./configure fails detecting boost libraries

Issue #73 new
Steve Kroon created an issue

Downloading commit dca806c (current tip), and running ./configure on my machine, I get the following output:

checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
checking for g++... g++
checking whether the C++ compiler works... yes
checking for C++ compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables... 
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of g++... gcc3
checking whether g++ understands -c and -o together... yes
checking for boostlib >= 1.33.1... yes
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking whether gcc understands -c and -o together... yes
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking whether the Boost::System library is available... yes
configure: error: Could not find a version of the library!

I'm running a 32-bit version of Ubuntu Trusty, and installed libboost-all-dev from the package manager, so the AC scripts should handle this, I'd think. However, I can get the configure to succeed by passing the option " --with-boost-libdir=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/" to ./configure.

All in all, this seems like a shortcoming in the M4 scripts - if you agree, it should probably be reported somewhere? However, adding a comment about the problem to the Build section of the README would probably be useful (since the ./configure error message is pretty unenlightening - the folder to use for with-boost-libdir is then the folder containing the various libboost libraries ).

Comments (4)

  1. Francois van Niekerk repo owner

    seems weird that the boost libraries were installed there on a 32-bit-only system. I guess that path can just be added to the M4 scripts.

  2. Steve Kroon reporter

    Fairly new 64-bit install hit the same hiccup - needed to use "--with-boost-libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/"

  3. Log in to comment