platforms.
Boost CVS Repository
All Boost files, including the entire distribution tree including web
site HTML is maintained in a CVS repository.
Boost CVS access via command line or graphical clients
For those who have CVS clients installed, the libraries are also
available from the public Boost CVS repository.
Free command line clients (often already installed on Linux/Unix systems)
are available at the CVS home page,
and free GUI clients are also available for Windows, Mac, and other
systems from CvsGui.org.
The general procedure for command-line clients is something like
this:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.boost.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/boost
login
[Hit <return> when it asks for a password]
cvs -z3
-d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.boost.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/boost checkout
boost
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.boost.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/boost
logout
Read the manual for your CVS client for further information.
This access is read-only; if you are a library author and wish to have
CVS write access, please contact one of the moderators.
Boost CVS access via web Browser
For access to the CVS archive from any modern web browser, you can also
use the web
browser interface. Try one of the color diffs to see how
a file has changed over time.
Boost does not yet have a standardized installation process. There has
been some interest in developing one; as of this writing Bill Kempf has volunteered to
coordinate and is gathering volunteers. If you have expertise in this
area (particularly cross-platform expertise), and you would like to
contribute, please announce your availability on the Boost
Install mailing list.
That said, preparing to use Boost in a development project is
relatively straightforward. Most boost libraries are implemented entirely
within their header files. The only preparation for their use is to add
the boost root directory to your compiler's list of
#include<...> search paths. For example, using Windows
2000, if you have unzipped release 1.28.0 from boost_all.zip into the top
level directory of your C drive, adding '-Ic:/boost_1_28_0' to the
command line of most compilers is sufficient.
The Python, Regex, and Threads libraries are implemented in
part as separate source files, and thus require compilation before use.
See Building Boost Libraries for
an automatic tool to prepare such libraries. Some of the individual
libraries also include make and/or project files for various compilers,
but every library with a built component includes the neccessary
Jamfile for building with Boost.Build, our standard build tool.
Revised
18
November, 2002
Written by Jens Maurer
2001-02-11
