How can I create a Boost.Python example on Ubuntu 9.10?

Question

I am using Ubuntu 9.10 beta whose repositories contain boost 1.38. I would like to build an hello-world example. I followed the instructions here ( http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_40_0/libs/python/doc/tutorial/doc/html/python/hello.html ), found an example project and issued the "bjam" command. I installed bjam and boost-build.

I get the following output:

Jamroot:18: in modules.load rule python-extension unknown in module Jamfile</usr/share/doc/libboost1.38-doc/examples/libs/python/example>. /usr/share/boost-build/build/project.jam:312: in load-jamfile /usr/share/boost-build/build/project.jam:68: in load /usr/share/boost-build/build/project.jam:170: in project.find /usr/share/boost-build/build-system.jam:248: in load /usr/share/boost-build/kernel/modules.jam:261: in import /usr/share/boost-build/kernel/bootstrap.jam:132: in boost-build /usr/share/doc/libboost1.38-doc/examples/libs/python/example/boost-build.jam:7: in module scope 

I don’t know enough about Boost (this is a study for myself) to understand why the python extension macro in Jamroot included is not valid. I run this example from the installation directory, so I have not changed the setting for using the Jamroot project.

As a side question, if I just willy-nilly started a project in an arbitrary directory, how would I write my jam?

Answer 1

The problem arises from using the Ubuntu package instead of boost compiled from the source code. You should edit Jamroot for you to say that it uses the global libboost-python, instead of looking for lib in the relative boost source tree.

In general, you should have these lines at the beginning of your Jamroot:

 using python ; lib libboost_python : : <name>boost_python ; project : requirements <library>libboost_python ; 

A bug was reported in Debian and fixed at least on lenny with libboost-python1.40 ... basically. The example in libboost_python still applies to boost_python-mt instead of boost_python, but / usr / lib / libboost _python.so exists but not / usr / lib / libboost _python-mt.so.

I hope Ubuntu will soon have the same fix, and the next user will not stumble on this ... I know the answer to your question because I did the same problem not so long ago.