boost lib build configuration variations

Question

I am new to boost - can you please tell me what are the difference b/w the following variations of the boost lib and which one do I need to link to in which case?

• libboost_unit_test_framework-vc80-1_35.lib
• libboost_unit_test_framework-vc80-gd-1_35.lib
• libboost_unit_test_framework-vc80-mt-1_35.lib
• libboost_unit_test_framework-vc80-mt-gd-1_35.lib
• libboost_unit_test_framework-vc80-mt-s-1_35.lib
• libboost_unit_test_framework-vc80-mt-sgd-1_35.lib
• libboost_unit_test_framework-vc80-s-1_35.lib
• libboost_unit_test_framework-vc80-sgd-1_35.lib

Well, what I actually after is to understand the whole taxonomy of the _gd, mt, sgd things.

Answer 1

I use Boost on Linux, but here's what I think these are from the Linux naming.

• mt Multithreaded/thread-safe
• s Static library
• gd With debug symbols

On Linux gd seems to be just d, so perhaps maybe the g means something else in additions to "with debug symbols".

Answer 2

Here is the link to the docs for full info on what the many suffixes means:

windows: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_40_0/more/getting_started/windows.html#library-naming

linux: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_40_0/more/getting_started/unix-variants.html#library-naming

Although it seems it's the same anyway so either link should be good.

Answer 3

[lib][boost_unit_test_framework]-[vc80]-[mt]-[sgd]-[1_35][.lib]

• lib: On Linux all files are prefixed with this
  • On Windows this prefix is not on "import libraries and DLLs"
• boost_unit_test_framework: The library name beginning with boost_
• vc80: Toolset and version used to build this library
  • vc71: Microsoft Visual C++ 2003 (version 7.1)
  • vc80: Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 (version 8.0)
  • mgw53: MinGW 5.3
• mt: Indicates multithreading support
• sgd: Each letter indicates something
  • s: Static linking
  • g: Linked to debug libraries
  • y: "using a special debug build of Python"
  • d: Boost debug
  • p: Uses "the STLPort standard library"
  • n: using STLPort's deprecated "native iostreams" feature
• 1_35: Boost version
• .lib: Extension varies based on convention in operating system

Based on this (Thanks @n1ckp)

Also take a look at the list of Boost 1.34.0 binaries available for download for some examples.