Programs are created using the exe rule, which follows the common syntax. For example:

exe hello : hello.cpp some_library.lib /some_project//library
          : <threading>multi
          ;

This will create an executable file from the sources—in this case, one C++ file, one library file present in the same directory, and another library that is created by Boost.Build. Generally, sources can include C and C++ files, object files and libraries. Boost.Build will automatically try to convert targets of other types.

Library targets are created using the lib rule, which follows the common syntax . For example:

lib helpers : helpers.cpp ;

This will define a library target named helpers built from the helpers.cpp source file. It can be either a static library or a shared library, depending on the value of the <link> feature.

Library targets can represent:

The syntax for prebuilt libraries is given below:

lib z : : <name>z <search>/home/ghost ;
lib compress : : <file>/opt/libs/compress.a ;

The name property specifies the name of the library without the standard prefixes and suffixes. For example, depending on the system, z could refer to a file called z.so, libz.a, or z.lib, etc. The search feature specifies paths in which to search for the library in addition to the default compiler paths. search can be specified several times or it can be omitted, in which case only the default compiler paths will be searched. The file property specifies the file location.

The difference between using the file feature and using a combination of the name and search features is that file is more precise.

For convenience, the following syntax is allowed:

lib z ;
lib gui db aux ;

which has exactly the same effect as:

lib z : : <name>z ;
lib gui : : <name>gui ;
lib db : : <name>db ;
lib aux : : <name>aux ;

When a library references another library you should put that other library in its list of sources. This will do the right thing in all cases. For portability, you should specify library dependencies even for searched and prebuilt libraries, othewise, static linking on Unix will not work. For example:

lib z ;
lib png : z : <name>png ;

Usage requirements are often very useful for defining library targets. For example, imagine that you want you build a helpers library and its interface is described in its helpers.hpp header file located in the same directory as the helpers.cpp source file. Then you could add the following to the Jamfile located in that same directory:

lib helpers : helpers.cpp : : : <include>. ;

which would automatically add the directory where the target has been defined (and where the library's header file is located) to the compiler's include path for all targets using the helpers library. This feature greatly simplifies Jamfiles.

The alias rule gives an alternative name to a group of targets. For example, to give the name core to a group of three other targets with the following code:

alias core : im reader writer ;

Using core on the command line, or in the source list of any other target is the same as explicitly using im , reader, and writer.

Another use of the alias rule is to change build properties. For example, if you want to use link statically to the Boost Threads library, you can write the following:

alias threads : /boost/thread//boost_thread : <link>static ;

and use only the threads alias in your Jamfiles.

You can also specify usage requirements for the alias target. If you write the following:

alias header_only_library : : : :  <include>/usr/include/header_only_library ;

then using header_only_library in sources will only add an include path. Also note that when an alias has sources, their usage requirements are propagated as well. For example:

lib library1 : library1.cpp : : : <include>/library/include1 ;
lib library2 : library2.cpp : : : <include>/library/include2 ;
alias static_libraries : library1 library2 : <link>static ;
exe main : main.cpp static_libraries ;

will compile main.cpp with additional includes required for using the specified static libraries.

This section describes various ways to install built target and arbitrary files.

Basic install

For installing a built target you should use the install rule, which follows the common syntax. For example:

install dist : hello helpers ;

will cause the targets hello and helpers to be moved to the dist directory, relative to the Jamfile's directory. The directory can be changed using the location property:

install dist : hello helpers : <location>/usr/bin ;

While you can achieve the same effect by changing the target name to /usr/bin, using the location property is better as it allows you to use a mnemonic target name.

The location property is especially handy when the location is not fixed, but depends on the build variant or environment variables:

install dist : hello helpers :
    <variant>release:<location>dist/release
    <variant>debug:<location>dist/debug ;
install dist2 : hello helpers : <location>$(DIST) ;

See also conditional properties and environment variables

Installing with all dependencies

Specifying the names of all libraries to install can be boring. The install allows you to specify only the top-level executable targets to install, and automatically install all dependencies:

install dist : hello
           : <install-dependencies>on <install-type>EXE
             <install-type>LIB
           ;

will find all targets that hello depends on, and install all of those which are either executables or libraries. More specifically, for each target, other targets that were specified as sources or as dependency properties, will be recursively found. One exception is that targets referred with the use feature are not considered, as that feature is typically used to refer to header-only libraries. If the set of target types is specified, only targets of that type will be installed, otherwise, all found target will be installed.

Preserving Directory Hierarchy

By default, the install rule will strip paths from its sources. So, if sources include a/b/c.hpp, the a/b part will be ignored. To make the install rule preserve the directory hierarchy you need to use the <install-source-root> feature to specify the root of the hierarchy you are installing. Relative paths from that root will be preserved. For example, if you write:

install headers
    : a/b/c.h
    : <location>/tmp <install-source-root>a
    ;

the a file named /tmp/b/c.h will be created.

The glob-tree rule can be used to find all files below a given directory, making it easy to install an entire directory tree.

Installing into Several Directories

The alias rule can be used when targets need to be installed into several directories:

alias install : install-bin install-lib ;
install install-bin : applications : /usr/bin ;
install install-lib : helper : /usr/lib ;

Because the install rule just copies targets, most free features ^[34] have no effect when used in requirements of the install rule. The only two that matter are dependency and, on Unix, dll-path .

Boost.Build has convenient support for running unit tests. The simplest way is the unit-test rule, which follows the common syntax. For example:

unit-test helpers_test : helpers_test.cpp helpers ;

The unit-test rule behaves like the exe rule, but after the executable is created it is also run. If the executable returns an error code, the build system will also return an error and will try running the executable on the next invocation until it runs successfully. This behaviour ensures that you can not miss a unit test failure.

There are few specialized testing rules, listed below:

rule compile ( sources : requirements * : target-name ? )
rule compile-fail ( sources : requirements * : target-name ? )
rule link ( sources + : requirements * : target-name ? )
rule link-fail ( sources + : requirements * : target-name ? )

They are given a list of sources and requirements. If the target name is not provided, the name of the first source file is used instead. The compile* tests try to compile the passed source. The link* rules try to compile and link an application from all the passed sources. The compile and link rules expect that compilation/linking succeeds. The compile-fail and link-fail rules expect that the compilation/linking fails.

There are two specialized rules for running applications, which are more powerful than the unit-test rule. The run rule has the following signature:

rule run ( sources + : args * : input-files * : requirements * : target-name ?
    : default-build * )

The rule builds application from the provided sources and runs it, passing args and input-files as command-line arguments. The args parameter is passed verbatim and the values of the input-files parameter are treated as paths relative to containing Jamfile, and are adjusted if b2 is invoked from a different directory. The run-fail rule is identical to the run rule, except that it expects that the run fails.

All rules described in this section, if executed successfully, create a special manifest file to indicate that the test passed. For the unit-test rule the files is named target-name.passed and for the other rules it is called target-name.test. The run* rules also capture all output from the program, and store it in a file named target-name.output.

If the preserve-test-targets feature has the value off, then run and the run-fail rules will remove the executable after running it. This somewhat decreases disk space requirements for continuous testing environments. The default value of preserve-test-targets feature is on.

It is possible to print the list of all test targets (except for unit-test) declared in your project, by passing the --dump-tests command-line option. The output will consist of lines of the form:

boost-test(test-type) path : sources

It is possible to process the list of tests, Boost.Build output and the presense/absense of the *.test files created when test passes into human-readable status table of tests. Such processing utilities are not included in Boost.Build.

The following features adjust behaviour of the testing metatargets.

For most main target rules, Boost.Build automatically figures out the commands to run. When you want to use new file types or support new tools, one approach is to extend Boost.Build to support them smoothly, as documented in the section called “Extender Manual”. However, if the new tool is only used in a single place, it might be easier just to specify the commands to run explicitly.

Three main target rules can be used for that. The make rule allows you to construct a single file from any number of source file, by running a command you specify. The notfile rule allows you to run an arbitrary command, without creating any files. And finaly, the generate rule allows you to describe a transformation using Boost.Build's virtual targets. This is higher-level than the file names that the make rule operates with and allows you to create more than one target, create differently named targets depending on properties, or use more than one tool.

The make rule is used when you want to create one file from a number of sources using some specific command. The notfile is used to unconditionally run a command.

Suppose you want to create the file file.out from the file file.in by running the command in2out. Here is how you would do this in Boost.Build:

make file.out : file.in : @in2out ;
actions in2out
{
    in2out $(<) $(>)
}

If you run b2 and file.out does not exist, Boost.Build will run the in2out command to create that file. For more details on specifying actions, see the section called “Boost.Jam Language”.

It could be that you just want to run some command unconditionally, and that command does not create any specific files. For that you can use the notfile rule. For example:

notfile echo_something : @echo ;
actions echo
{
    echo "something"
}

The only difference from the make rule is that the name of the target is not considered a name of a file, so Boost.Build will unconditionally run the action.

The generate rule is used when you want to express transformations using Boost.Build's virtual targets, as opposed to just filenames. The generate rule has the standard main target rule signature, but you are required to specify the generating-rule property. The value of the property should be in the form @rule-name, the named rule should have the following signature:

rule generating-rule ( project name : property-set : sources * )

and will be called with an instance of the project-target class, the name of the main target, an instance of the property-set class containing build properties, and the list of instances of the virtual-target class corresponding to sources. The rule must return a list of virtual-target instances. The interface of the virtual-target class can be learned by looking at the build/virtual-target.jam file. The generate example contained in the Boost.Build distribution illustrates how the generate rule can be used.

Precompiled headers is a mechanism to speed up compilation by creating a partially processed version of some header files, and then using that version during compilations rather then repeatedly parsing the original headers. Boost.Build supports precompiled headers with gcc and msvc toolsets.

To use precompiled headers, follow the following steps:

The pch example in Boost.Build distribution can be used as reference.

Please note the following:

Usually, Boost.Build handles implicit dependendies completely automatically. For example, for C++ files, all #include statements are found and handled. The only aspect where user help might be needed is implicit dependency on generated files.

By default, Boost.Build handles such dependencies within one main target. For example, assume that main target "app" has two sources, "app.cpp" and "parser.y". The latter source is converted into "parser.c" and "parser.h". Then, if "app.cpp" includes "parser.h", Boost.Build will detect this dependency. Moreover, since "parser.h" will be generated into a build directory, the path to that directory will automatically be added to the include path.

Making this mechanism work across main target boundaries is possible, but imposes certain overhead. For that reason, if there is implicit dependency on files from other main targets, the <implicit-dependency> feature must be used, for example:

lib parser : parser.y ;
exe app : app.cpp : <implicit-dependency>parser ;

The above example tells the build system that when scanning all sources of "app" for implicit-dependencies, it should consider targets from "parser" as potential dependencies.

Boost.Build supports cross compilation with the gcc and msvc toolsets.

When using gcc, you first need to specify your cross compiler in user-config.jam (see the section called “Configuration”), for example:

using gcc : arm : arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++ ;

After that, if the host and target os are the same, for example Linux, you can just request that this compiler version be used:

b2 toolset=gcc-arm

If you want to target a different operating system from the host, you need to additionally specify the value for the target-os feature, for example:

# On windows box
b2 toolset=gcc-arm target-os=linux
# On Linux box
b2 toolset=gcc-mingw target-os=windows

For the complete list of allowed opeating system names, please see the documentation for target-os feature.

When using the msvc compiler, it's only possible to cross-compile to a 64-bit system on a 32-bit host. Please see the section called “64-bit support” for details.