Cross-compiling boost for Windows on Linux - c++

Question

I'm trying to create mingw binaries for boost on a Linux machine. The mingw compiler is present on my system as /usr/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-g++ and I have been able to create a simple HelloWorld.exe application.
Here is an exact list of my actions:
$ tar xvf boost_1_46_1.tar.gz
$ cd boost_1_46_1/
$ echo "using gcc : 4.4.4: i586-mingw32msvc-g++ ;" > user-config.jam
$ ./bootstrap.sh
$ ./bjam toolset=gcc target-os=windows
The result is this:
Building the Boost C++ Libraries.
...found 83 targets...
...updating 9 targets...
common.mkdir bin.v2
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/regex
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/regex/build
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_icu_test.o
In file included from /usr/include/unicode/pwin32.h:123,
from /usr/include/unicode/umachine.h:47,
from /usr/include/unicode/uversion.h:47,
from libs/regex/build/has_icu_test.cpp:12:
/usr/include/inttypes.h:290: warning: ISO C++ 1998 does not support ‘long long’
/usr/include/inttypes.h:291: warning: ISO C++ 1998 does not support ‘long long’
libs/regex/build/has_icu_test.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:
libs/regex/build/has_icu_test.cpp:24: warning: unused variable ‘c’
gcc.link bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_icu.exe
/usr/lib/gcc/i586-mingw32msvc/4.4.4/../../../../i586-mingw32msvc/bin/ld: cannot find -licuuc
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
"i586-mingw32msvc-g++" -L"/usr/bin" -L"/usr/lib" -Wl,-R -Wl,"/usr/bin" -Wl,-R -Wl,"/usr/lib" -Wl,-rpath-link -Wl,"/usr/bin" -Wl,-rpath-link -Wl,"/usr/lib" -o "bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_icu.exe" -Wl,--start-group "bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_icu_test.o" -Wl,-Bstatic -Wl,-Bdynamic -licuuc -licui18n -licudata -Wl,--end-group -g
...failed gcc.link bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_icu.exe...
...failed updating 1 target...
...updated 8 targets...
Performing configuration checks
- has_icu builds : no
warning: Graph library does not contain MPI-based parallel components.
note: to enable them, add "using mpi ;" to your user-config.jam
...found 8 targets...
...updating 6 targets...
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/math
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/math/config
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_gcc_visibility.o
cc1plus: warnings being treated as errors
libs/math/config/has_gcc_visibility.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:
libs/math/config/has_gcc_visibility.cpp:13: error: visibility attribute not supported in this configuration; ignored
"i586-mingw32msvc-g++" -ftemplate-depth-128 -O0 -fno-inline -Wall -g -Werror -fvisibility=hidden -DBOOST_ALL_NO_LIB=1 -I"." -c -o "bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_gcc_visibility.o" "libs/math/config/has_gcc_visibility.cpp"
...failed gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_gcc_visibility.o...
...failed updating 1 target...
...updated 5 targets...
- ../config//has_gcc_visibility builds : no
...found 46 targets...
...updating 1 target...
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_long_double_support.o
...updated 1 target...
- ../config//has_long_double_support builds : yes
warning: skipping optional Message Passing Interface (MPI) library.
note: to enable MPI support, add "using mpi ;" to user-config.jam.
note: to suppress this message, pass "--without-mpi" to bjam.
note: otherwise, you can safely ignore this message.
************************************************************
Trying to build Boost.Thread with pthread support.
If you need pthread you should specify the paths.
You can specify them in site-config.jam, user-config.jam
or in the environment.
For example:
PTW32_INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\ptw32\Pre-built2\include
PTW32_LIB=C:\Program Files\ptw32\Pre-built2\lib
************************************************************
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build/virtual-target.jam:1079: in virtual-target.register-actual-name from module virtual-target
error: Duplicate name of actual target: <pstage/lib>libboost_date_time.a
error: previous virtual target { common%common.copy-libboost_date_time.a.STATIC_LIB { gcc%gcc.archive-libboost_date_time.a.STATIC_LIB { gcc%gcc.compile.c++-gregorian/greg_month.o.OBJ { gregorian/greg_month.cpp.CPP } } { gcc%gcc.compile.c++-gregorian/greg_weekday.o.OBJ { gregorian/greg_weekday.cpp.CPP } } { gcc%gcc.compile.c++-gregorian/date_generators.o.OBJ { gregorian/date_generators.cpp.CPP } } } }
error: created from ./stage-proper
error: another virtual target { common%common.copy-libboost_date_time.a.STATIC_LIB { gcc%gcc.archive-libboost_date_time.a.STATIC_LIB { gcc%gcc.compile.c++-gregorian/greg_month.o.OBJ { gregorian/greg_month.cpp.CPP } } { gcc%gcc.compile.c++-gregorian/greg_weekday.o.OBJ { gregorian/greg_weekday.cpp.CPP } } { gcc%gcc.compile.c++-gregorian/date_generators.o.OBJ { gregorian/date_generators.cpp.CPP } } } }
error: created from ./stage-proper
error: added properties: <debug-symbols>off <define>NDEBUG <inlining>full <optimization>speed <runtime-debugging>off <variant>release
error: removed properties: <debug-symbols>on <inlining>off <optimization>off <runtime-debugging>on <variant>debug
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build/virtual-target.jam:490: in actualize-no-scanner from module object(file-target)#3884
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build/virtual-target.jam:135: in object(file-target)#3884.actualize from module object(file-target)#3884
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build-system.jam:748: in load from module build-system
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/kernel/modules.jam:283: in import from module modules
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/kernel/bootstrap.jam:142: in boost-build from module
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/boost-build.jam:17: in module scope from module
It says libicu is not found on my system, but according to Synaptic Package Manage I have the libicu-dev package installed.
I'm not sure how to get it right. Can anyone help?
Update 1
Following #Luke's recoommendation I now gcc-mingw toolset. So now my build instructions look like this:
tar xvf boost_1_46_1.tar.gz
cd boost_1_46_1/
echo "using gcc : 4.4.4: i586-mingw32msvc-g++ ;" > user-config.jam
./bootstrap.sh
./bjam toolset=gcc-mingw target-os=windows
Which leads to the following errors:
error: toolset gcc initialization:
error: version 'mingw' requested but 'g++-mingw' not found and version '4.4.5' of default 'g++' does not match
error: initialized from
/home/francis/orig/boost-mingw/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build/toolset.jam:38: in toolset.using from module toolset
/home/francis/orig/boost-mingw/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build-system.jam:481: in process-explicit-toolset-requests from module build-system
/home/francis/orig/boost-mingw/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build-system.jam:561: in load from module build-system
/home/francis/orig/boost-mingw/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/kernel/modules.jam:283: in import from module modules
/home/francis/orig/boost-mingw/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/kernel/bootstrap.jam:142: in boost-build from module
/home/francis/orig/boost-mingw/boost_1_46_1/boost-build.jam:17: in module scope from module
Update 2
I have also tried specifying gcc-mingw in the user-config.jam file. Then my build instructions look like this:
tar xvf boost_1_46_1.tar.gz
cd boost_1_46_1/
echo "using gcc-mingw : 4.4.4: i586-mingw32msvc-g++ ;" > user-config.jam
./bootstrap.sh
./bjam toolset=gcc-mingw target-os=windows
Which leads to:
error: version 'mingw' requested but 'g++-mingw' not found and version '4.4.5' of default 'g++' does not match
Update 3
Specifying g++-mingw in the user-config.jam file:
using g++-mingw : 4.4.4: i586-mingw32msvc-g++ ;
...leads to the same error.

Answer 1

I got similar error messages. Eventually I was able to compile it using exactly the following commands:
$ echo "using gcc : : i686-w64-mingw32-g++ ;" > user-config.jam
$ ./bootstrap.sh
$ ./b2 --user-config=user-config.jam toolset=gcc-mingw target-os=windows release
I believe your problem is that you don't specify the "--user-config=user-config.jam" parameter. The next problem I encountered was that there will be a name conflict unless I specify either debug or release build (--layout=tagged or --layout=versioned might work also).

Answer 2

Cross-compiling boost 1.72.0 for Windows on Ubuntu 18.04
Install MinGW
$ sudo apt install mingw-w64 mingw-w64-tools
$ sudo update-alternatives --set i686-w64-mingw32-g++ /usr/bin/i686-w64-mingw32-g++-posix
$ sudo update-alternatives --set i686-w64-mingw32-gcc /usr/bin/i686-w64-mingw32-gcc-posix
$ sudo update-alternatives --set x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ /usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++-posix
$ sudo update-alternatives --set x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc /usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc-posix
32-bit Compilation (install path: ./boost-x86)
$ echo "using gcc : : i686-w64-mingw32-g++ ;" > user-config.jam
$ ./bootstrap.sh
$ ./b2 --user-config=./user-config.jam --prefix=./boost-x86 target-os=windows address-model=32 variant=release install
64-bit Compilation (install path: ./boost-x64)
$ echo "using gcc : : x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ ;" > user-config.jam
$ ./bootstrap.sh
$ ./b2 --user-config=./user-config.jam --prefix=./boost-x64 target-os=windows address-model=64 variant=release install

Answer 3

I had some difficulty with this too, but it seems to be working for me now. To be clear, I'm cross compiling on Linux for Windows.
in user-config.jam:
using gcc : mingw32 : i686-w64-mingw32-g++ ;
Note that the second term "mingw32" is an arbitrary "version" tag. The toolset flag combines the compiler name and the version name w/ a dash. So, in my case, gcc-mingw32. The third term is what actually gets invoked ("i686-w64-mingw32-g++"). Obviously your version of mingw's compiler may have a different name.
Here is how I invoked bjam:
./b2 toolset=gcc-mingw32 target-os=windows threadapi=win32 --build-type=complete --prefix=/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/local --layout=tagged --without-python -sNO_BZIP2=1 -sNO_ZLIB=1
I got all the interesting flags from Congelli501's answer. But didn't bother with the directory of links approach.

Answer 4

This is the commands I use. I have tested them for boost 1.46 and 1.49.
To begin, create links to the compiler inside /usr/i686-w64-mingw32/bin. You can run this script :
#!/bin/bash
binDir="/usr/bin"
destDir="/usr/i686-w64-mingw32/bin"
cd "$binDir"
mkdir -p "$destDir"
for name in $(ls i686-w64-mingw32*); do
newName=$(echo "$name" | sed -e "s/i686-w64-mingw32-\(.\?\)/\1/")
if [ -f "$destDir/$newName" ]; then
rm "$destDir/$newName"
fi
ln -s "$binDir/$name" "$destDir/$newName"
done
Then, install bjam. On ubuntu / debian, it is included in the package "libboost1.48-dev"
apt-get install libboost1.48-dev
To finish, become root and run
env PATH=/usr/i686-w64-mingw32/bin:$PATH bjam toolset=gcc target-os=windows variant=release threading=multi threadapi=win32 link=static --prefix=/usr/i686-w64-mingw32 -j 4 --without-mpi --without-python -sNO_BZIP2=1 -sNO_ZLIB=1 --layout=tagged install
Done !

Answer 5

According to this it looks like you should be using the toolset=gcc-mingw. You have toolset=gcc.

Answer 6

As Luke already mentioned, toolset=gcc-mingw will certainly help.
Your libicu-dev is 99% sure the linux library headers, which is not for mingw. You'll either have to build it yourself or get it from someplace (could be your distribution, otherwise you'll need to build it from source)

Answer 7

I had same problem. Try specifying only a single build variant (i.e., add "variant=Release link=shared runtime-link=shared")