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 also
Revised 06 August, 2002
Written by Jens Maurer
2001-02-11
