Boost is not detected out of the box on FreeBSD

[mqudsi]

Before providing more details, I wanted to make sure that Boost is supposed to "just work" if installed with the system package manager with its headers in /usr/local/include/boost/ and its libs in /usr/local/lib/, because out-of-the-box meson on FreeBSD complains that boost was not found when it's included as a project dependency.

This is without BOOST_INCLUDEDIR or BOOST_ROOT set. I didn't have to set them on Ubuntu; I would have supposed the same would apply for FreeBSD. (Setting them and manually adding the link directory made everything work.)

[AlexandreFoley]

Same problem on OSX. If BOOST_ROOT is unspecified, Meson complain that it can't find boost when it is located in /usr/local.
The manual entry about boost say that those environment variables need to be specified if boost is in a non-standard location. I have to wonder what is a standard location if /usr/local isn't one a unix like platform.

[nirbheek]

This is a deficiency in the BoostDependency() implementation. Besides BOOST_ROOT, we should also look inside /usr/local on FreeBSD. What do other *BSDs do?

[jpakkane]

The bigger question here is when should be look under /usr/local in general? What other things does FreeBSD install there? Does it ever install Boost under /usr? How is its pkg-config set up? Does it look for pc files under /usr/local by default or not?

[mqudsi]

/usr/local is a unix standard that only (many) Linux distributions eschew.

OS X, the BSDs, and others use /usr/{bin|share|lib|etc} for binaries shipping with the base OS and /usr/local/{bin|share|lib|etc} for any user-installed binaries/libraries (via ./configure && make install or via the platform package manager (pkg, homebrew, ports, etc.). It's not a boost thing at all.

[mqudsi]

You can read about the filesystem hierarchy here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard

[nirbheek]

This is fixed with #2282

[mqudsi]

This is not working with meson 0.4.9, boost 1.69, and FreeBSD 12. It fails to include boost/version.hpp which is installed to the system default (standard) path /usr/local/include/boost/version.hpp.

Relevant section from log file:

Boost library root dir is None
Boost include directory is None
Running compile:
Working directory:  /tmp/tmpg17rfl8h
Command line:  c++ /tmp/tmpg17rfl8h/testfile.cpp -pipe -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -E -P -O0 -fpermissive 

Code:
 
        #include <boost/version.hpp>
        #ifndef BOOST_LIB_VERSION
        # define BOOST_LIB_VERSION
        #endif
        "MESON_GET_DEFINE_DELIMITER"
BOOST_LIB_VERSION
Compiler stdout:
 




        "MESON_GET_DEFINE_DELIMITER"

Compiler stderr:
 /tmp/tmpg17rfl8h/testfile.cpp:2:18: fatal error: 'boost/version.hpp' file not found
        #include <boost/version.hpp>
                 ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 error generated.

Dependency Boost (regex, system, filesystem, regex) found: NO 

meson.build:61:0: ERROR:  Dependency "boost" not found

and some more info for the record:

mqudsi@freebsd12 ~/easyre> meson --buildtype debug debug
The Meson build system
Version: 0.49.0
Source dir: /usr/home/mqudsi/easyre
Build dir: /usr/home/mqudsi/easyre/debug
Build type: native build
Project name: easyre
Project version: undefined
Native C compiler: cc (clang 6.0.1 "FreeBSD clang version 6.0.1 (tags/RELEASE_601/final 335540) (based on LLVM 6.0.1)")
Native C++ compiler: c++ (clang 6.0.1 "FreeBSD clang version 6.0.1 (tags/RELEASE_601/final 335540) (based on LLVM 6.0.1)")
Build machine cpu family: x86_64
Build machine cpu: x86_64
Message: regex test passed
Program nasm found: YES (/usr/local/bin/nasm)
Program dd found: YES (/bin/dd)
Library m found: YES
Library dl found: YES
Dependency threads found: YES
Found pkg-config: /usr/local/bin/pkg-config (1.5.4)
Dependency hivex found: YES 1.3.15
Dependency libsodium found: YES 1.0.16
Dependency Boost (regex, system, filesystem, regex) found: NO

meson.build:61:0: ERROR:  Dependency "boost" not found

A full log can be found at /usr/home/mqudsi/easyre/debug/meson-logs/meson-log.txt
mqudsi@freebsd12 ~/easyre> fd 'boost.*(regex|system)|(regex|system).*\.hpp' /usr/local
/usr/local/include/boost/algorithm/string/detail/finder_regex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/algorithm/string/detail/formatter_regex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/algorithm/string/regex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/algorithm/string/regex_find_format.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/algorithm/string_regex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/asio/detail/regex_fwd.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/asio/impl/system_context.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/asio/impl/system_executor.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/asio/system_context.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/asio/system_executor.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/asio/system_timer.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/chrono/detail/system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/chrono/system_clocks.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/compute/system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/cregex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/date_time/posix_time/posix_time_system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/date_time/time_system_counted.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/date_time/time_system_split.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/detail/winapi/get_system_directory.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/detail/winapi/system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/dll/detail/system_error.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/filesystem.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/geometry/core/coordinate_system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/iostreams/detail/system_failure.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/iostreams/filter/regex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/log/support/regex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/log/support/std_regex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/process/async_system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/process/system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/regex_traits.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/basic_regex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/basic_regex_creator.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/basic_regex_parser.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/c_regex_traits.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/char_regex_traits.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/cpp_regex_traits.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/cregex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_format.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_fwd.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_grep.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_iterator.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_match.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_merge.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_raw_buffer.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_replace.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_search.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_split.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_token_iterator.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_traits.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_traits_defaults.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/regex_workaround.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/u32regex_iterator.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/u32regex_token_iterator.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex/v4/w32_regex_traits.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/regex_fwd.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/spirit/home/classic/utility/regex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/spirit/include/classic_regex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/system/detail/system_category_posix.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/system/detail/system_category_win32.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/system/system_error.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/units/get_system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/units/heterogeneous_system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/units/homogeneous_system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/units/is_quantity_of_system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/units/is_unit_of_system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/units/make_system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/wave/util/filesystem_compatibility.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/winapi/get_system_directory.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/winapi/system.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/basic_regex.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/detail/core/matcher/regex_byref_matcher.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/detail/core/matcher/regex_matcher.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/detail/core/regex_domain.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/detail/core/regex_impl.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/regex_actions.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/regex_algorithms.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/regex_compiler.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/regex_constants.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/regex_error.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/regex_iterator.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/regex_primitives.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/regex_token_iterator.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/regex_traits.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/traits/c_regex_traits.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/traits/cpp_regex_traits.hpp
/usr/local/include/boost/xpressive/traits/null_regex_traits.hpp
/usr/local/lib/libboost_filesystem.a
/usr/local/lib/libboost_filesystem.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_filesystem.so.1.69.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_regex.a
/usr/local/lib/libboost_regex.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_regex.so.1.69.0
/usr/local/lib/libboost_system.a
/usr/local/lib/libboost_system.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_system.so.1.69.0

[eli-schwartz]

The boost dependency has been rewritten quite a bit since 2019 I think -- anyway, currently it detects the above mentioned layout just fine.