How to use Boost in Visual Studio 2010

Question

What is a good step by step explanation on how to use the Boost library in an empty project in Visual Studio?

Answer 1

This thread has been around a while, and I thought I'd add something about HOW to build Boost as fast as possible on your specific hardware.

If you have a 4 or 6-core use -j5 or -j7 respectively. Certainly not the standard build nor -j2 unless you indeed have dual core.

I'm running a Sandy Bridge Extreme with stock clocked 3930K (6-core) on my main station, but have a 2600k (4-core) on older backup box, and the trend is I get the best Boost compile times with N + 1 build processes where N is the number of physical cores. N+2 reaches a point of diminishing returns and the times go up.

Notes: Hyperthreading is enabled, 32GB RAM DDR3, Samsung 840 EVO SSD.

-j7 on 6-core (2 minutes and 51 seconds) (Win7 Ultimate x64)(Visual Studio 2013)

PS C:\Boost\boost_1_56_0> measure-command { .\b2 -j7 --build-type=complete msvc stage }

Days              : 0
Hours             : 0
Minutes           : 2
Seconds           : 51
Milliseconds      : 128
Ticks             : 1711281830
TotalDays         : 0.0019806502662037
TotalHours        : 0.0475356063888889
TotalMinutes      : 2.85213638333333
TotalSeconds      : 171.128183
TotalMilliseconds : 171128.183

-j6 on 6-core (3 minutes and 2 seconds) (Win7 Ultimate x64)(Visual Studio 2013)

PS C:\Boost\boost_1_56_0> measure-command { .\b2 -j6 --build-type=complete msvc stage }

Days              : 0
Hours             : 0
Minutes           : 3
Seconds           : 2
Milliseconds      : 809
Ticks             : 1828093904
TotalDays         : 0.00211584942592593
TotalHours        : 0.0507803862222222
TotalMinutes      : 3.04682317333333
TotalSeconds      : 182.8093904
TotalMilliseconds : 182809.3904

-j8 on 6-core (3 minutes and 17 seconds) (Win7 Ultimate x64)(Visual Studio 2013)

PS C:\Boost\boost_1_56_0> measure-command { .\b2 -j8 --build-type=complete msvc stage }

Days              : 0
Hours             : 0
Minutes           : 3
Seconds           : 17
Milliseconds      : 652
Ticks             : 1976523915
TotalDays         : 0.00228764342013889
TotalHours        : 0.0549034420833333
TotalMinutes      : 3.294206525
TotalSeconds      : 197.6523915
TotalMilliseconds : 197652.3915

Config

Building the Boost C++ Libraries.


Performing configuration checks

    - 32-bit                   : yes (cached)
    - arm                      : no  (cached)
    - mips1                    : no  (cached)
    - power                    : no  (cached)
    - sparc                    : no  (cached)
    - x86                      : yes (cached)
    - has_icu builds           : no  (cached)
warning: Graph library does not contain MPI-based parallel components.
note: to enable them, add "using mpi ;" to your user-config.jam
    - zlib                     : no  (cached)
    - iconv (libc)             : no  (cached)
    - iconv (separate)         : no  (cached)
    - icu                      : no  (cached)
    - icu (lib64)              : no  (cached)
    - message-compiler         : yes (cached)
    - compiler-supports-ssse3  : yes (cached)
    - compiler-supports-avx2   : yes (cached)
    - gcc visibility           : no  (cached)
    - long double support      : yes (cached)
warning: skipping optional Message Passing Interface (MPI) library.
note: to enable MPI support, add "using mpi ;" to user-config.jam.
note: to suppress this message, pass "--without-mpi" to bjam.
note: otherwise, you can safely ignore this message.
    - zlib                     : no  (cached)

I note the 64-bit build takes a bit longer, I need to do the same comparison for those and update.