How to link C program with Boost using CMake

Question

What should my CMake file look like for linking my program with the Boost library under Ubuntu   The errors shown during running make   main cpp   text 0x3b   undefined reference to  boost  program options  options description  m default line length    The main file is really simple    include  lt boost program options options description hpp gt   include  lt boost program options option hpp gt  using namespace std   include  lt iostream gt   namespace po   boost  program options   int main int argc  char   argv         po  options description desc  Allowed options        desc add options             help    produce help message                  return 0        I ve managed to do that  The only lines that I ve added to my CMake files were   target link libraries  my target file   Boost PROGRAM OPTIONS LIBRARY

User · Accepted Answer

In CMake you could use find package to find libraries you need  There usually is a FindBoost cmake along with your CMake installation   As far as I remember  it will be installed to  usr share cmake Modules  along with other find-scripts for common libraries  You could just check the documentation in that file for more information about how it works   An example out of my head   FIND PACKAGE  Boost 1 40 COMPONENTS program options REQUIRED   INCLUDE DIRECTORIES    Boost INCLUDE DIR     ADD EXECUTABLE  anyExecutable myMain cpp    TARGET LINK LIBRARIES  anyExecutable LINK PUBLIC   Boost LIBRARIES      I hope this code helps    Here s the official documentation about FindBoost cmake  And the actual FindBoost cmake  hosted on GitHub

User · Answer

The following is my configuration   cmake minimum required VERSION 2 8  set Boost INCLUDE DIR  usr local src boost 1 46 1  set Boost LIBRARY DIR  usr local src boost 1 46 1 stage lib  find package Boost COMPONENTS system filesystem REQUIRED  include directories   Boost INCLUDE DIR   link directories   Boost LIBRARY DIR    add executable main main cpp  target link libraries  main   Boost LIBRARIES

User · Answer

Which Boost library  Many of them are pure templates and do not require linking   Now with that actually shown concrete example which tells us that you want Boost program options  and even more told us that you are on Ubuntu   you need to do two things    Install libboost-program-options-dev so that you can link against it  Tell cmake to link against libboost program options    I mostly use Makefiles so here is the direct command-line use     g   boost program options ex1 cpp -o bpo ex1 -lboost program options     bpo ex1     bpo ex1 -h     bpo ex1 --help     bpo ex1 -help     It doesn t do a lot it seems   For CMake  you need to add boost program options to the list of libraries  and IIRC this is done via SET liblist boost program options  in your CMakeLists txt

User · Answer

Two ways  using system default install path  usually  usr lib x86 64-linux-gnu    find package Boost REQUIRED regex date time system filesystem thread graph  include directories   BOOST INCLUDE DIRS   message  boost lib    Boost LIBRARIES    message  boost inc   Boost INCLUDE DIR     add executable use boost use boost cpp  target link libraries use boost           Boost LIBRARIES              If you install Boost in a local directory or choose local install instead of system install  you can do it by this   set  BOOST ROOT   home xy boost install lib   CACHE PATH  Boost library path    set  Boost NO SYSTEM PATHS on CACHE BOOL  Do not search system for Boost     find package Boost REQUIRED regex date time system filesystem thread graph  include directories   BOOST INCLUDE DIRS   message  boost lib    Boost LIBRARIES   inc   Boost INCLUDE DIR     add executable use boost use boost cpp  target link libraries use boost           Boost LIBRARIES              Note the above dir  home xy boost install lib  is where I install Boost   xy xy   boost install lib  ll -th total 16K drwxrwxr-x 2 xy xy 4 0K May 28 19 23 lib  drwxrwxr-x 3 xy xy 4 0K May 28 19 22 include   xy xy   boost install lib  ll -th lib  total 57M drwxrwxr-x 2 xy xy 4 0K May 28 19 23    -rw-rw-r-- 1 xy xy 2 3M May 28 19 23 libboost test exec monitor a -rw-rw-r-- 1 xy xy 2 2M May 28 19 23 libboost unit test framework a          xy xy   boost install lib  ll -th include  total 20K drwxrwxr-x 110 xy xy  12K May 28 19 22 boost    If you are interested in how to use a local installed Boost  you can see this question How can I get CMake to find my alternative Boost installation

User · Answer

Here is my take    cmake minimum required VERSION 3 15   project TryOuts LANGUAGES CXX   find package Boost QUIET REQUIRED COMPONENTS program options   if NOT Boost FOUND      message FATAL ERROR  Boost Not found   endif    add executable helloworld main cpp   target link libraries helloworld PUBLIC Boost  program options

User · Answer

Adapting  MOnsDaR answer for modern CMake syntax with imported targets  this would be   find package Boost 1 40 COMPONENTS program options REQUIRED   add executable anyExecutable myMain cpp   target link libraries anyExecutable Boost  program options    Note that it is not necessary to specify the include directories manually  since it is already taken care of through the imported target Boost  program options

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