Subject: [Boost-users] [Build/make tools] My strong interest in some 'boost-config' script...
From: François Mauger (mauger_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-03-11 06:54:24
Dear boosters,
As a programmer under Unix-like systems, I really appreciate when a
library (say `mylib') provides some `mylib-config' script that helps
its users to build compiler flags. Several industrial strength
libraries have such a tool: GSL, MySQL and, in the field of particle
physics software I work: CLHEP, ROOT, CERNLIB...
Here is an example for the GSL (GNU Scientific Library):
>>> $ gsl-config
Usage: gsl-config [OPTION]
Known values for OPTION are:
--prefix show GSL installation prefix
--libs print library linking information, with cblas
--libs-without-cblas print library linking information, without cblas
--cflags print pre-processor and compiler flags
--help display this help and exit
--version output version information
An external CBLAS library can be specified using the GSL_CBLAS_LIB
environment variable. The GSL CBLAS library is used by default.
<<<
I makes really easy to write rather portable makefiles using things
like:
CPPFLAGS+=$(shell gsl-config --cflags)
LDFLAGS+=$(shell gsl-config --libs)
Up to now and AFAIK it seems Boost does not provide such script that
could be generated at build stage for any Unix-like system. Of
course, I wrote my own script for my own usage (and for people who
work with me). But at the end, I think it would be better to use an
`official' tool. For my experience, it is also a strong argument to
convince newbies to use Boost on top of standard C++, because it comes
in some rather transparent way.
So I have a few questions:
- Is there such a script hidden in the Boost source tree?
- If not, is there any plan to provide one?
- Is someone else interested with it?
Thank you very much for your comments.
[hope this topic has not been addressed in the past! I apologize in
advance for that!]
regards
frc
[PS: I previously posted this mail within the wrong thread... sorry!]
-- F.Mauger