How do I specify, which version of boost library to link to?

Question

I'm trying to migrate a project written in VS2012 to VS2013.

I successfully compiled boost 1.53.0 (I first tried 1.54.0, but got some compiler errors) and got libraries like libboost_filesystem-vc120-mt-1_53.lib.

But when trying to build my project, the linker complains:

error LNK1104: cannot open file 'libboost_filesystem-vc110-mt-1_53.lib'

I've been looking for some project settings in my entire solution to find out, why it's trying to load the older library version, but I didn't find anything.

How does the linker know, which library to use? And how can I fix my problem?

"the linker complains" -- we'll need to see some error mesasges, likely. — John Dibling, Nov 06 '13 at 16:21
This is exactly my question. Why is it looking for vc110 version and not vc120? — Ben, Nov 06 '13 at 16:27
@JohnDibling: No, I already built the vc120 version. But the linker is looking for an older version and I don't know why. I never specified which library to use. It just worked until now and I have no clue how the linker could know before, which library to use. — Ben, Nov 06 '13 at 16:35
In the boost code? Did they forget to update that for the vc120 version? — Ben, Nov 06 '13 at 16:39
let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/40648/discussion-between-ben-and-john-dibling) — Ben, Nov 06 '13 at 16:43

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

8

I found the answer to my question and the solution to my problem in TheArtTrooper's answer to this thread:

How do I build boost with new Visual Studio 2013 preview?

The linker does know which library to use, because it is specified in boost/config/auto_link.hpp.

This file is missing a few lines of code to handle the vc120 version:

#  elif defined(BOOST_MSVC) && (BOOST_MSVC < 1800)

     // vc11:
#    define BOOST_LIB_TOOLSET "vc110"

#  elif defined(BOOST_MSVC)

     // vc12:
#    define BOOST_LIB_TOOLSET "vc120"

Now it compiles and links just fine!

edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

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answered Nov 06 '13 at 17:02

Ben

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Good spot, report it to the boost bug list – Martin Beckett Nov 06 '13 at 19:08

How do I specify, which version of boost library to link to?

1 Answers1

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