How to use C++ Boost library with pkg-config?

c++ linux unix boost pkg-config
eold picture eold · Oct 19, 2010 · Viewed 12.4k times · Source

I successfully compiled and installed the latest version of the Boost library onto my linux machine. Now, I would like to be able to use pkg-config to ease the process of providing linking paremeters with GCC.

Since I am too lazy for hand-coding my own .pc file, is there a script/tool which would automatically generate the needed .pc file or in some other way update pkg-config with boost flags?

(If someone already has that .pc file, a share would be welcome as well.)

Answer

amireh picture amireh · Oct 26, 2010

What you're looking for seems to be a bit complicated, and a long-requested feature, as indicated in this 3 year old post https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/1094 on Boost's trac. Reading through it shows that the feature was repeatedly postponed and never implemented (as of 1.4.3). The cause of the inability to generate a .pc file usable by pkg-config happens to do with boost's inconsistency in naming their library versions / build variants.

FWIW, an alternative for "automating" your building process is to use autotools (autoconf/automake). There's a link that might be of use to you (which I can't post because SO thinks I'm a spammer instead of a newcomer!), just google "tsuna boost m4 github" and it should take you there :)

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