Install Boost C++ Libraries for a Specific User on Linux

Reference: https://www.boost.org/

Prerequisite

• GCC installed

Installation

Check the last archive of Boost C++ libraries available from: https://www.boost.org/users/download/

Download it on your machine.

cd ~/Downloads
wget https://dl.bintray.com/boostorg/release/1.70.0/source/boost_1_70_0.tar.bz2
tar jxf boost_1_70_0.tar.bz2

Some tar options are:

• x - extract
• v - verbose output (lists all files as they are extracted)
• j - deal with bzipped file
• f - read from a file, rather than a tape device

Build Boost

cd ./boost_1_70_0
mkdir ~/.local/boost-libs
./bootstrap.sh --prefix=$HOME/.local/boost-libs
./b2 install

Make Boost available for your environment:

vi ~/.bashrc

Add at the end of ~/.bashrc:

export CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH=$CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH:~/.local/boost-libs/include
export LIBRARY_PATH=$LIBRARY_PATH:~/.local/boost-libs/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:~/.local/boost-libs/lib

LD_LIBRARY_PATH is used by your program to search directories containing shared libraries after it has been successfully compiled and linked. LD_LIBRARY_PATH is for dynamically linked (.so) libraries.

LIBRARY_PATH is used by gcc before compilation to search directories containing static libraries that need to be linked to your program. LIBRARY_PATH for static (.a) libraries.

Reload ~/.bashrc:

source ~/.bashrc

or you can also use the shorter version of the command:

. ~/.bashrc

Test it

Edit a script Hello.cpp to check if Boost has been properly installed

#include <iostream>
#include <boost/format.hpp>

using namespace std;
using namespace boost;

int main()
{
    unsigned int arr[5] = { 0x05, 0x04, 0xAA, 0x0F, 0x0D };
    cout << format("%02X-%02X-%02X-%02X-%02X")
            % arr[0]
            % arr[1]
            % arr[2]
            % arr[3]
            % arr[4]
         << endl;
}

Compile and run this script

g++ --std=c++14 Hello.cpp -o run
./run

Should return

05-04-AA-0F-0D