How to use C++ Boost library with pkg-config?

Question

I successfully compiled and installed the latest version of the Boost library onto my linux machine. Now, I would like to be able to use pkg-config to ease the process of provid

Answer 1

What you're looking for seems to be a bit complicated, and a long-requested feature, as indicated in this 3 year old post https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/1094 on Boost's trac. Reading through it shows that the feature was repeatedly postponed and never implemented (as of 1.4.3). The cause of the inability to generate a .pc file usable by pkg-config happens to do with boost's inconsistency in naming their library versions / build variants.

FWIW, an alternative for "automating" your building process is to use autotools (autoconf/automake). There's a link that might be of use to you (which I can't post because SO thinks I'm a spammer instead of a newcomer!), just google "tsuna boost m4 github" and it should take you there :)