How to use Boost in Visual Studio 2010

Question

What is a good step by step explanation on how to use the Boost library in an empty project in Visual Studio

User · Answer

You can also try -j NUMBER OF PROCESSORS  as an argument it will use all your cores  Makes things super fast on my quad core

User · Answer

In addition  there is something I find very useful  Use environment variables for your boost paths   How to set environment variables in windows  link at bottom for 7 8 10  The BOOST ROOT variable seems to be common place anymore and is set to the root path where you unzip boost   Then in Properties  c    general  Additional Include Directories use   BOOST ROOT   Then if when you move to a newer version of the boost library you can update your environment variable to point to this newer version  As more of your projects  use boost you will not have to update the  Additional Include Directories  for all of them   You may also create a BOOST LIB variable and point it to where the libs are staged  So likewise for the Linker- Additional Library Directories  you won t have to update projects  I have some old stuff built with vs10 and new stuff with vs14 so built both flavors of the boost lib to the same folder  So if I move a project from vs10 to vs14 I don t have to change the boost paths   NOTE  If you change an environment variable it will not suddenly work in an open VS project  VS loads variables on startup  So you will have to close VS and reopen it

User · Answer

While the instructions on the Boost web site are helpful  here is a condensed version that also builds x64 libraries    You only need to do this if you are using one of the libraries mentioned in section 3 of the instructions page   E g   to use Boost Filesystem requires compilation   If you are not using any of those  just unzip and go    Build the 32-bit libraries  This installs the Boost header files under C  Boost include boost- version   and the 32-bit libraries under C  Boost lib i386  Note that the default location for the libraries is C  Boost lib but you   ll want to put them under an i386 directory if you plan to build for multiple architectures    Unzip Boost into a new directory  Start a 32-bit MSVC command prompt and change to the directory where Boost was unzipped  Run  bootstrap Run  b2 toolset msvc-12 0 --build-type complete --libdir C  Boost lib i386 install   For Visual Studio 2012  use toolset msvc-11 0 For Visual Studio 2010  use toolset msvc-10 0 For Visual Studio 2017  use toolset msvc-14 1  Add C  Boost include boost- version  to your include path  Add C  Boost lib i386 to your libs path    Build the 64-bit libraries  This installs the Boost header files under C  Boost include boost- version   and the 64-bit libraries under C  Boost lib x64  Note that the default location for the libraries is C  Boost lib but you   ll want to put them under an x64 directory if you plan to build for multiple architectures    Unzip Boost into a new directory  Start a 64-bit MSVC command prompt and change to the directory where Boost was unzipped  Run  bootstrap Run  b2 toolset msvc-12 0 --build-type complete --libdir C  Boost lib x64 architecture x86 address-model 64 install   For Visual Studio 2012  use toolset msvc-11 0 For Visual Studio 2010  use toolset msvc-10 0  Add C  Boost include boost- version  to your include path  Add C  Boost lib x64 to your libs path

User · Answer

The Windows installers located here worked perfectly for me  I took the following steps    Follow the installation wizard until finished  Run visual studio   Create a new C   project Open project properties  can be found by right-clicking the project name in the solution explorer  Under  C C     General   Additional Include Directories  add the path where boost root directory  Default for my version was C  local boost 1 63 0  The number after  boost  is the version of boost  In project properties  under  Linker   Additional Library Directories  add the directory for library files  Default for my version was C  local boost 1 63 0 lib64-msvc-14 0  The number after  lib  is related to the build target  32 bit or 64 bit in Visual Studio  and the number after  msvc  is related to the version of Visual Studio  14 0 is related to Visual Studio 2015  but I m using it with the 2017 Visual Studio      Good luck

User · Answer

Download boost from  http   www boost org users download  e g  by svn    Windows -  tortoise  the simplest way    After that   cmd -  go to boost directory   D  boostTrunk  - where You checkout or download and extract package   command   bootstrap  we created bjam exe in   D  boostTrunk   After that   command       bjam toolset msvc-10 0 variant debug release threading multi link static   It will take some time  20min    After that  Open Visual studio 2010 -  create empty project -  go to project properties -  set     Paste this code and check if it is working    include  lt iostream gt   include  lt boost shared ptr hpp gt   include  lt boost regex hpp gt   using namespace std   struct Hello        Hello             cout  lt  lt   Hello constructor   lt  lt  endl              Hello            cout  lt  lt   Hello destructor   lt  lt  endl          cin get               int main int argc  char  argv          Boost regex  compiled library     boost  regex regex    Hello Bye  Boost         boost  cmatch helloMatches      boost  regex search  Hello Boost   helloMatches  regex       cout  lt  lt   The word between    is     lt  lt  helloMatches 1   lt  lt  endl         Boost shared pointer  header only library     boost  shared ptr lt Hello gt  sharedHello new Hello        return 0      Resources   https   www youtube com watch v 5AmwIwedTCM

User · Answer

I could recommend the following trick  Create a special boost props file   Open the property manager Right click on your project node  and select  Add new project property sheet   Select a location and name your property sheet  e g  c  mystuff boost props  Modify the additional Include and Lib folders to the search path    This procedure has the value that boost is included only in projects where you want to explicitly include it  When you have a new project that uses boost  do    Open the property manager  Right click on the project node  and select  Add existing property sheet   Select the boost property sheet    EDIT  following edit from  jim-fred    The resulting boost props file looks something like this      lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt Project ToolsVersion  4 0  xmlns  http   schemas microsoft com developer msbuild 2003  gt     lt ImportGroup Label  PropertySheets    gt     lt PropertyGroup Label  UserMacros  gt       lt BOOST DIR gt D  boost 1 53 0  lt  BOOST DIR gt     lt  PropertyGroup gt     lt PropertyGroup gt       lt IncludePath gt   BOOST DIR    IncludePath  lt  IncludePath gt       lt LibraryPath gt   BOOST DIR stage lib    LibraryPath  lt  LibraryPath gt     lt  PropertyGroup gt   lt  Project gt    It contains a user macro for the location of the boost directory  in this case  D  boost 1 53 0  and two other parameters  IncludePath and LibraryPath  A statement  include  lt boost thread hpp gt  would find thread hpp in the appropriate directory  in this case  D  boost 1 53 0 boost thread hpp   The  stage lib   directory may change depending on the directory installed to   This boost props file could be located in the D  boost 1 53 0  directory

User · Answer

Here is how I was able to use Boost    Download and extract the zip version of Boost libraries  Run bootstrap bat file and then run bjam exe  Wait for roughly 30 minutes or so  Create a new project in Visual Studio  Go to project-- properties-- Linker-- General-- Additional Library Directories and add boost stage lib directory to it  Go to project-- properties-- C C  -- General-- Additional Include Directories and add boost directory to it    You will be able to build your project without any errors

User · Answer

Also a little note  If you want to reduce the compilation-time  you can add the flag      -j2   to run two parallel builds at the same time  This might reduce it to viewing one movie

User · Answer

A small addition to KTC s very informative main answer   If you are using the free Visual Studio c   2010 Express  and managed to get that one to compile 64-bits binaries  and now want to use that to use a 64-bits version of the Boost libaries  you may end up with 32-bits libraries  your mileage may vary of course  but on my machine this is the sad case    I could fix this using the following  inbetween the steps described above as   Start a 32-bit MSVC command prompt and change to the directory where Boost was unzipped  Run  bootstrap   I inserted a call to  setenv  to set the environment  For a release build  the above steps become    Start a 32-bit MSVC command prompt and change to the directory where Boost was unzipped  Run   C  Program Files Microsoft SDKs Windows v7 1 Bin setenv cmd    Release   x64 Run  bootstrap   I found this info here  http   boost 2283326 n4 nabble com 64-bit-with-VS-Express-again-td3044258 html

User · Answer

A minimalist example to get you started in Visual Studio   1 Download and unzip Boost from here   2 Create a Visual Studio empty project  using an example boost library that does not require separate compilation    include  lt iostream gt   include  lt boost format hpp gt   using namespace std    using namespace boost     int main             unsigned int arr 5      0x05  0x04  0xAA  0x0F  0x0D           cout  lt  lt  format   02X- 02X- 02X- 02X- 02X                   arr 0                  arr 1                  arr 2                  arr 3                  arr 4              lt  lt  endl          3 In your Visual Studio project properties set the Additional Include Directories     For a very simple example   How to Install the Boost Libraries in Visual Studio  If you don t want to use the entire boost library  just a subset   Using a subset of the boost libraries in Windows  If you specifically want to now about the libraries that require compilation   How to use the Boost compiled libraries in Windows

User · Answer

What parts of Boost do you need  A lot of stuff is part of TR1 which is shipped with Visual Studio  so you could simply say  for example    include  lt tr1 memory gt   using std  tr1  shared ptr    According to James  this should also work  in C  0x     include  lt memory gt   using std  shared ptr

User · Answer

While Nate s answer is pretty good already  I m going to expand on it more specifically for Visual Studio 2010 as requested  and include information on compiling in the various optional components which requires external libraries   If you are using headers only libraries  then all you need to do is to unarchive the boost download and set up the environment variables  The instruction below set the environment variables for Visual Studio only  and not across the system as a whole  Note you only have to do it once    Unarchive the latest version of boost  1 47 0 as of writing  into a directory of your choice  e g  C  boost 1 47 0   Create a new empty project in Visual Studio  Open the Property Manager and expand one of the configuration for the platform of your choice  Select  amp  right click Microsoft Cpp  lt Platform gt  user  and select Properties to open the Property Page for edit  Select VC   Directories on the left  Edit the Include Directories section to include the path to your boost source files  Repeat steps 3 - 6 for different platform of your choice if needed    If you want to use the part of boost that require building  but none of the features that requires external dependencies  then building it is fairly simple    Unarchive the latest version of boost  1 47 0 as of writing  into a directory of your choice  e g  C  boost 1 47 0   Start the Visual Studio Command Prompt for the platform of your choice and navigate to where boost is  Run  bootstrap bat to build b2 exe  previously named bjam   Run b2     Win32  b2 --toolset msvc-10 0 --build-type complete stage     x64  b2 --toolset msvc-10 0 --build-type complete architecture x86 address-model 64 stage      Go for a walk   watch a movie or 2            Go through steps 2 - 6 from the set of instruction above to set the environment variables  Edit the Library Directories section to include the path to your boost libraries output   The default for the example and instructions above would be C  boost 1 47 0 stage lib  Rename and move the directory first if you want to have x86  amp  x64 side by side  such as to  lt BOOST PATH gt  lib x86  amp   lt BOOST PATH gt  lib x64   Repeat steps 2 - 6 for different platform of your choice if needed    If you want the optional components  then you have more work to do  These are    Boost IOStreams Bzip2 filters Boost IOStreams Zlib filters Boost MPI Boost Python Boost Regex ICU support   Boost IOStreams Bzip2 filters    Unarchive the latest version of bzip2 library  1 0 6 as of writing  source files into a directory of your choice  e g  C  bzip2-1 0 6   Follow the second set of instructions above to build boost  but add in the option -sBZIP2 SOURCE  C  bzip2-1 0 6  when running b2 in step 5    Boost IOStreams Zlib filters   Unarchive the latest version of zlib library  1 2 5 as of writing  source files into a directory of your choice  e g  C  zlib-1 2 5   Follow the second set of instructions above to build boost  but add in the option -sZLIB SOURCE  C  zlib-1 2 5  when running b2 in step 5    Boost MPI   Install a MPI distribution such as Microsoft Compute Cluster Pack  Follow steps 1 - 3 from the second set of instructions above to build boost  Edit the file project-config jam in the directory  lt BOOST PATH gt  that resulted from running bootstrap  Add in a line that read using mpi    note the space before the       Follow the rest of the steps from the second set of instructions above to build boost  If auto-detection of the MPI installation fail  then you ll need to look for and modify the appropriate build file to look for MPI in the right place    Boost Python   Install a Python distribution such as ActiveState s ActivePython  Make sure the Python installation is in your PATH  To completely built the 32-bits version of the library requires 32-bits Python  and similarly for the 64-bits version  If you have multiple versions installed for such reason  you ll need to tell b2 where to find specific version and when to use which one  One way to do that would be to edit the file project-config jam in the directory  lt BOOST PATH gt  that resulted from running bootstrap  Add in the following two lines adjusting as appropriate for your Python installation paths  amp  versions  note the space before the        using python   2 6   C   Python  Python26  python    using python   2 6   C   Python  Python26-x64  python          lt address-model gt 64    Do note that such explicit Python specification currently cause MPI build to fail  So you ll need to do some separate building with and without specification to build everything if you re building MPI as well  Follow the second set of instructions above to build boost    Boost Regex ICU support   Unarchive the latest version of ICU4C library  4 8 as of writing  source file into a directory of your choice  e g  C  icu4c-4 8   Open the Visual Studio Solution in  lt ICU PATH gt  source allinone  Build All for both debug  amp  release configuration for the platform of your choice  There can be a problem building recent releases of ICU4C with Visual Studio 2010 when the output for both debug  amp  release build are in the same directory  which is the default behaviour   A possible workaround is to do a Build All  of debug build say  and then do a Rebuild all in the 2nd configuration  e g  release build   If building for x64  you ll need to be running x64 OS as there s post build steps that involves running some of the 64-bits application that it s building  Optionally remove the source directory when you re done  Follow the second set of instructions above to build boost  but add in the option -sICU PATH  C  icu4c-4 8  when running b2 in step 5

User · Answer

This thread has been around a while  and I thought I d add something about HOW to build Boost as fast as possible on your specific hardware   If you have a 4 or 6-core use -j5 or -j7 respectively  Certainly not the standard build nor -j2 unless you indeed have dual core   I m running a Sandy Bridge Extreme with stock clocked 3930K  6-core  on my main station  but have a 2600k  4-core  on older backup box  and the trend is I get the best Boost compile times with N   1 build processes where N is the number of physical cores  N 2 reaches a point of diminishing returns and the times go up   Notes  Hyperthreading is enabled  32GB RAM DDR3  Samsung 840 EVO SSD   -j7 on 6-core  2 minutes and 51 seconds   Win7 Ultimate x64  Visual Studio 2013   PS C  Boost boost 1 56 0 gt  measure-command     b2 -j7 --build-type complete msvc stage    Days                0 Hours               0 Minutes             2 Seconds             51 Milliseconds        128 Ticks               1711281830 TotalDays           0 0019806502662037 TotalHours          0 0475356063888889 TotalMinutes        2 85213638333333 TotalSeconds        171 128183 TotalMilliseconds   171128 183   -j6 on 6-core  3 minutes and 2 seconds   Win7 Ultimate x64  Visual Studio 2013   PS C  Boost boost 1 56 0 gt  measure-command     b2 -j6 --build-type complete msvc stage    Days                0 Hours               0 Minutes             3 Seconds             2 Milliseconds        809 Ticks               1828093904 TotalDays           0 00211584942592593 TotalHours          0 0507803862222222 TotalMinutes        3 04682317333333 TotalSeconds        182 8093904 TotalMilliseconds   182809 3904   -j8 on 6-core  3 minutes and 17 seconds   Win7 Ultimate x64  Visual Studio 2013   PS C  Boost boost 1 56 0 gt  measure-command     b2 -j8 --build-type complete msvc stage    Days                0 Hours               0 Minutes             3 Seconds             17 Milliseconds        652 Ticks               1976523915 TotalDays           0 00228764342013889 TotalHours          0 0549034420833333 TotalMinutes        3 294206525 TotalSeconds        197 6523915 TotalMilliseconds   197652 3915     Config  Building the Boost C   Libraries    Performing configuration checks      - 32-bit                     yes  cached      - arm                        no   cached      - mips1                      no   cached      - power                      no   cached      - sparc                      no   cached      - x86                        yes  cached      - has icu builds             no   cached  warning  Graph library does not contain MPI-based parallel components  note  to enable them  add  using mpi    to your user-config jam     - zlib                       no   cached      - iconv  libc                no   cached      - iconv  separate            no   cached      - icu                        no   cached      - icu  lib64                 no   cached      - message-compiler           yes  cached      - compiler-supports-ssse3    yes  cached      - compiler-supports-avx2     yes  cached      - gcc visibility             no   cached      - long double support        yes  cached  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      - zlib                       no   cached    I note the 64-bit build takes a bit longer  I need to do the same comparison for those and update

[c++] How to use Boost in Visual Studio 2010

Examples related to c++

Examples related to visual-studio-2010

Examples related to boost