Easily build boost on Visual Studio 2017

Easily build the boost library on last VS release, no pain

build_boost_vs2017_win32_x64.bat

Description

Windows batch script to build the boost library. Builds boost with all runtime link types for both 32 and 64 bit architectures.

BOOST Versions

• Tested with 1.68.0 (build_boost_vs2017_win32_x64.bat)
• Tested with 1.64.0 beta 2 (build_boost_vs2017_win32_x64.bat)

Instructions

1. Copy the .bat file inside boost's directory (eg C:\boost_1_68_0).

2. Using Visual Studio 2017's Developer Command Prompt (found in "Windows' Start"\All Programs\Visual Studio 2017\Visual Studio Tools), go to the boost root directory (eg. C:\boost_1_68_0) and call-execute to bat provided in this repo build_boost_vs2017_win32_x64.bat.

eg

C:\>cd boost_1_68_0
C:\boost_1_68_0>build_boost_vs2017_win32_x64.bat

Note: Go for a couple of coffees... the process takes a long time (around 30 minutes in a core i7 with 4 cores with SSD). It will output the .DLLs and .LIBs up one level from the current path (eg. d:\sdk\bin...) at "bin\x86" (for 32 bit) and "bin\x64" (for 64 bit).

Next Steps - Linking Boost With Visual Studio 2017

1. Add headers

   • Go to Solution Explorer -> Properties -> C/C++ -> General

   • Pick & Set on "Additional Include Directories" = BOOST_ROOT (eg. C:\boost_1_68_0)

   • Properties -> C/C++ -> General -> Precompiled Header

   • Set "Not Using Precompiled Headers

2. Add compiled libraries

   • Go to Solution Explorer -> Properties -> Linker -> General -> Additional Library Directories
   • Set on "Additional Library Directories" = BOOST_ROOT\lib (eg. C:\boost_1_68_0\stage_x86\lib)