Build Boost on Mac with Xcode - c++

I've recently got acquainted with Boost library and I'd like to use it in my Xcode project. But sadly there is no HowTo or FAQ on how to do it :(
What's the sequence of actions to build and use Boost libraries in Xcode?

The easiest way I've found to do it is to install MacPorts, then you can install/build Boost via a single command:
sudo port install boost
Plus you get similar access to other open source software. The only downside I've found is that, like any other package management system, they are not always up to date with the latest version.
If you prefer Homebrew as your package manager, the command is:
brew install boost

I don't know how to use Boost from XCode (I'm not a Mac programmer), but building boost is usually done through their own build tool, bjam.
They have a guide to building boost here, and you can download the latest version of bjam here
Once it is built, you reference it from Xcode the same way you would any other library. The boost/include should be added to your include path, and the libraries in boost/lib can be referenced for the boost libs that require it.

To build boost on a mac, follow the unix variants getting started page (http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_39_0/more/getting_started/unix-variants.html). You won't use Xcode directly to perform the build, but once complete you can add the boost include paths and dylib's to your Xcode project.

I found that to build Boost 1.41.1 on MacOS, you need to do the following:
Download boost 1.46.1 from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost/1.46.1/
Unpack the file
Open terminal, cd to the install directory, and do the following:
chmod u+x configure.sh
cd tools/build/v2/engine/src
chmod u+x build.sh
Then go back to the install directory, and:
./configure.sh
If that runs successfully, it will tell you to run:
./bjam
That's it.. for whatever reason, I needed to set those permissions manually before it would work.

su - root
enter root password and then run below as root
/opt/local/bin/port install boost
If you have never logged in as root or forgotten your password, here are the steps to reset root password
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1528?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

For most of the boost libraries, there's nothing to build, it's all in header files.
The remainder of the instructions are here.

Currently I'm very happy with using Pete Goodliffe's script which builds a framework from the Boost source package for both iOS and Mac. Drag and drop it into a project and it works!
There are multiple versions of the script out there. Here's one:
https://gist.github.com/faithfracture/c629ae4c7168216a9856/61be257e1c0839c85743777d0687becad9913bf7

Elaboration of Ferrucio's answer:
Install Boost using MacPorts (sudo port install boost) or Homebrew (brew install boost).
Find the path to the Boost header files (it should be in /opt/homebrew/include if you're using Homebrew).
Add the path to System Header Search Paths in the Build Settings of your Xcode target.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you add the path to User Header Search Paths instead of System Header Search Paths, as other users suggested, then your code will fail to build, since the Boost files use angled-includes (#include <boost/filename.hpp>) to include each other. Angled-includes are only for including system library headers, and thus they only work if Boost is in the System Header Search Paths.
You can read about the difference between angled-includes and quoted-includes here.

Related

How to build boost with correct paths

I tried to build boost in a separate path on my Ubuntu 18 Linux system. I cloned the GIT repository since I want to have the latest version available (the package repositories provide an old version only). The library I want to use is boost::timer.
This is what I did:
git clone --recursive https://github.com/boostorg/boost.git
cd boost
./bootstrap.sh
./b2 headers
./b2
This kind of worked. However I expected the static library to be located in a different path. It was compiled into this path:
.../boost/bin.v2/libs/timer/build/gcc-9/release/link-static/threading-multi/visibility-hidden/libboost_timer.a
This path is very verbos and it contains the compiler and its version which means I would need to update the paths when updating GCC or changing the compiler.
I would have expected it here:
.../boost/libs/timer/libboost_timer.a
Did I do something wrong? Is the placement expected that way?
Ok, when reading the build output carefully even a fool like me could notice that the actual path is boost/stage/lib. All built libs can be found there.

How can I build an individual boost library forked cloned from git?

Boost using this build system I'm not otherwise familiar with, based on "Jam" files. Now, I've forked and cloned a specific Boost library (program_options), and I want to build it and perhaps also run the tests. I notice a build/Jamfile.v2 - what should I do with it?
I tried apt-get install jam on my distribution, but that did not get me very far:
$ jam -fbuild/Jamfile.v2
warning: unknown rule project
warning: unknown rule boost-lib
don't know how to make all
...found 2 target(s)...
...can't find 1 target(s)...
Also, do I have to get the absolute latest development version of all of Boost to build the cloned library against, or can I use a local boost release I already have?
Notes:
I'm on a recent GNU/Linux distribution (Mint 18.3 but this shouldn't matter).
What I've done, based on #SergeyA and others' advice, is:
Clone all of Boost, recursively (see this page (this will create a boost/ folder )
cd boost
in .git/modules/my_boost_lib/config, change the origin URL to your fork
in .gitmodules, under [submodule "my_boost_lib"], change the URL to your fork
execute git submodule update --init libs/my_boost_lib/ (perhaps after deleting that library; not sure if that's actually necessary)
cd libs/my_boost_lib/build
../../../b2
The latter works because b2 looks for a Jamfile.v2 in its current working directory, and that file exists and is intended to build just the library. The build results will be located outside of libs/my_boost_lib though.
Note: To build run the library tests, build the same way but from libs/my_boost_lib/test.
Essentially the build steps is
Run bootstrap to build the build tool b2
Build boost with b2 install or similar. You may want to provide options to it.
Read more in the boost getting started document:
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_66_0/more/getting_started/index.html
(hint, look at lower right to go to next page..)
If you are on windows / VS2017, the use of vcpkg to get boost is very easy.

iwlib.h: No such file or directory

This is the first time for me to use Linux and its development tools. When I was trying to build the project I have to read, I had an error:
/home/charlie/AODV/llf.c:36: error: iwlib.h: No such file or directory
I was building the project with Qt. Beforehand, I installed libnl by make and make install, but the problem was not resolved. I am wondering if I did not install libel correctly or there are something more I have to do.
Welcome to Linux development.
You need to install libiw and it's development header(s).
How to do this is distribution dependant. On my Debian (should be more or less the same on any Debian based distro like Ubuntu):
jbm#sumo:~$ apt-cache search libiw
libiw-dev - Wireless tools - development files
libiw30 - Wireless tools - library
libiw30 is the binary lib, and the *-dev package is for it's header file(s), plus sometimes some docs (man pages etc). So:
jbm#sumo:~$ sudo apt-get install libiw-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
[...]
The following additional packages will be installed:
libiw30
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libiw-dev libiw30
Note how installing the header(s) for a lib rightfully install the library as well.
After install:
jbm#sumo:~$ find /usr/include/ -name iwlib.h
/usr/include/iwlib.h
jbm#sumo:~$ find /usr/lib -name "libiw*"
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libiw.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libiw.a
Note that:
/usr/include is part of the standard search path for headers of your
gcc toolchain, so you don't need to add a peculiar -I (for "include")
option.
/usr/lib is the same for lib binaries, so no need any -l or
-L (for "link") option.
You need to say to the compiler where to look for the header file. Use the -Idir option with dir the directory where the header file is.

Can't work with gloox library in ubuntu 12.04 64-bit

Some time ago I installed gloox library with the command sudo apt-get install libgloox-dev.
But it is not working in netbeans, for example. I noticed that there are only .h files (with only function declarations) in /usr/include/gloox directory. Need your help...
You need to configure your project dependencies in order to use a library.
Are you able to access Gloox files using <> ? If yes the environment variable is set correctly (should be done automatically in Ubuntu)
The library (.so file) will be in /usr/local/lib. You need to link the project against it in your makefile. On netbeans I think it's on project properties->c++ compiler. Personally, I use Cmake to generate my makefiles
Try to download library from http://camaya.net/gloox/download and follow installation instructions.

Building c++ project in Ubuntu Linux with Makefile.am/Makefile.in

I am new in Ubuntu/Linux and I've been working with java using the NetBeans IDE, so I don't have much experience with building c++ projects. But now I have to provide a proof of concept and I need to connect a C++ client with my ActiveMQ server. I downloaded The ActiveMQ-CPP API from this link, but I can't build/run it.
The download came with the files: Maklefile.am and Makefile.in. I searched it and I found that I need automake/autoconf to build it. I tried running ./configure but it says that it couldn't find such file or directory. I tried
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install automake
sudo apt-get install autoconf
and a lot of other commands that I found on the Internet. None of then worked. I know that this question is really basic and it seems to be already answered somewhere else, but every attempt I've made failed. I think I'm missing something. I even tried the solution provided in the last message in this topic but it didn't work either.
Can anyone help me install autoconf/automake, or tell me how to use Makefile.am / Makefile.in to build the project I downloaded, or even suggest me some other way of building it?
Since you're open to other methods of building your project, I'm going to suggest CMake. It is a far better build system than autotools (at least from where I stand).
#CMakeLists.txt
project(MyProject CXX)
set_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
add_executable(foobar foo.cpp bar.cpp)
That example will build an executable called "foobar" by compiling and linking foo.cpp and bar.cpp. Put the above code in a file called CMakeLists.txt, then run the following commands:
cmake <path to project> #run in the folder you want to build in
make #this does the actual work
The really cool thing about CMake is that it generates a build system (Makefiles by default) but you can use it to generate project files for Eclipse, a Visual Studio solution, and a bunch of other things. If you want more information, I'd check out their documentation.
The "configure" script should be in your ActiveMQ-cpp source directory. From the Linux command line, you should be able to:
1) "cd" into your ActiveMQ* directory
2) "ls -l" to see the "configure" script
3) "./configure" to set things up for building the library\
4) "make" to actually build the library
This is mentioned in comments, but this particular point of confusion has been common for well over a decade and I think needs to be clarified as often as possible. You DO NOT need to have autoconf or automake installed to build a project that used those tools. The entire point of the autotools is to generate a build system that will build on a system using only the standard tools (make, a c compiler, sh, and few others.) Unfortunately, many developers release tarballs that do not build cleanly. If you unpack the tarball and it does not contain a configure script, or if the configure script is broken, that is a bug in the package. The solution is absolutely not to install autoconf/automake/libtool and try to produce a working configure script. The solution is to report the build error as a bug to the package maintainer.
The world would be a better place if Linux distributions stopped installing multiple versions of the autotools by default as less than .002% of the population needs those tools, and anyone who actually needs to have the tools should be capable of installing it themselves. Anyone incapable of acquiring and installing the tools has no business using them.