.. Copyright David Abrahams 2006. Distributed under the Boost .. Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying .. file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt) ======================================= |(logo)|__ Getting Started on Windows ======================================= .. |(logo)| image:: ../../boost.png :alt: Boost :class: boost-logo .. role:: raw-html(raw) :format: html __ ../../index.htm .. section-numbering:: .. Admonition:: A note to Cygwin_ and MinGW_ users If you plan to use your tools from the Windows command prompt, you're in the right place. If you plan to build from the Cygwin_ bash shell, you're actually running on a POSIX platform and should follow the instructions for `getting started on Unix variants`_. Other command shells, such as MinGW_\ 's MSYS, are not supported—they may or may not work. .. _`Getting Started on Unix Variants`: unix-variants.html .. _Cygwin: http://www.cygwin.com .. _MinGW: http://mingw.org .. Contents:: Index Get Boost ========= The most reliable way to get a copy of Boost is to download |boost.7z|_ or |boost_zip|_ and unpack it to install a complete Boost distribution. [#zip]_ .. |boost.7z| replace:: |boost_ver|\ ``.7z`` .. _`boost.7z`: `sf-download`_ .. |boost_zip| replace:: |boost_ver|\ ``.zip`` .. _`boost_zip`: `sf-download`_ .. include:: detail/distro.rst .. include:: detail/header-only.rst .. include:: detail/build-simple-head.rst .. _`command prompt`: .. _`command-line tool`: .. Note:: To build the examples in this guide, you can use an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) like Visual Studio, or you can issue commands from the `command prompt`_. Since every IDE and compiler has different options and Microsoft's are by far the dominant compilers on Windows, we only give specific directions here for Visual Studio 2005 and .NET 2003 IDEs and their respective command prompt compilers (using the command prompt is a bit simpler). If you are using another compiler or IDE, it should be relatively easy to adapt these instructions to your environment. .. sidebar:: Command Prompt Basics :class: small In Windows, a command-line tool is invoked by typing its name, optionally followed by arguments, into a *Command Prompt* window and pressing the Return (or Enter) key. To open a generic *Command Prompt*, click the *Start* menu button, click *Run*, type “cmd”, and then click *OK*. .. _current directory: All commands are executed within the context of a **current directory** in the filesystem. To set the current directory, type: .. parsed-literal:: cd *path*\ \\\ *to*\ \\\ *some*\ \\\ *directory* followed by Return. For example, .. parsed-literal:: cd |default-root| Long commands can be continued across several lines by typing a caret (``^``) at the end of all but the last line. Some examples on this page use that technique to save horizontal space. .. _vs-header-only: Build From the Visual Studio IDE -------------------------------- * From Visual Studio's *File* menu, select *New* > *Project…* * In the left-hand pane of the resulting *New Project* dialog, select *Visual C++* > *Win32*. * In the right-hand pane, select *Win32 Console Application* (VS8.0) or *Win32 Console Project* (VS7.1). * In the *name* field, enter “example” * Right-click **example** in the *Solution Explorer* pane and select *Properties* from the resulting pop-up menu * In *Configuration Properties* > *C/C++* > *General* > *Additional Include Directories*, enter the path to the Boost root directory, for example |default-root| * In *Configuration Properties* > *C/C++* > *Precompiled Headers*, change *Use Precompiled Header (/Yu)* to *Not Using Precompiled Headers*. [#pch]_ * Replace the contents of the ``example.cpp`` generated by the IDE with the example code above. * From the *Build* menu, select *Build Solution*. To test your application, hit the F5 key and type the following into the resulting window, followed by the Return key:: 1 2 3 Then hold down the control key and press "Z", followed by the Return key. |next|__ __ `Errors and Warnings`_ Or, Build From the Command Prompt --------------------------------- From your computer's *Start* menu, if you are a Visual Studio 2005 user, select *All Programs* > *Microsoft Visual Studio 2005* > *Visual Studio Tools* > *Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt* or, if you're a Visual Studio .NET 2003 user, select *All Programs* > *Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003* > *Visual Studio .NET Tools* > *Visual Studio .NET 2003 Command Prompt* to bring up a special `command prompt`_ window set up for the Visual Studio compiler. In that window, set the `current directory`_ to a suitable location for creating some temporary files and type the following command followed by the Return key: .. parsed-literal:: cl /EHsc /I |root| *path*\ \\\ *to*\ \\example.cpp To test the result, type: .. parsed-literal:: echo 1 2 3 | example .. include:: detail/errors-and-warnings.rst .. include:: detail/binary-head.rst Simplified Build From Source ---------------------------- If you wish to build from source with Visual C++, you can use a simple build procedure described in this section. Open the command prompt and change your current directory to the Boost root directory. Then, type the following commands:: bootstrap .\b2 The first command prepares the Boost.Build system for use. The second command invokes Boost.Build to build the separately-compiled Boost libraries. Please consult the `Boost.Build documentation`__ for a list of allowed options. __ http://www.boost.org/build/doc/html/bbv2/overview/invocation.html Or, Build Binaries From Source ------------------------------ If you're using an earlier version of Visual C++, or a compiler from another vendor, you'll need to use Boost.Build_ to create your own binaries. .. include:: detail/build-from-source-head.rst For example, your session might look like this: [#continuation]_ .. parsed-literal:: C:\\WINDOWS> cd |default-root| |default-root|> b2 **^** More? **--build-dir=**\ "C:\\Documents and Settings\\dave\\build-boost" **^** More? **--build-type=complete** **msvc** stage Be sure to read `this note`__ about the appearance of ``^``, ``More?`` and quotation marks (``"``) in that line. The option “\ **--build-type=complete**\ ” causes Boost.Build to build all supported variants of the libraries. For instructions on how to build only specific variants, please ask on the `Boost.Build mailing list`_. __ continuation_ .. include:: detail/build-from-source-tail.rst .. _auto-linking: .. include:: detail/link-head.rst .. Admonition:: Auto-Linking Most Windows compilers and linkers have so-called “auto-linking support,” which eliminates the second challenge. Special code in Boost header files detects your compiler options and uses that information to encode the name of the correct library into your object files; the linker selects the library with that name from the directories you've told it to search. The GCC toolchains (Cygwin and MinGW) are notable exceptions; GCC users should refer to the `linking instructions for Unix variant OSes`__ for the appropriate command-line options to use. __ unix-variants.html#link-your-program-to-a-boost-library Link From Within the Visual Studio IDE -------------------------------------- Starting with the `header-only example project`__ we created earlier: __ vs-header-only_ 1. Right-click **example** in the *Solution Explorer* pane and select *Properties* from the resulting pop-up menu 2. In *Configuration Properties* > *Linker* > *Additional Library Directories*, enter the path to the Boost binaries, e.g. |default-root|\ ``\lib\``. 3. From the *Build* menu, select *Build Solution*. |next|__ __ `Test Your Program`_ Or, Link From the Command Prompt -------------------------------- For example, we can compile and link the above program from the Visual C++ command-line by simply adding the **bold** text below to the command line we used earlier, assuming your Boost binaries are in |default-root|\ ``\lib``: .. parsed-literal:: cl /EHsc /I |root| example.cpp **^** **/link /LIBPATH:**\ |default-root-bold|\ **\\lib** Library Naming -------------- .. Note:: If, like Visual C++, your compiler supports auto-linking, you can probably |next|__. __ `Test Your Program`_ .. include:: detail/library-naming.rst .. include:: detail/test-head.rst Now, in a `command prompt`_ window, type: .. parsed-literal:: *path*\ \\\ *to*\ \\\ *compiled*\ \\example < *path*\ \\\ *to*\ \\\ jayne.txt The program should respond with the email subject, “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” .. include:: detail/conclusion.rst ------------------------------ .. [#zip] We recommend downloading |boost.7z|_ and using 7-Zip_ to decompress it. We no longer recommend .zip files for Boost because they are twice as large as the equivalent .7z files. We don't recommend using Windows' built-in decompression as it can be painfully slow for large archives. .. _7-Zip: http://www.7-zip.org .. [#pch] There's no problem using Boost with precompiled headers; these instructions merely avoid precompiled headers because it would require Visual Studio-specific changes to the source code used in the examples. .. [#continuation] In this example, the caret character ``^`` is a way of continuing the command on multiple lines, and must be the **final character** used on the line to be continued (i.e. do not follow it with spaces). The command prompt responds with ``More?`` to prompt for more input. Feel free to omit the carets and subsequent newlines; we used them so the example would fit on a page of reasonable width. The command prompt treats each bit of whitespace in the command as an argument separator. That means quotation marks (``"``) are required to keep text together whenever a single command-line argument contains spaces, as in .. parsed-literal:: --build-dir=\ :raw-html:`"`\ C:\\Documents\ :raw-html:`_`\ and\ :raw-html:`_`\ Settings\\dave\\build-boost\ \ :raw-html:`"` Also, for example, you can't add spaces around the ``=`` sign as in .. parsed-literal:: --build-dir\ :raw-html:`_`\ =\ :raw-html:`_`\ "C:\\Documents and Settings\\dave\\build-boost" .. |boost.zip| replace:: |boost_ver|\ ``.zip`` .. _`boost.zip`: `sf-download`_ .. |build-type-complete| replace:: **--build-type=complete** .. include:: detail/common-footnotes.rst .. include:: detail/release-variables.rst .. include:: detail/common-windows.rst .. include:: detail/links.rst