Uninstall boost and install another version - c++

Question

I've installed the boost libraries on Linux Mint 12 using the command sudo apt-get install libboost-dev libboost-doc, which installs the default version available in the repositories. However, the project I have to do needs the 1.44 version of boost. How do I uninstall the default (current) version 1.46 and install 1.44?
I couldn't find the documentation on the boost website to install boost from the .tar.gz package.

Answer 1

Boost can installed by two ways
Deb package
wget and install manually
In some case we might have installed by both type which can cause version error. Lets see how to uninstall both.
sudo apt-get update
# to uninstall deb version
sudo apt-get -y --purge remove libboost-all-dev libboost-doc libboost-dev
# to uninstall the version which we installed from source
sudo rm -f /usr/lib/libboost_*
Then we need to install other dependencies if they are not met
sudo apt-get -y install build-essential g++ python-dev autotools-dev libicu-dev libbz2-dev
Lets download the boost version which we need from the link. I am downloading the 1.54 version. Then untar and install it.
# go to home folder
cd
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/boost/boost/1.54.0/boost_1_54_0.tar.gz
tar -zxvf boost_1_54_0.tar.gz
cd boost_1_54_0
# get the no of cpucores to make faster
cpuCores=`cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "cpu cores" | uniq | awk '{print $NF}'`
echo "Available CPU cores: "$cpuCores
./bootstrap.sh # this will generate ./b2
sudo ./b2 --with=all -j $cpuCores install
Now let's check the installed version
cat /usr/local/include/boost/version.hpp | grep "BOOST_LIB_VERSION"
You will see something like below
// BOOST_LIB_VERSION must be defined to be the same as BOOST_VERSION
#define BOOST_LIB_VERSION "1_54"
Version 1.54 of boost is installed
That's it, it worked for me. Let me know if you face any issues.

Answer 2

You can uninstall with
apt-get --purge remove libboost-dev libboost-doc
Download the package you need from boost website, extract and follow "getting started" instructions found inside index.html in the extracted directory.

Answer 3

Tested working Ubuntu 20.04 Use my script to uninstall your older version of boost in ubuntu 20.04 and follow rams instructions above
#!/bin/bash
sudo apt-get -y --purge remove libboost-all-dev libboost-doc libboost-dev
echo "clear boost dir"
sudo rm -r /usr/local/lib/libboost*
sudo rm -r /usr/local/include/boost
sudo rm -r /usr/local/lib/cmake/*
sudo rm -f /usr/lib/libboost_*
sudo rm -r /usr/include/boost

Answer 4

Downgrade your boost version. I'm not familiar with Mint, but assuming it is deb-based, you can do:
apt-cache show libboost-dev
to see all installable version and install a specific version with
sudo apt-get install libboost-dev=1.42.0.1
There are also convenience packages for the major boost versions:
sudo apt-get install libboost1.44-dev

Answer 5

As #savamane wrote you can uninstall it with
apt-get --purge remove libboost-dev libboost-doc
Another suggestion to install the .deb packages as suggested here. (Download the one fitted for your architecture though).
For still supported distros, you can simply search for the package at the distributions at http://packages.ubuntu.com/. For example libboost-system1.46.1 can be found in under the precise -> Libraries tab.
For unsupported distros, there is still a chance to find them at
http://archive.ubuntu.com/. For example can libboost-all-dev_1.40.0.1_amd64.deb be found in
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/b/boost-defaults/.

Answer 6

This is how you install a specific Boost version:
cd boost_1_54_0/
./bootstrap.sh --with-libraries=atomic,date_time,exception,filesystem,iostreams,locale,program_options,regex,signals,system,test,thread,timer,log
sudo ./b2 install