Getting Started with Modularized Boost Library Development

This is a work in progress

Prerequisites

• An understanding of Boost culture and the Developer's mailing list. Read more.
• An understanding of Boost Library Requirements and Guidelines.
• The Git version control system. Read about Getting Started with Git. If you are new to Git, install it and experiment a bit before coming back here.
• A (free) ​GitHub account. Read about Getting Started with GitHub. If you are new to GitHub, be sure to do the exercise before coming back here.
• Your favorite compiler and development environment.
• A recent version of Boost installed. See Boost Getting Started. (Either modularized or pre-modularized Boost will work.)
• The b2 executable, created in the boost root directory during installation, added to your path.

Overview

• Your library has its own public repository that has a "develop" branch for development work, and a "master" branch for your releases, which occur asynchronously from Boost releases. You may also have other branches, but that's up to you.
• The Boost super project has its own public repository. It treats your library as a sub-module, i.e. a link to a particular release in your library's public GitHub repository.
• You (and the rest of your team) do day-to-day development using private repositories on your local machines. You push changes from these local private repos up to your library's public repo whenever you want. The local repos may also have private branches that are never pushed to the public repo.
• Your library's directory structure conforms to Boost directory structure conventions, so both users and automatic processes can find header files, test files, build configurations, and the like. Beyond the conventions, your library's directory structure is up to you.

Directory Structure

For Modularized Boost, header files are placed in a include/boost header hierarchy within your main directory. Here is what a very simple header-only library named simple would look like:

     simple
       include
         boost
           simple
             twice.hpp
       test
         twice_test.cpp
         Jamfile.v2
       index.html   

Creating the simple library

• With your web browser, sign into your ​GitHub account and create a repository named simple. Select the option to automatically create a README file. Copy the URL of the newly created repository to your clipboard.
• The remainder of the steps are run from the command line.
• cd to the libs sub-directory of the Boost installation root directory, clone the newly created repository, and create the library's directory structure:

  cd boost-root/libs
  git clone git@github.com:Beman/simple.git
  cd simple
  mkdir include
  mkdir test
  cd include
  mkdir boost
  cd boost
  mkdir simple
  cd ../../../../boost
  

• Create a symlink to simulate your library being installed as part of Boost:
  • Windows: mklink /d simple ..\libs\simple\include\boost\simple
  • POSIX: ln -s ../libs/simple/include/boost/simple simple

• Using a text editor, create a file named twice.hpp in boost-root/libs/simple/include/boost/simple:

  #include <string>
  namespace boost { namespace simple {
  inline std::string twice(const std::string& s)
  {
    return s + s;
  }
  }}
  

• cd to boost-root/libs/simple/test. The remaining steps are done in that directory.
• Create a file named twice_test.cpp using a text editor:

  #include <boost/simple/twice.hpp>
  #include <boost/detail/lightweight_test.hpp>
  
  int main()
  {
    BOOST_TEST(boost::simple::twice("foo") == "foofoo");
    return ::boost::report_errors();
  }
  

• Create a file named Jamfile.v2 using a text editor. Be careful to leave spaces between syntax elements as they are required:

  test-suite simple :
      [ run twice_test.cpp ]
      ;
  

• Run the test by invoking b2 with no arguments. The output should look something like this:

  ...found 26 targets...
  ...updating 11 targets...
  common.mkdir ..\..\..\bin.v2\libs\simple
  common.mkdir ..\..\..\bin.v2\libs\simple\test
  common.mkdir ..\..\..\bin.v2\libs\simple\test\twice_test.test
  common.mkdir ..\..\..\bin.v2\libs\simple\test\twice_test.test\msvc-10.0express
  common.mkdir ..\..\..\bin.v2\libs\simple\test\twice_test.test\msvc-10.0express\debug
  common.mkdir ..\..\..\bin.v2\libs\simple\test\twice_test.test\msvc-10.0express\debug\threading-multi
  compile-c-c++ ..\..\..\bin.v2\libs\simple\test\twice_test.test\msvc-10.0express\debug\threading-multi\twice_test.obj
  twice_test.cpp
  msvc.link ..\..\..\bin.v2\libs\simple\test\twice_test.test\msvc-10.0express\debug\threading-multi\twice_test.exe
  msvc.manifest ..\..\..\bin.v2\libs\simple\test\twice_test.test\msvc-10.0express\debug\threading-multi\twice_test.exe
  testing.capture-output ..\..\..\bin.v2\libs\simple\test\twice_test.test\msvc-10.0express\debug\threading-multi\twice_test.run
          1 file(s) copied.
  **passed** ..\..\..\bin.v2\libs\simple\test\twice_test.test\msvc-10.0express\debug\threading-multi\twice_test.test
  ...updated 11 targets...