Compile and use boost 1.51.0 on Mac OS X 10.8

Question

So I've spent the last 20 hours trying to get boost working under OS X 10.8, and I have finally gotten it to compile without errors, but when I try to compile a test case that uses Boost.test, I'm back again in a world of hurt. I should mention, the reason I compile boost myself instead of using the binary available, is because I want to use c++11 and libc++.

When I compiled boost, I called b2 like this:

./b2 toolset=clang cxxflags="-std=c++11 -stdlib=libc++" linkflags="-std=c++11 -stdlib=libc++" link=static

and it compiles all file. Then I have this piece of code

#define BOOST_TEST_DYN_LINK
#define BOOST_TEST_MODULE Addition
#include <boost/test/unit_test.hpp>

int addition(int i, int j)
{
    return i + j;
}

BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(universeInOrder)
{
    BOOST_CHECK(addition(2, 2) == 4);
}

which I try to compile with

clang++ -std=c++11 -stdlib=libc++ -g -Wall -v -I/Users/cb/Downloads/boost_1_51_0 tests/arithmetic.cpp -o tests/arithmetic /Users/cb/Downloads/boost_1_51_0/stage/lib/libboost_unit_test_framework.a`

And it fails miserably, giving me this error:

"/usr/bin/ld" -demangle -dynamic -arch x86_64 -macosx_version_min 10.8.0 -o tests/arithmetic /var/folders/pg/4wcxn1j12c3188vqrv0x4w9r0000gn/T/arithmetic-UFmO1B.o     /Users/cb/Downloads/boost_1_51_0/stage/lib/libboost_unit_test_framework.a -lc++ -lSystem     /usr/bin/../lib/clang/4.0/lib/darwin/libclang_rt.osx.a
Undefined symbols for architecture x86_64:
  "boost::unit_test::unit_test_main(bool (*)(), int, char**)", referenced from:
      _main in arithmetic-UFmO1B.o
ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture x86_64
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

At first, I figured it was because boost was not compiled for 64bit so I tried telling b2 to do that specifically, but it made no difference, and I also think that it compiles for 64bit by default on OS X.

Any ideas as to why it is failing and how I get it working?

Answer 1

It looks like bad compilation of the test. You requested

 #define BOOST_TEST_DYN_LINK 

but than you are linking the static version of boost.test

 /Users/cb/Downloads/boost_1_51_0/stage/lib/libboost_unit_test_framework.a 

and IIRC there is a difference between the static and dynamic versions of this library. So either link the dynamic version of the library (the one with .so extension), or remove that define.