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I'm compiling from the command line using g++ on a Windows MinGW installation. How do I get boost...conceptually or if it is easy...what do I need to download and install?

Lightness Races in Orbit
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    Prepare for great pain and suffering. – Lightness Races in Orbit Oct 21 '11 at 10:06
  • Did you not read the Boost installation instructions? Which parts are you struggling with? – Lightness Races in Orbit Oct 21 '11 at 10:07
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    If you are flexible about what compiler you can use, it's significantly easier to install Boost for Visual C++, as BoostPro provides binaries and an installer: http://www.boostpro.com/download/. If you must use MinGW, there are a couple options. 1 - Use STL's mingw/gcc distribution, which comes with a prebuilt Boost 1.47.0 and is neatly packaged (http://nuwen.net/mingw.html). STL works on the Visual Studio software at Microsoft. 2 - Download the source code for boost from boost.org, and follow these instructions: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_47_0/doc/html/bbv2/installation.html – wkl Oct 21 '11 at 15:56
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    I'll try nuwen despite the web site...seriously how could something so useful...be on this web-site...shouldn't this be on sourceforge.net or similar? –  Oct 30 '11 at 00:05
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    @ChrisAaker: Because that's Stephan T. Lavavej's web-site. And he's a boss. See his videos on Channel 9. http://channel9.msdn.com/Tags/stephan-t-lavavej – Benjamin Lindley Oct 30 '11 at 00:47
  • This may be of help http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14181832/install-boost-on-windows-with-codeblocks/14186795#14186795 – StoryTeller - Unslander Monica Jan 20 '13 at 23:34

4 Answers4

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I know this is an old question but for future reference for anybody coming to this page try this website, http://nuwen.net/mingw.html

They have done all the hard work so you don't have to. The most recent distribution on this page has boost 1_52_0 (which is the latest version on the boost website as I'm writing this) including the separately compiled libraries (e.g. boost thread, boost regex etc) which I beleive you're asking for

woosah
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I spent hours searching for a good solution for Boost 1.54. If you already have MinGW and you're just looking for instructions on compiling the binary boost libraries, try this:

  1. From your boost_X_XX_X directory, go to

    .\tools\build\src\engine

    and type:

    build.bat mingw

  2. This will create a folder called bin.ntx86 or bin.ntx86_64 depending on your architecture. Add this directory to your PATH environment variable.

  3. Return to your boost_X_XX_X directory and type:

    bjam toolset=gcc

This worked for me on my system. I'd be interested to know if other systems have trouble with these instructions.

Timmmm
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Neal Kruis
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    This no longer works. There is no v2 directory. There is `./tools/build/src/engine.bat` though. Haven't tried it yet. – Timmmm Jan 29 '16 at 11:48
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However there would have been a simpler, yet identical way; your steps until the bjam call are automatically done by bootstrap.bat:

C:\boost_1_52_0> bootstrap.bat mingw
Building Boost.Build engine 
...
C:\boost_1_52_0> b2 toolset=gcc

Reference: https://stackoverflow.com/a/13257930/2171309

Anthony Raymond
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Victor Lellis
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2

Thanx to Neal Kruis. This worked for me. I have Qt 5.4 with mingw 4.9 installed. I downloaded boost 1.59. Go to "...\boost_1_59_0\tools\build\src\engine\" folder

set PATH=%PATH%;c:\Qt\Qt5.4.0\Tools\mingw491_32\bin
build.bat mingw

go to "...\boost_1_59_0\" folder, change boost path accordingly

set PATH=%PATH%;c:\boost_1_59_0\tools\build\src\engine\bin.ntx86
bjam toolset=gcc
Zibarov Volodymyr
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