Cross-compiling boost for Windows on Linux

Question

I'm trying to create mingw binaries for boost on a Linux machine. The mingw compiler is present on my system as /usr/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-g++ and I have been able to create a simple HelloWorld.exe application.

Here is an exact list of my actions:

$ tar xvf boost_1_46_1.tar.gz
$ cd boost_1_46_1/
$ echo "using gcc : 4.4.4: i586-mingw32msvc-g++ ;" > user-config.jam
$ ./bootstrap.sh
$ ./bjam toolset=gcc target-os=windows

The result is this:

Building the Boost C++ Libraries.


...found 83 targets...
...updating 9 targets...
common.mkdir bin.v2
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/regex
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/regex/build
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_icu_test.o
In file included from /usr/include/unicode/pwin32.h:123,
                 from /usr/include/unicode/umachine.h:47,
                 from /usr/include/unicode/uversion.h:47,
                 from libs/regex/build/has_icu_test.cpp:12:
/usr/include/inttypes.h:290: warning: ISO C++ 1998 does not support ‘long long’
/usr/include/inttypes.h:291: warning: ISO C++ 1998 does not support ‘long long’
libs/regex/build/has_icu_test.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:
libs/regex/build/has_icu_test.cpp:24: warning: unused variable ‘c’
gcc.link bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_icu.exe
/usr/lib/gcc/i586-mingw32msvc/4.4.4/../../../../i586-mingw32msvc/bin/ld: cannot find -licuuc
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

    "i586-mingw32msvc-g++" -L"/usr/bin" -L"/usr/lib" -Wl,-R -Wl,"/usr/bin" -Wl,-R -Wl,"/usr/lib" -Wl,-rpath-link -Wl,"/usr/bin" -Wl,-rpath-link -Wl,"/usr/lib" -o "bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_icu.exe" -Wl,--start-group "bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_icu_test.o"  -Wl,-Bstatic  -Wl,-Bdynamic -licuuc -licui18n -licudata -Wl,--end-group -g 


...failed gcc.link bin.v2/libs/regex/build/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_icu.exe...
...failed updating 1 target...
...updated 8 targets...
Performing configuration checks

    - has_icu builds           : no
warning: Graph library does not contain MPI-based parallel components.
note: to enable them, add "using mpi ;" to your user-config.jam
...found 8 targets...
...updating 6 targets...
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/math
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/math/config
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_gcc_visibility.o
cc1plus: warnings being treated as errors
libs/math/config/has_gcc_visibility.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:
libs/math/config/has_gcc_visibility.cpp:13: error: visibility attribute not supported in this configuration; ignored

    "i586-mingw32msvc-g++"  -ftemplate-depth-128 -O0 -fno-inline -Wall -g -Werror -fvisibility=hidden -DBOOST_ALL_NO_LIB=1  -I"." -c -o "bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_gcc_visibility.o" "libs/math/config/has_gcc_visibility.cpp"

...failed gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_gcc_visibility.o...
...failed updating 1 target...
...updated 5 targets...
    - ../config//has_gcc_visibility builds : no
...found 46 targets...
...updating 1 target...
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/math/config/gcc-mingw-4.4.4/debug/target-os-windows/has_long_double_support.o
...updated 1 target...
    - ../config//has_long_double_support builds : yes
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.
************************************************************
Trying to build Boost.Thread with pthread support.
If you need pthread you should specify the paths.
You can specify them in site-config.jam, user-config.jam
or in the environment.
For example:
PTW32_INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\ptw32\Pre-built2\include
PTW32_LIB=C:\Program Files\ptw32\Pre-built2\lib
************************************************************
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build/virtual-target.jam:1079: in virtual-target.register-actual-name from module virtual-target
error: Duplicate name of actual target: <pstage/lib>libboost_date_time.a
error: previous virtual target { common%common.copy-libboost_date_time.a.STATIC_LIB { gcc%gcc.archive-libboost_date_time.a.STATIC_LIB { gcc%gcc.compile.c++-gregorian/greg_month.o.OBJ { gregorian/greg_month.cpp.CPP } } { gcc%gcc.compile.c++-gregorian/greg_weekday.o.OBJ { gregorian/greg_weekday.cpp.CPP } } { gcc%gcc.compile.c++-gregorian/date_generators.o.OBJ { gregorian/date_generators.cpp.CPP } } } }
error: created from ./stage-proper
error: another virtual target { common%common.copy-libboost_date_time.a.STATIC_LIB { gcc%gcc.archive-libboost_date_time.a.STATIC_LIB { gcc%gcc.compile.c++-gregorian/greg_month.o.OBJ { gregorian/greg_month.cpp.CPP } } { gcc%gcc.compile.c++-gregorian/greg_weekday.o.OBJ { gregorian/greg_weekday.cpp.CPP } } { gcc%gcc.compile.c++-gregorian/date_generators.o.OBJ { gregorian/date_generators.cpp.CPP } } } }
error: created from ./stage-proper
error: added properties: <debug-symbols>off <define>NDEBUG <inlining>full <optimization>speed <runtime-debugging>off <variant>release
error: removed properties: <debug-symbols>on <inlining>off <optimization>off <runtime-debugging>on <variant>debug
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build/virtual-target.jam:490: in actualize-no-scanner from module object(file-target)@3884
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build/virtual-target.jam:135: in object(file-target)@3884.actualize from module object(file-target)@3884
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build-system.jam:748: in load from module build-system
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/kernel/modules.jam:283: in import from module modules
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/kernel/bootstrap.jam:142: in boost-build from module
/home/francis/orig/boost_1_46_1/boost-build.jam:17: in module scope from module

It says libicu is not found on my system, but according to Synaptic Package Manage I have the libicu-dev package installed.

I'm not sure how to get it right. Can anyone help?

Update 1

Following @Luke's recoommendation I now gcc-mingw toolset. So now my build instructions look like this:

tar xvf boost_1_46_1.tar.gz
cd boost_1_46_1/
echo "using gcc : 4.4.4: i586-mingw32msvc-g++ ;" > user-config.jam
./bootstrap.sh
./bjam toolset=gcc-mingw target-os=windows

Which leads to the following errors:

error: toolset gcc initialization:
error: version 'mingw' requested but 'g++-mingw' not found and version '4.4.5' of default 'g++' does not match
error: initialized from
/home/francis/orig/boost-mingw/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build/toolset.jam:38: in toolset.using from module toolset
/home/francis/orig/boost-mingw/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build-system.jam:481: in process-explicit-toolset-requests from module build-system
/home/francis/orig/boost-mingw/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/build-system.jam:561: in load from module build-system
/home/francis/orig/boost-mingw/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/kernel/modules.jam:283: in import from module modules
/home/francis/orig/boost-mingw/boost_1_46_1/tools/build/v2/kernel/bootstrap.jam:142: in boost-build from module
/home/francis/orig/boost-mingw/boost_1_46_1/boost-build.jam:17: in module scope from module

Update 2

I have also tried specifying gcc-mingw in the user-config.jam file. Then my build instructions look like this:

tar xvf boost_1_46_1.tar.gz
cd boost_1_46_1/
echo "using gcc-mingw : 4.4.4: i586-mingw32msvc-g++ ;" > user-config.jam
./bootstrap.sh
./bjam toolset=gcc-mingw target-os=windows

Which leads to:

error: version 'mingw' requested but 'g++-mingw' not found and version '4.4.5' of default 'g++' does not match

Update 3

Specifying g++-mingw in the user-config.jam file:

using g++-mingw : 4.4.4: i586-mingw32msvc-g++ ;

...leads to the same error.

Answer 1

I got similar error messages. Eventually I was able to compile it using exactly the following commands:

$ echo "using gcc : : i686-w64-mingw32-g++ ;" > user-config.jam
$ ./bootstrap.sh
$ ./b2 --user-config=user-config.jam toolset=gcc-mingw target-os=windows release

I believe your problem is that you don't specify the "--user-config=user-config.jam" parameter. The next problem I encountered was that there will be a name conflict unless I specify either debug or release build (--layout=tagged or --layout=versioned might work also).

Answer 2

Cross-compiling boost 1.72.0 for Windows on Ubuntu 18.04

---

Install MinGW

$ sudo apt install mingw-w64 mingw-w64-tools

$ sudo update-alternatives --set i686-w64-mingw32-g++ /usr/bin/i686-w64-mingw32-g++-posix
$ sudo update-alternatives --set i686-w64-mingw32-gcc /usr/bin/i686-w64-mingw32-gcc-posix
$ sudo update-alternatives --set x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ /usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++-posix
$ sudo update-alternatives --set x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc /usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc-posix

---

32-bit Compilation (install path: ./boost-x86)

$ echo "using gcc :  : i686-w64-mingw32-g++ ;" > user-config.jam
$ ./bootstrap.sh
$ ./b2 --user-config=./user-config.jam --prefix=./boost-x86 target-os=windows address-model=32 variant=release install

---

64-bit Compilation (install path: ./boost-x64)

$ echo "using gcc :  : x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ ;" > user-config.jam
$ ./bootstrap.sh
$ ./b2 --user-config=./user-config.jam --prefix=./boost-x64 target-os=windows address-model=64 variant=release install