What is boost log, how to get it and how to build it

Question

So I heard good things about boost log. This claims its existence:

http://boost-log.sourceforge.net/libs/log/doc/html/index.html

This is the tutorial:

http://boost-log.sourceforge.net/libs/log/doc/html/log/tutorial.html#log.tutorial.trivial

However, boost log is not part of boost. Hence not in the regular boost branch.

One can download boost log separately from here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/boost-log/

I might just be too inexperienced, but I find the installation instructions very poor. Nonetheless, after downloading and copying the folders boost and lib into the boost folder, I can run bootstrap and bjam. This fails with errors relating to Boost.Filesystem versions, similar to the ones mentioned here:

http://boost.2283326.n4.nabble.com/Boost-Log-compilation-on-msvc-2010-fail-td3488502.html

The recommendation from Andrew Semashev (in above link) is to "Please use Boost.Log v2 (from SVN trunk)."

Looking at https://boost-log.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/boost-log, I can only see version 1.

Looking at http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/, I can find boost logging v2 by John Torjo. However, just from the syntax that might not be the boost log v2 that Andrew Semashev is talking about.

Seeing that I spend way too many hours on this already, I figured I'd get some help, and maybe some other people might profit from this post and the answers and save themselves some time. I don't think it has been answered before, and answers like these change I supposed.

So, here goes: What is boost log v2 that Andrew Semashev is talking about? Is it the same as John Torjo's? If not, where I can find it? And how do I build it?

Thanks

P.S. I should mention this is on Windows with Visual Studio Express 2010

P.P.S. Guess "version 2", which is apparently just the SVN, also has problems, but with this line (see Sergio's answer below)

<toolset>msvc:<define>BOOST_FILESYSTEM_VERSION=2

in the bjam file at least I can compile. However, this file

#include <boost/log/trivial.hpp>
int main(int, char*[])
{
    BOOST_LOG_TRIVIAL(trace) << "A trace severity message";
    BOOST_LOG_TRIVIAL(debug) << "A debug severity message";
    BOOST_LOG_TRIVIAL(info) << "An informational severity message";
    BOOST_LOG_TRIVIAL(warning) << "A warning severity message";
    BOOST_LOG_TRIVIAL(error) << "An error severity message";
    BOOST_LOG_TRIVIAL(fatal) << "A fatal severity message";
}

straight out of the tutorial, albeit now compiling and linking, doesn't produce any output...

Answer 1

This is the method I followed to install Boost.Log in my Linux box. One important note before you build and install Boost libraries: Make sure you have installed a threading library like pthreads. Most package managers should have them.

Here are the build steps:

If you have installed Boost already from source, then its fine continue to next step. Otherwise download it from here (preferably the latest version (v1.46). I used v1.45). Extract the boost libraries at say: /opt. We can build the libraries along with Boost.Log.

• Download Boost.Log from Sourceforge.
• Extract the Boost.Log source archive in a folder – say /opt. Copy the log folder in: /opt/boost-log-1.0/boost to your boost source directory /opt/Boost_1_45_0/boost (assuming that you have extracted it in /opt).
• Copy the log folder in: /opt/boost-log-1.0/libs to your boost libs directory /opt/Boost_1_45_0/libs (assuming that you have extracted it in /opt). If you haven’t installed other Boost libraries, then follow these steps:
  • cd /opt/Boost_1_45_0
  • .bootstrap.sh --show-libraries — this will list all the libraries that will be built and installed. You should see log listed as part of it.
  • .bootstrap.sh --with-libraries=all --prefix=/usr/local --includedir=/usr/local/include --libdir=/usr/local/lib
  • ./bjam install

Finally make sure $LD_LIBRARY_PATH has /usr/local/lib (the path specified in bjam to install the built libraries) as part of it. If it is not edit your ~/.bashrc and add the following:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH