1 ,-------------------------------------------------.
3 | | __ ) ___ ___ ___| |_ _ __ ___ | || | |
4 | | _ \ / _ \ / _ \/ __| __| | '_ ` _ \| || |_ |
5 | | |_) | (_) | (_) \__ \ |_ _| | | | | |__ _| |
6 | |____/ \___/ \___/|___/\__(_)_| |_| |_| |_| |
8 `-------------------------------------------------'
10 This package provides a set of M4 macros to use with GNU Autoconf. The
11 purpose of these macros is to be able to easily find and test the various
12 Boost libraries of a given version for a given compiler. This package is
13 released under GPLv3+.
14 This macro requires that you use GNU Libtool and assumes that you already
15 use GNU Automake. If you don't already use Libtool, the step 3 below
16 explains how to set it up.
21 1. If you have an invocation of AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR in your configure.ac, then
22 copy build-aux/boost.m4 in the directory specified by AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR.
23 Otherwise, copy the file at the root of your project.
24 2. In your top-level Makefile.am (this supposes that you use automake, which
25 you most likely do) add:
26 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I <dir>
27 where `<dir>' is the (relative) path to the directory where you copied
28 boost.m4 (set it to `.' if you put boost.m4 in the same, top-level
30 3. If you don't use GNU Libtool already, then time has come to do the switch.
31 Add AC_PROG_LIBTOOL to your configure.ac then, in all the Makefile.am of
32 your project, change *_LIBRARIES to *_LTLIBRARIES (notice the extra `LT')
33 for each of your library that depends on Boost. This way, Automake will
34 delegate the build of your libraries to Libtool which will do the necessary
35 magic so that you won't have to deal with LD_LIBRARY_PATH issues and so on.
36 For programs however, you don't have anything special to do, Libtool will
38 4. Then, add a call to BOOST_REQUIRE to your configure.ac as well as other
39 calls to the various BOOST_* macros that check for the libraries you need.
40 5. Adjust your Makefile.am where you build targets that depend on Boost so
41 that they use $(BOOST_CPPFLAGS), $(BOOST_*_LDFLAGS) and $(BOOST_*_LIBS)
42 where appropriate (where `*' is the capitalized name of one of the
43 libraries you checked for, e.g.: $(BOOST_THREADS_LDFLAGS)). E.g.:
46 foo_CPPFLAGS = $(BOOST_CPPFLAGS)
47 foo_LDFLAGS = $(BOOST_THREAD_LDFLAGS)
48 foo_LIBS = $(BOOST_THREAD_LIBS)
49 Or if you have more than one target in the same Makefile.am and your
50 targets don't have per-target specific flags (such as foo_LIBS) and you
51 want all your targets to use the same set of Boost libraries, you can do
52 the following instead:
53 bin_PROGRAMS = foo bar
56 AM_CPPFLAGS = $(BOOST_CPPFLAGS)
57 AM_LDFLAGS = $(BOOST_THREADS_LDFLAGS)
58 LIBS = $(BOOST_THREAD_LIBS)
59 Remember that for targets that are programs, you must use LIBS or
60 progname_LIBS, but for libraries you must use LDADD or libname_LDADD.
64 This section documents the various macros provided by boost.m4.
66 BOOST_REQUIRE([VERSION])
67 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
68 The first, most important macro, is BOOST_REQUIRE. You should invoke it
69 before other BOOST_* macros if you want to check that Boost has a minimum
72 Here are some examples:
73 # Do not require any specific minimum version
75 # Require at least 1.34.1
76 BOOST_REQUIRE([1.34.1])
77 # Require a version number known at runtime
78 BOOST_REQUIRE([$some_shell_variable])
80 This macro defines the Make symbol BOOST_CPPFLAGS.
83 There are various predefined macros to check for common Boost libraries.
84 They are ordered in two categories: the Boost libraries that are only made of
85 headers, and the Boost libraries that (may) require linking to an installed
88 Header-only Boost libraries
89 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
90 For each of the Boost libraries that are only made of headers, the macro to
91 invoke is BOOST_<LIB-NAME> where <LIB-NAME> is the capitalized name of the
92 library. Here is the list of libraries for which checks have been
99 - Hash (aka Functional/Hash)
110 Thus you can invoke BOOST_FOREACH (for instance). It will check that
111 <boost/foreach.hpp> works and define the preprocessor symbol
112 HAVE_BOOST_FOREACH_HPP. For each of the libraries mentioned above, a couple
113 of headers are checked (the most important ones) and preprocessor symbols are
114 defined in an identical fashion.
115 If the check fails, configure with abort with a fatal error.
117 Boost libraries requiring linking
118 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
119 For the other Boost libraries that (may) requiring linking to an installed
120 library (shared or not), the macro to invoke is BOOST_<LIB-NAME> (surprise!)
121 but this time the macro can take an optional argument to specify the runtime
122 options you'd like to have. Most of the time, Boost libraries are compiled
123 in several flavors, such as with or without debug, with a multi-thread
124 runtime or not, etc. The macro will try to find a library that matches your
125 requirements but may fall back to another flavor of the library if the one you
126 asked for isn't available.
127 The following libraries are supported:
137 - Test (aka Unit Test Framework)
140 Thus you can invoke BOOST_GRAPH (for instance) or BOOST_THREADS([mt-d]).
141 The optional argument is made of one or more of the following letters:
142 sgdpn (in that order)
146 g = debug/diagnostic runtime
148 n = (unsure) STLPort build without iostreams from STLPort
149 (it looks like `n' must always be used along with `p').
150 Additionally, it can start with `mt-' to indicate that there is a preference
151 for multi-thread builds.
153 If the check is successful, at least one header has been checked and the
154 corresponding preprocessor symbol HAVE_BOOST_*_HPP is defined, along with the
155 compilation flags BOOST_<LIB-NAME>_LDFLAGS and BOOST_<LIB-NAME>_LIBS.
157 Small pitfall: BOOST_TEST generates BOOST_UNIT_TEST_FRAMEWORK_LDFLAGS and
158 BOOST_UNIT_TEST_FRAMEWORK_LIBS, not BOOST_TEST_LFDLAGS and BOOST_TEST_LIBS.
159 Sorry for the inconsistency.
161 NOTE: If you intend to use Wave/Spirit with thread support, make sure you
162 call BOOST_THREADS first.
164 Writing your own checks / supporting more Boost libraries
165 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
166 All the pre-existing library checks are written with help of
167 BOOST_FIND_HEADER and BOOST_FIND_LIB. These two macros are very easy to use
168 and are documented in boost.m4. Reading their documentation and reading the
169 existing library checks should help you to easily write your own additional
170 checks. Please contribute them to me by email to <tsuna at lrde.epita.fr>.
172 You can checkout the Git source tree of this package at
173 http://repo.or.cz/w/boost.m4.git
174 Or simply download the latest version:
175 wget 'http://repo.or.cz/w/boost.m4.git?a=blob_plain;f=build-aux/boost.m4;hb=HEAD' -O boost.m4
181 The code of boost.m4 is released under GPLv3+ with the following additional
184 Additional permission under section 7 of the GNU General Public
185 License, version 3 ("GPLv3"):
187 If you convey this file as part of a work that contains a
188 configuration script generated by Autoconf, you may do so under
189 terms of your choice.
191 This clause has been written by FSF lawyers for Autotools. If you have any
192 concerns about legal issues, do not contact me as I Am Not A Lawyer. I
193 *think* you can get advices at <copyright-clerk at fsf dot org>. The intent
194 here is to keep the code Free but to allow anyone to *use* it.