Boost.Build is an efficient software construction system for large projects. It offers a user-friendly interface and advanced features to streamline the process of building software.
Boost.Build is a software construction system designed for large projects. Not only is it simple to use, but it is also powerful. The Boost.Build project is an ongoing effort to rewrite and improve the software's design, making it more extensible.
One of the most notable features of Boost.Build is its simple and high-level target description language. In most cases, you only need to provide the name of the target and a list of its sources.
Boost.Build also boasts variant builds, allowing you to build with your choice of basic variants (e.g. debug, release, profile...), toolsets (e.g. gcc and msvc), and specific properties (e.g. inlining off) from a single command invocation. It is also highly portable, thanks to feature normalization, which allows fine-tuning of targets independently from the toolset used, and modular toolset descriptions that generate actual build instructions.
Furthermore, Boost.Build supports multi-project builds, allowing you to combine and build several projects together with dependencies correctly tracked. The software can handle the settings needed to use other projects automatically. Another significant feature is its extensibility, as new file types and tools can be easily added.
In the latest release, Boost.Build added support for precompiled headers with gcc, making it more versatile. Using a default-configured compiler no longer requires editing a configuration file, and Pathscale, PGI, and mipspro compilers are now supported. The software also allows projects to selectively ignore a parent project's requirements, and free features like defines on the command line now affect all targets.
Overall, Boost.Build is a highly recommended software construction system that comes with several practical features, power, portability, and extensibility.
One of the most notable features of Boost.Build is its simple and high-level target description language. In most cases, you only need to provide the name of the target and a list of its sources.
Boost.Build also boasts variant builds, allowing you to build with your choice of basic variants (e.g. debug, release, profile...), toolsets (e.g. gcc and msvc), and specific properties (e.g. inlining off) from a single command invocation. It is also highly portable, thanks to feature normalization, which allows fine-tuning of targets independently from the toolset used, and modular toolset descriptions that generate actual build instructions.
Furthermore, Boost.Build supports multi-project builds, allowing you to combine and build several projects together with dependencies correctly tracked. The software can handle the settings needed to use other projects automatically. Another significant feature is its extensibility, as new file types and tools can be easily added.
In the latest release, Boost.Build added support for precompiled headers with gcc, making it more versatile. Using a default-configured compiler no longer requires editing a configuration file, and Pathscale, PGI, and mipspro compilers are now supported. The software also allows projects to selectively ignore a parent project's requirements, and free features like defines on the command line now affect all targets.
Overall, Boost.Build is a highly recommended software construction system that comes with several practical features, power, portability, and extensibility.
What's New
Version 2.0-m12: N/A