AddBoost.cmake

Find or download Boost from CMake.

Versions tested: from 1.79.0 upto 1.88.0.beta1 .

Examples

• Arniiiii/ModernCppStarterExampleBoostCmake

How to use:

1. Add CPM.cmake in your project.
2. Download AddBoost.cmake via CPM: (or install AddBoost.cmake system-wide, check Features section of the document)

set(AddBoost.cmake_VERSION 3.7.3)
CPMAddPackage(
  NAME AddBoost.cmake
  VERSION "${AddBoost.cmake_VERSION}"
  URL "https://github.com/Arniiiii/AddBoost.cmake/archive/refs/tags/${AddBoost.cmake_VERSION}.tar.gz"
)

3. Use the add_boost macro. Notice NOT wrapping variables like TRY_BOOST_VERSION and so on in "${}" when sending arguments to the macro

set(TRY_BOOST_VERSION "1.88.0.beta1")
set(BOOST_MY_OPTIONS "BOOST_ENABLE_PYTHON ON;")
set(BOOST_NOT_HEADER_ONLY_COMPONENTS_THAT_YOU_NEED "thread;system")
set(BOOST_HEADER_ONLY_COMPONENTS_THAT_YOU_NEED "asio;beast;uuid;container;cobalt")

add_boost(
  TRY_BOOST_VERSION BOOST_HEADER_ONLY_COMPONENTS_THAT_YOU_NEED
  BOOST_NOT_HEADER_ONLY_COMPONENTS_THAT_YOU_NEED your_target_name your_target_name2 your_target_name...
)

4. Add Boost's install target (notice ${ADDBOOSTCMAKE_PACKAGEPROJECT_INSTALL_TARGETS}): (Assumed that your target is named ${PROJECT_NAME})

string(TOLOWER ${PROJECT_NAME}/version.h VERSION_HEADER_LOCATION)
string(TOLOWER ${PROJECT_NAME}/export.h EXPORT_HEADER_LOCATION)

set_property(TARGET ${PROJECT_NAME} PROPERTY VERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION})
set_property(TARGET ${PROJECT_NAME} PROPERTY SOVERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION})


CPMAddPackage(
  NAME PackageProject.cmake
  VERSION 1.12.0
  GITHUB_REPOSITORY "TheLartians/PackageProject.cmake"
)

packageProject(
  NAME ${PROJECT_NAME}
  VERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION}
  NAMESPACE ${PROJECT_NAME}
  BINARY_DIR ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}
  INCLUDE_DIR ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/include
  INCLUDE_DESTINATION include/${PROJECT_NAME}
  VERSION_HEADER "${VERSION_HEADER_LOCATION}" 
  EXPORT_HEADER "${EXPORT_HEADER_LOCATION}"
  COMPATIBILITY "AnyNewerVersion" DISABLE_VERSION_SUFFIX ON
  DEPENDENCIES "${ADDBOOSTCMAKE_PACKAGEPROJECT_INSTALL_TARGETS}"
)

Features

• Finds local Boost ( you can set -DCPM_USE_LOCAL_PACKAGES=1 for "looking for local Boost. if failed: download" mode. Set -DCPM_LOCAL_PACKAGES_ONLY=1 to only look for installed Boost and emit error if failed to find)
• Downloads boost, if -DCPM_USE_LOCAL_PACKAGES=1 and there's installed Boost with lower version than needed or if installed Boost doesn't exist on the system or if -DCPM_DOWNLOAD_ALL=1 is set.
• Links Boost to what targets you need by itself
• If you don't want to download Boost multiple times (when you deleted build folder and going to reconfigure), set -DCPM_SOURCE_CACHE=./.cache/cpm or something like.
• Gives appropriate string for you to add to PackageProject.cmake
• Makes Boost generate appropriate install targets
• If you download Boost, you can add additional configuring options just by either setting them before calling function macro add_boost(...) or by setting BOOST_MY_OPTIONS to something like "OPTION value;OPTION2 value;" for example BOOST_ENABLE_PYTHON ON; .
• Little bit tested at Arniiiii/ModernCppStarterExampleBoostCmake and at some of my projects.
• If you have your own Boost directory, set BOOST_USE_MY_BOOST_DIRECTORY to be the path with your Boost before calling the function macro add_boost(...).
• If you want, you can link Boost libs yourself, since the code is macro, not a function: copy and paste some last parts of the main CMakeLists.txt of the project and adjust for yourself.
• You can link Boost libs automagically to multiple targets just by adding them to the end of the add_boost(...) macro.
• You can use ADDBOOSTCMAKE_LINK_TYPE to override default behaviour of linking: if target is INTERFACE, use INTERFACE, if else: PUBLIC
• Correctly handles attempts to get beta versions like boost-1.88.0.beta1, since find_package considers such version as incorrect, but we understand what you mean ^_^
• You can install the AddBoost.cmake on your SYSTEM !!! Use -DAddBoost.cmake_INSTALL=ON command line option at configuring and install as a usual CMake package. And yes, it supports versioning! find_package(AddBoost.cmake 3.7.2)
• Internally, this uses my fork of CPM with better logging handling. Waiting until PRs for CPM are going to be reviewed...
• Cannot check existence of header only components of installed Boost, since it relies on functionality of find_package(Boost ${VERSION} ${COMPONENTS}). Therefore, set version of Boost you need so that it have the library.
• (CPM's problem) Almost impossible to get a reason why it failed to use an installed Boost if -DCPM_USE_LOCAL_PACKAGES=1. Temporary solution: -DCPN_LOCAL_PACKAGES_ONLY=1 will show the reason, but it has a problem too: it will make all CPM to only find packages, not add. But it works, trust me.
• (CPM's problem) To use patches or any version of Boost before 1.85.0, consider specifing any folder for caching downloaded sources via -DCPM_SOURCE_CACHE=/path/to/a/folder/for/downloaded/sources/ . On Linux, you may use ~/.cache/cpm (per user) , ./.cache/cpm (per work folder) or whatever else.
• You can apply your patches to Boost. Before calling the function macro add_boost(...), define variable BOOST_ADD_MY_PATCHES to be a path to folder in which there's *.patch in such layout:

patches/
└── boost
    ├── 1.80.0
    │   ├── a.patch
    │   └── b.patch
    ├── 1.80.0.beta1
    │   └── c.patch
    ├── 1.81.0
    │   └── d.patch
    ├── 1.81.0.beta1
    │   └── d.patch
    ├── 1.82.0
    │   └── e.patch
    ├── 1.83.0
    │   └── f.patch
    ├── 1.84.0
    │   └── g.patch
    ├── patch_for_all_versions1.patch
    └── i_dont_care_to_what_boost_version_itll_apply.patch

Where in folder with specific version will be patches, that will apply only to this version, if it's specified.

License

MIT