Boost Download and Installation
The boost libraries are intended for easy download and installation.
However, unlike other packages, there is no global setup and
configuration tool.
Download
The boost libraries are available in various formats. Most of the
files are available through links from the individual library's
documentation. Since many boost headers include other boost headers,
installing one at a time is painful. Downloading all of Boost as a single archive
file (.zip or .tar.gz) is a lot easier. CVS access is also
available.
.zip file
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.
.tar.gz file
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.
CVS archive
For those who have CVS installed, the libraries are also available
from the public CVS repository. 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.
WWW access to the CVS archive
For access to individual files in the CVS archive, you can also use its
WWW interface.
Installation
Many boost libraries are implemented entirely within their header
files. The only preparation for their use is to add the path for the
parent directory of the boost headers sub-directory to your compiler's
list of #include search directories.
For example, using Windows 2000, if you have unzipped release 1.20.2
from boost_all.zip into the top level directory of your C drive, for
Borland, GCC, and Metrowerks compilers add '-Ic:/boost_1_20_2' to the
compiler command line, and for the Microsoft compiler add '/I
"c:/boost_1_20_2"'. For IDE's, add 'c:/boost_1_20_2' (or whatever you
have renamed it to) to the search list using the appropriate GUI
dialog.
A few boost libraries are implemented by separate source files, and
thus require compilation on your system to link properly. Boost does
not currently have an overall "build" or "make" mechanism in place.
Some of the individual libraries do include make and/or project files
for various compilers, though.
Revised 14 March, 2001
Written by Jens Maurer
2001-02-11
