Installing C++ Boost Libraries on Windows

installing-boost-on-windows.md

Installing C++ Boost Libraries on Windows using MSYS2

• This Guide assumes that you have installed msys2, mingw-64 using this link https://gist.github.com/ahmednawazkhan/4da8acbdafe0798527874b0f00f16e45
• This guide was made with the help of https://gist.github.com/sim642/29caef3cc8afaa273ce6

1. Download boost from https://www.boost.org/users/download/
2. Extract the contents to /c/downloads/boost_1_77_0
3. Create a folder within for building. /c/downloads/boost_1_77_0/build
4. Create a folder for Boost Build installation /c/downloads/boost-build
5. Create a folder for installation /c/libs/boost
6. Make sure g++ --version is successfuly running
7. Open Msys2 Mingw 64-bit with administrative rights
8. Navigate to /c/downloads/boost_1_77_0/tools/build
9. Run ./bootstrap.bat mingw
10. Run ./b2 install --prefix="/c/downloads/boost-build"
11. Add /c/downloads/boost-build/bin to Windows PATH.
12. In order for msys2 to have windows environment variables, add MSYS2_PATH_TYPE=inherit variable to windows environment.
13. Close Msys2 and restart using administrative rights
14. Verify that you can access b2 and windows env variables are picked up by Msys2
15. Navigate to /c/downloads/boost_1_77_0
16. Run b2 --build-dir="/c/downloads/boost_1_77_0/build" --prefix="/c/libs/boost" toolset=gcc install
17. After Installation is complete go to your project and go to its build folder
18. Run cmake -DBoost_ROOT="/c/libs/boost" path_to_cmakelist
19. Add Boost_ROOT to windows env varaibles to run cmake without passing Boost_ROOT param.