configure: error: Can not link to libboost_atomic - c++

Question

I am trying to compile some code. I installed boost using
brew install boost
which successfully completed. I then ran
autoreconf --install
which then allowed me to run
./configure
however it generates an error looking for libboost_atomic:
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/local/bin/ginstall -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /usr/local/bin/gmkdir -p
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... no
checking for nawk... no
checking for awk... awk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
checking for g++... g++
checking whether the C++ compiler works... yes
checking for C++ compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables...
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of g++... gcc3
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking whether gcc understands -c and -o together... yes
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... (cached) yes
checking build system type... x86_64-apple-darwin15.6.0
checking host system type... x86_64-apple-darwin15.6.0
checking for boostlib >= 1.60... yes
checking whether the Boost::Thread library is available... yes
checking for exit in -lboost_thread-mt... yes
checking whether the Boost::Log library is available... yes
checking for exit in -lboost_log-mt... yes
checking for exit in -lboost_log_setup-mt... yes
checking whether the Boost::Filesystem library is available... yes
checking for exit in -lboost_filesystem... yes
checking whether the Boost::Program_Options library is available... yes
checking for exit in -lboost_program_options-mt... yes
checking whether the Boost::System library is available... yes
checking for exit in -lboost_system... yes
checking whether the Boost::Chrono library is available... yes
checking for exit in -lboost_chrono-mt... yes
checking whether the Boost::Regex library is available... yes
checking for exit in -lboost_regex-mt... yes
checking whether the Boost::Date_Time library is available... yes
checking for exit in -lboost_date_time-mt... yes
checking for main in -lboost_atomic... no
configure: error: Can not link to libboost_atomic!
Searching on the internet has not yielded any information (I'm a user of the software, not a developer, so I'm not sure I'm looking for the right terms).
Can anyone tell me what I'm missing? Do I need to install further dependencies?
The system is Mac 10.11.

Answer 1

You're missing the package for developing with the boost atomic library. This is a common problem when compiling stuff on Linux, and your fix is to always Google the library (boost atomic) and your linux flavor, to see what to get. For Debian based systems (e.g. Ubuntu),
sudo apt-get install libboost-atomic-dev
should fix this. You may get other such errors - rinse and repeat. If all else fails you can download the source, and compile and install that:
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_53_0/doc/html/atomic.html
You have make instructions there.