How can I get CMake to find my alternative Boost installation

Question

I have installed the most recent version of Boost in  usr local  with includes in  usr local include boost and libraries in  usr local lib boost  and I am now attempting to install Wt from source  but CMake  version 2 6  can t seem to find the Boost installation  It tries to give helpful suggestions about setting BOOST DIR and Boost LIBRARYDIR  but I haven t been able to get it to work by tweaking these variables   The most recent error message that I get is that it can t find the libraries  but it seems to indicate that it is using   usr local include  for the include path  which isn t correct  and I can t seem to fix it   Is there a solution for this off the top of their head  or do I need to go mucking around inside CMake to figure it out

User · Answer

While configure could find my Boost installation, CMake could not.

Locate FindBoost.cmake and look for LIBRARY_HINTS to see what sub-packages it is looking for. In my case it wanted the MPI and graph libraries.

 # Compute component-specific hints.
  set(_Boost_FIND_LIBRARY_HINTS_FOR_COMPONENT "")
  if(${COMPONENT} STREQUAL "mpi" OR ${COMPONENT} STREQUAL "mpi_python" OR
     ${COMPONENT} STREQUAL "graph_parallel")
    foreach(lib ${MPI_CXX_LIBRARIES} ${MPI_C_LIBRARIES})
      if(IS_ABSOLUTE "${lib}")
        get_filename_component(libdir "${lib}" PATH)
        string(REPLACE "\\" "/" libdir "${libdir}")
        list(APPEND _Boost_FIND_LIBRARY_HINTS_FOR_COMPONENT ${libdir})
      endif()
    endforeach()
  endif()

apt-cache search ... I installed the dev packages since I was building code, and the dev package drags in all the dependencies. I'm not so sure that a standard Boost install needs Open MPI, but this is OK for now.

sudo apt-get install libboost-mpi-dev libboost-mpi-python-dev
sudo apt-get install libboost-graph-parallel-dev

User · Answer

After digging around in CMake and experimenting  I determined that CMake was unhappy with the fact that all of my Boost libraries were contained in  usr local lib boost and not  usr local lib   Once I soft-linked them back out  the build worked

User · Answer

I was finally able to get what I wanted with  cmake -DCMAKE INSTALL PREFIX  TARGET       -DBoost NO BOOST CMAKE TRUE       -DBoost NO SYSTEM PATHS TRUE       -DBOOST ROOT PATHNAME  TARGET       -DBoost LIBRARY DIRS FILEPATH   TARGET  lib

User · Answer

Generally the most common mistake is not cleaning your build directory after adding new options  I have Boost installed from system packet manager  Its version is 1 49   I also downloaded Boost 1 53 and  installed  it under  HOME installs   The only thing that I had to do in my project was to  I keep sources in my project directory src    cd my project directory mkdir build cd build cmake -DCMAKE INCLUDE PATH  HOME installs include -DCMAKE LIBRARY PATH  HOME installs lib    src   And that s it  Ta bum tss   But if I d make after cd build -  cmake    src it would set Boost from the system path  Then doing cmake -DCMAKE INCLUDE PATH  HOME installs include -DCMAKE LIBRARY PATH  HOME installs lib    src would change nothing   You have to clean your build directory   cd build  amp  amp  rm -rf

User · Answer

I also encountered the same problem  but trying the hints here didn t help  unfortunately   The only thing that helped was to download the newest version from the Boost page  compile and install it as described in Installing Boost 1 50 on Ubuntu 12 10   In my case I worked with Boost 1 53

User · Answer

I had a similar issue  CMake finding a vendor-installed Boost only  but my cluster had a locally installed version which is what I wanted it to use  Red Hat Linux 6   Anyway  it looks like all the BOOSTROOT  BOOST ROOT  and Boost DIR stuff would get annoyed unless one also sets Boost NO BOOST CMAKE  e g add to cmd line -DBoost NO BOOST CMAKE TRUE     I will concede the usefulness of CMake for multiplatform  but I can still hate it

User · Answer

I just added the environment variable Boost INCLUDE DIR or add it to the cmake command -DBoost INCLUDE DIR and point to the include folder

User · Answer

I had a similar issue  and I could use customized Boost libraries by adding the below lines to my CMakeLists txt file   set Boost NO SYSTEM PATHS TRUE  if  Boost NO SYSTEM PATHS    set BOOST ROOT    CMAKE CURRENT SOURCE DIR        3p boost     set BOOST INCLUDE DIRS    BOOST ROOT  include     set BOOST LIBRARY DIRS    BOOST ROOT  lib   endif  Boost NO SYSTEM PATHS  find package Boost REQUIRED regex date time system filesystem thread graph program options  include directories   BOOST INCLUDE DIRS

User · Answer

I spent most of my evening trying to get this working  I tried all of the -DBOOST    amp c  directives with CMake  but it kept linking to my system Boost libraries  even after clearing and re-configuring my build area repeatedly    At the end I modified the generated Makefile and voided the cmake check build system target to do nothing  like  echo      so that it wouldn t overwrite my changes when I ran make  and then did  grep -rl  lboost python      xargs sed -i  s -lboost python -L opt sw gcc5 usr lib  -lboost python g  in my build  directory to explicitly point all the build commands to the Boost installation I wanted to use  Finally  that worked    I acknowledge that it is an ugly kludge  but I am just putting it out here for the benefit of those who come up against the same brick wall  and just want to work around it and get work done

User · Answer

In CMake  you can add the following to your CMakelists     install boost by apt-get method include directories BEFORE SYSTEM   usr include        or install by building from src   include directories BEFORE SYSTEM   usr local include      This method saved my serveral months  you can try it  By the way  as a temporary solution  you can rename directories you don t expect to find as below   sudo mv  usr local include boost  usr local include boost bak   Hopefully  it will help people who are in deep trouble like me

User · Answer

The short version  You only need BOOST ROOT  but you re going to want to disable searching the system for your local Boost if you have multiple installations or cross-compiling for iOS or Android  In which case add Boost NO SYSTEM PATHS is set to false   set  BOOST ROOT    CACHE PATH  Boost library path    set  Boost NO SYSTEM PATHS on CACHE BOOL  Do not search system for Boost      Normally this is passed on the CMake command-line using the syntax -D lt VAR gt  value   The longer version  Officially speaking the FindBoost page states these variables should be used to  hint  the location of Boost      This module reads hints about search locations from variables    BOOST ROOT             - Preferred installation prefix   or BOOSTROOT  BOOST INCLUDEDIR       - Preferred include directory e g   lt prefix gt  include BOOST LIBRARYDIR       - Preferred library directory e g   lt prefix gt  lib Boost NO SYSTEM PATHS  - Set to ON to disable searching in locations not                          specified by these hint variables  Default is OFF  Boost ADDITIONAL VERSIONS                        - List of Boost versions not known to this module                           Boost install locations may contain the version    This makes a theoretically correct incantation   cmake -DBoost NO SYSTEM PATHS TRUE         -DBOOST ROOT  path to boost-dir   When you compile from source  include  ExternalProject    set  boost URL  http   sourceforge net projects boost files boost 1 63 0 boost 1 63 0 tar bz2    set  boost SHA1  9f1dd4fa364a3e3156a77dc17aa562ef06404ff6    set  boost INSTALL   CMAKE CURRENT BINARY DIR  third party boost   set  boost INCLUDE DIR   boost INSTALL  include   set  boost LIB DIR   boost INSTALL  lib    ExternalProject Add  boost         PREFIX boost         URL   boost URL          URL HASH SHA1   boost SHA1          BUILD IN SOURCE 1         CONFIGURE COMMAND           bootstrap sh         --with-libraries filesystem         --with-libraries system         --with-libraries date time         --prefix  lt INSTALL DIR gt          BUILD COMMAND           b2 install link static variant release threading multi runtime-link static         INSTALL COMMAND            INSTALL DIR   boost INSTALL     set  Boost LIBRARIES           boost LIB DIR  libboost filesystem a           boost LIB DIR  libboost system a           boost LIB DIR  libboost date time a   message  STATUS  Boost static libs      Boost LIBRARIES      Then when you call this script you ll need to include the boost cmake script  mine is in the a subdirectory   include the headers  indicate the dependency  and link the libraries   include  boost   include directories    boost INCLUDE DIR    add dependencies  MyProject boost   target link libraries  MyProject                          Boost LIBRARIES

User · Answer

I ran into a similar problem on a Linux server  where two versions of Boost have been installed  One is the precompiled 1 53 0 version which counts as old in 2018  it s in  usr include and  usr lib64  The version I want to use is 1 67 0  as a minimum version of 1 65 1 is required for another C   library I m installing  it s in  opt boost  which has include and lib subdirectories  As suggested in previous answers  I set variables in CMakeLists txt to specify where to look for Boost 1 67 0 as follows  include directories  opt boost include   include directories  opt boost lib   set BOOST ROOT  opt boost   set BOOST INCLUDEDIR  opt boost include   set BOOST LIBRARYDIR  opt boost lib  set Boost NO SYSTEM PATHS TRUE  set Boost NO BOOST CMAKE TRUE    But CMake doesn t honor those changes  Then I found an article online  CMake can use a local Boost  and realized that I need to change the variables in CMakeCache txt  There I found that the Boost-related variables are still pointing to the default Boost 1 53 0  so no wonder CMake doesn t honor my changes in CMakeLists txt  Then I set the Boost-related variables in CMakeCache txt  Boost DIR PATH Boost DIR-NOTFOUND Boost INCLUDE DIR PATH  opt boost include  Boost LIBRARY DIR DEBUG PATH  opt boost lib Boost LIBRARY DIR RELEASE PATH  opt boost lib   I also changed the variables pointing to the non-header  compiled parts of the Boost library to point to the version I want  Then CMake successfully built the library that depends on a recent version of Boost

User · Answer

There is a generic method to give CMake directions about where to find libraries   When looking for a library  CMake looks first in the following variables    CMAKE LIBRARY PATH and LD LIBRARY PATH for libraries CMAKE INCLUDE PATH and INCLUDE PATH for includes   If you declare your Boost files in one of the environment variables  CMake will find it  Example   export CMAKE LIBRARY PATH   stuff lib boost 1 52 lib  CMAKE LIBRARY PATH  export CMAKE INCLUDE PATH   stuff lib boost 1 52 include  CMAKE INCLUDE PATH    If it s too cumbersome  you can also use a nice installing tool I wrote that will do everything for you  C   version manager

User · Answer

You should have a look at FindBoost cmake script  which handles Boost detection and setting up all Boost variables  It typically resides in  usr share cmake-2 6 Modules   In it  you will find documentation  For instance     These last three variables are available also as environment variables        BOOST ROOT or BOOSTROOT      The preferred installation prefix for searching for                                  Boost   Set this if the module has problems finding                                  the proper Boost installation      In contrast to BOOST ROOT  the variables you are referring to are actually variables that are set by the FindBoost module  Note that you don t have to  and probably also don t want to  edit your CMake project configuration to set BOOST ROOT  Instead  you should use the environment variable  e g  calling    BOOST ROOT  usr local     ccmake

[linux] How can I get CMake to find my alternative Boost installation?

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