WINDOWS: Build Boost for Visual Studio 2010

Source:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2629421/how-to-use-boost-in-visual-studio-2010

If you are using headers only libraries, then all you need to do is to unarchive the boost download and set up the environment variables. The instruction below set the environment variables for Visual Studio only, and not across the system as a whole. Note you only have to do it once.

1. Unarchive the latest version of boost (1.47.0 as of writing) into a directory of your choice (e.g.C:\boost_1_47_0).


2. Create a new empty project in Visual Studio.


3. Open the Property Manager and expand one of the configuration for the platform of your choice.


4. Select & right click Microsoft.Cpp.<Platform>.user, and select Properties to open the Property Page for edit.


5. Select VC++ Directories on the left.


6. Edit the Include Directories section to include the path to your boost source files.


7. Repeat steps 3 - 6 for different platform of your choice if needed.

If you want to use the part of boost that require building, but none of the features that requires external dependencies, then building it is fairly simple.

1. Unarchive the latest version of boost (1.47.0 as of writing) into a directory of your choice (e.g.C:\boost_1_47_0).


2. Start the Visual Studio Command Prompt for the platform of your choice and navigate to where boost is.


3. Run: bootstrap.bat to build b2.exe (previously named bjam).


4. Run b2: (Win32) b2 --toolset=msvc-10.0 --build-type=complete stage ; (x64) b2 --toolset=msvc-10.0 --build-type=complete architecture=x86 address-model=64 stage. Go for a walk / watch a movie or 2 / ....


5. Go through steps 2 - 6 from the set of instruction above to set the environment variables.


6. Edit the Library Directories section to include the path to your boost libraries output. (The default for the example and instructions above would be C:\boost_1_47_0\stage\lib. Rename and move the directory first if you want to have x86 & x64 side by side (such as to<BOOST_PATH>\lib\x86 & <BOOST_PATH>\lib\x64).


7. Repeat steps 2 - 6 for different platform of your choice if needed.

If you want both x64 & win32 side by side, add "--stagedir=lib/win32" and "--stagedir=lib/x64" to the respective builds