How to link C++ program with Boost using CMake

Question

In CMake you could use find_package to find libraries you need. There usually is a FindBoost.cmake along with your CMake installation.

As far as I remember, it will be installed to /usr/share/cmake/Modules/ along with other find-scripts for common libraries. You could just check the documentation in that file for more information about how it works.

An example out of my head:

FIND_PACKAGE( Boost 1.40 COMPONENTS program_options REQUIRED )
INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES( ${Boost_INCLUDE_DIR} )

ADD_EXECUTABLE( anyExecutable myMain.cpp )

TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES( anyExecutable LINK_PUBLIC ${Boost_LIBRARIES} )

I hope this code helps.

• Here's the official documentation about FindBoost.cmake.
• And the actual FindBoost.cmake (hosted on GitHub)

The following is my configuration:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
set(Boost_INCLUDE_DIR /usr/local/src/boost_1_46_1)
set(Boost_LIBRARY_DIR /usr/local/src/boost_1_46_1/stage/lib)
find_package(Boost COMPONENTS system filesystem REQUIRED)
include_directories(${Boost_INCLUDE_DIR})
link_directories(${Boost_LIBRARY_DIR})

add_executable(main main.cpp)
target_link_libraries( main ${Boost_LIBRARIES} )

Adapting @MOnsDaR answer for modern CMake syntax with imported targets, this would be:

find_package(Boost 1.40 COMPONENTS program_options REQUIRED)

add_executable(anyExecutable myMain.cpp)

target_link_libraries(anyExecutable Boost::program_options)

Note that it is not necessary to specify the include directories manually, since it is already taken care of through the imported target Boost::program_options.

Two ways, using system default install path, usually /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/:

find_package(Boost REQUIRED regex date_time system filesystem thread graph)
include_directories(${BOOST_INCLUDE_DIRS})
message("boost lib: ${Boost_LIBRARIES}")
message("boost inc:${Boost_INCLUDE_DIR}")

add_executable(use_boost use_boost.cpp)
target_link_libraries(use_boost
        ${Boost_LIBRARIES}
        )

If you install Boost in a local directory or choose local install instead of system install, you can do it by this:

set( BOOST_ROOT "/home/xy/boost_install/lib/" CACHE PATH "Boost library path" )
set( Boost_NO_SYSTEM_PATHS on CACHE BOOL "Do not search system for Boost" )

find_package(Boost REQUIRED regex date_time system filesystem thread graph)
include_directories(${BOOST_INCLUDE_DIRS})
message("boost lib: ${Boost_LIBRARIES}, inc:${Boost_INCLUDE_DIR}")

add_executable(use_boost use_boost.cpp)
target_link_libraries(use_boost
        ${Boost_LIBRARIES}
        )

Note the above dir /home/xy/boost_install/lib/ is where I install Boost:

xy@xy:~/boost_install/lib$ ll -th
total 16K
drwxrwxr-x 2 xy xy 4.0K May 28 19:23 lib/
drwxrwxr-x 3 xy xy 4.0K May 28 19:22 include/

xy@xy:~/boost_install/lib$ ll -th lib/
total 57M
drwxrwxr-x 2 xy xy 4.0K May 28 19:23 ./
-rw-rw-r-- 1 xy xy 2.3M May 28 19:23 libboost_test_exec_monitor.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 xy xy 2.2M May 28 19:23 libboost_unit_test_framework.a
.......

xy@xy:~/boost_install/lib$ ll -th include/
total 20K
drwxrwxr-x 110 xy xy  12K May 28 19:22 boost/

If you are interested in how to use a local installed Boost, you can see this question How can I get CMake to find my alternative Boost installation?.

Here is my take:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.15)

project(TryOuts LANGUAGES CXX)

find_package(Boost QUIET REQUIRED COMPONENTS program_options)

if(NOT Boost_FOUND)
    message(FATAL_ERROR "Boost Not found")
endif()

add_executable(helloworld main.cpp)

target_link_libraries(helloworld PUBLIC Boost::program_options)