Boost C++ Libraries

“...one of the most highly regarded and expertly designed C++ library projects in the world.” — Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu, C++ Coding Standards

Version History

1.32.0 (19 Nov 2004)

Important - New Toolset Names

The names of some the Boost.Build toolsets have been changed to remove the "." (dot) character and to fix some other naming inconsistencies. For example, vc7.1 toolset was renamed to become vc-7_1. Please refer to the Supported Toolsets section of the installation guide for the complete list of the current toolset names. This change was made as a part of the effort to make the Boost distribution compatible with ISO 9660 level 2 requirements.

New Libraries

  • Assignment Library: Filling containers with constant or generated data has never been easier, from Thorsten Ottosen.
  • Minmax Library: Standard library extensions for simultaneous min/max and min/max element computations, from Hervé Brönnimann.
  • Multi-index Containers Library: Containers with multiple STL-compatible access interfaces, from Joaquín M López Muñoz.
  • Numeric Conversion Library: Optimized policy-based numeric conversions, from Fernando Cacciola.
  • Program Options Library: Access to configuration data given on command line, in config files and other sources, from Vladimir Prus.
  • Range Library: a new infrastructure for generic algorithms that builds on top of the new iterator concepts, from Thorsten Ottosen.
  • Serialization Library: Serialization/de-serialization of arbitrary C++ data structures to various formats including text, binary, and xml, from Robert Ramey.
  • String Algorithms Library: Collection of string related algorithms for case conversion, trimming, find/replace operations and more, from Pavol Droba.
  • Tribool: 3-state boolean type library, from Doug Gregor.

Updated Libraries

  • Compose: This deprecated library has been removed.
  • Graph:
  • MPL Library:
    • Updated to use the Boost Software License.
    • New documentation, including a complete reference manual.
    • Major interface changes and improvements, many of which are not backward compatible. Please refer to the 1.32 changelog for the detailed information about upgrading to the new version.
  • Python Library:
    • Updated to use the Boost Software License.
    • a new, better method of wrapping classes with virtual functions has been implemented.
    • Support for the new Python Bool type, thanks to Daniel Holth.
    • Support for upcoming GCC symbol export control features have been folded in, thanks to Niall Douglas.
    • Improved support for std::auto_ptr-like types.
    • Components used by other libraries have been moved out of python/detail and into boost/detail to improve dependency relationships.
    • Miscellaneous bug fixes and compiler workarounds.
  • Signals Library: Introduced deterministic slot ordering, permitting slots to be connected at the beginning or end of slot groups or the slot list itself. Combiners may safely have state and are accessible from the signal.
  • Utility: class template result_of added.
  • Test Library:
    • namespace names gets shorten; old one still supported till next release
    • added proper encoding of XML PCDATA
    • support for wide string comparison implemented
    For complete list of changes see Test Library release notes.

Regression tests

This release has been extensively tested on a variety of different compilers and platforms. It is known to contain no regressions against the previous reference release on the compilers and configurations tested. Please refer to the corresponding regression reports to see how well your compiler performs on the new Boost codebase.

Acknowledgements

cartoon portrait of AlekseyAleksey Gurtovoy managed this release. Managing a release at all is an enormous job, and Aleksey always goes beyond merely meeting requirements by insisting on the highest possible quality. The Boost membership owes him a debt of gratitude.

This release wouldn't have been possible without the dedicated effort of many, many members of the Boost community who generously contributed their outstanding expertise, time and energy to making it happen. For patches, bug fixes, troubleshooting, expert advice, and prompt responses to the release manager's requests we thank:

David Abrahams, Misha Bergal, Jonathan Brandmeyer, Fernando Cacciola, Marshall Clow, Christopher Currie, Pavol Droba, Caleb Epstein, Eric Friedman, Jeff Garland, Michael Glassford, Doug Gregor, Joel de Guzman, Hubert Holin, Jaakko Järvi, Hartmut Kaiser, Bronek Kozicki, Tarjei Knapstad, Toon Knapen, Aaron W. LaFramboise, Joaquín M López Muñoz, Christoph Ludwig, John Maddock, Paul Mensonides, Guillaume Melquiond, Thorsten Ottosen, Vladimir Prus, Robert Ramey, Rene Rivera, Gennadiy Rozental, Stefan Slapeta, Jonathan Turkanis, Pavel Vozenilek, Jonathan Wakely, Daryle Walker, Victor A. Wagner Jr. and Martin Wille.

Also, our special thanks go to: John Maddock for the managing the effort of converting the majority of the Boost libraries to the Boost Software License, Eric Niebler and Joel de Guzman for taking on the important job of improving the Boost documentation's look and feel, and last, but not least, to our regression test runners, without whom we simply would never have released: Toon Knapen, Bronek Kozicki, Rene Rivera, Markus Schöpflin, Stefan Slapeta, Victor A. Wagner Jr. and Martin Wille.

Thank you everybody!

1.31.0 (26 Jan 2004)

New License

A unified Boost Software License has been developed and will gradually replace the individual licenses for most Boost libraries. The new license offers better legal protection for both users and developers, and should speed user's legal reviews of Boost libraries. Dave Abrahams led the Boost effort to develop better licensing. The legal team was led by Diane Cabell, Director, Clinical Programs, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School. Devin Smith, attorney, Nixon Peabody LLP, wrote the Boost License. Eva Chan, Harvard Law School, contributed analysis of issues and drafts of various legal documents.

Note: Many of the Boost libraries are still using earlier licenses, though all conform to the Boost License Requirements. After this release we will begin an effort to move toward uniform use of the new license.

Build and Installation

  • New Getting Started procedures ease download and installation, from Rene Rivera and others.
  • Improved support for libraries requiring separate compilation, from John Maddock and others.

New Libraries

  • enable_if: Selective inclusion of function template overloads, from Jaakko Järvi, Jeremiah Willcock, and Andrew Lumsdaine. This is an important new technique which exploits the SFINAE (substitution-failure-is-not-an-error) principle.
  • Variant Library: Safe, generic, stack-based discriminated union container, from Eric Friedman and Itay Maman.

Updated Libraries

  • Compose: This library has been deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Use Bind or Lambda instead.
  • Date Time Library: A whole host of bug fixes, new features, and documentation improvements. See the Date Time Change History for details.
  • Filesystem Library: Several added functions, including improved checking for directory and file name portability.
  • Iterator Library: Major version upgrade, with interface as proposed for the C++ library TR, including an improved iterator_adaptor design plus several new components, from David Abrahams, Jeremy Siek, and Thomas Witt.
  • MultiArray: The multi_array class template now provides an element-preserving resize operation as well as default construction (see the reference manual for more information).
  • Python Library:
    • Support for Python 2.3 and Intel C++ on Linux
    • Container Indexing Suite added.
    • injected constructors and wrapped function objects.
    • wrapping static data members.
    • std::wstring conversions.
    • Improved keyword arguments.
    • Better error messages, including name demangling for GCC.
    • Simpler build procedure.
    • ...and more....
  • Random Number Library: Interface changed to match the C++ TR proposal, from Jens Maurer.
  • Regex: Completely new matching algorithm is now much faster than before, plus a selection of new features and enhancements.
  • Boost.Spirit 1.8.0:
    • Multiple grammar start rules
    • Multiple Scanner rules (no more scanner business woes)
    • More dynamic parsers
    • Predefined actors
    • Numerous bug fixes and QOI stuff
    • ...and more...

    Starting from Spirit v1.8.0, ill conforming compilers will no longer be supported. If you are still using one of these older compilers, please use Spirit v1.6.x. See Spirit's Site for more details.

  • Test Library:
    • Free function template based test case
    • Custom exception translators support in execution monitor and register_exception_translator added for unit test framework
    • Added support for multi-module unit tests in automatic registration facility
    • Floating point comparison algorithm reworked (Is not backward compatible!!!)
    • Added support for custom users predicate returning both boolean result code and possibly error message
    • Documentation structure rework and update

    For a complete list of changes see the Test Library release notes.

Miscellaneous

  • Expanded testing and fixes for non-conforming compilers.
  • Web site hosting now provided by SourceForge.

1.30.2 (19 Aug 2003)

  • Boost Consulting is now hosting Boost CVS mirrors - see our download page.
  • Backported changes to the config system, to better handle new compiler releases.
  • Bugs in regression reporting in subproject tests were fixed.
  • Tests are now run in the context of the user's PATH environment settings
  • msvc-stlport and intel-win32-stlport toolsets now build static libraries with multithreading enabled, to be compatible with the STLPort builds.
  • intel-win32 toolset now handles wchar_t correctly when intel is installed over msvc6.
  • Backported fixes from the main trunk which prevent errors building the Boost.Test library in its default configuration.
  • Backported portability improvements for checked_delete.
  • Locale support for metrowerks (requiring a statically-linked runtime) is more uniformly handled.
  • Backported conversion/lexical_cast's wchar_t fixes from the main trunk.
  • intel-linux-tools: added rt to FINDLIBS in order to make the clock_gettime() function available (backport of a patch in CVS HEAD).
  • regression/compiler_status.cpp: backported fixes in error log links generation.

1.30.1 (4 Aug 2003; withdrawn 12 Aug 2003)

Fixes were made to the following libraries:

  • The Boost.Lambda ..library is now usable with gcc-2.95.2
  • Boost.Spirit:
    • Fixed. Using MSVC++6 (SP5), calling the assign action with a string value on parsers using the file_iterator will not work.
    • Fixed: using assign semantic action in a grammar with a multi_pass iterator adaptor applied to an std::istream_iterator resulted in a failure to compile under msvc 7.0.
    • Fixed: There is a bug in the range_run<CharT>::set(range<CharT> const& r) function in "../boost/spirit/utility/impl/chset/range_run.ipp".
    • Fixed: handling of trailing whitespace bug (ast_parse/pt_parse related)
    • Fixed: comment_p and end of data bug
    • Fixed: Most trailing space bug
    • Fixed: chset<>::operator ~(range<>) bug, operator &(chset<>, range<>) bug, operator &(range<>, chset<>) bug
    • Fixed: impl::detach_clear bug
    • Fixed: mismatch closure return type bug
    • Fixed: access_node_d[] and access_match_d[] iterator bugs
    • Fixed a bug regarding thread safety of Phoenix/Spirit closures.
  • The Boost Template Metaprogramming Library (MPL)'s ..typeof implementation is now compatible with Metrowerks CodeWarrior Pro8.
  • Boost.Function: workaround for the new Borland patch (version 0x564) and MSVC++ .NET 2003.
  • Boost.Config, Boost.Format, and Boost.Regex ..have been adjusted to avoid warnings with GCC-3.3, and Boost.Format also now works with string types other than std::string.
  • Smart Pointers:
    • checked_delete now works on more platforms
    • Compatibility with the SunPro compiler
    • Added missing #includes.
  • Boost.Python:
    • warning suppression for finicky compilers
    • fixed a crashing bug in the raw_function facility when no keyword arguments were passed.
    • Improved conversion of NULL shared_ptrs to Python.

1.30.0 (19 Mar 2003)

1.29.0 (10 Oct 2002)

  • Date-Time Library added - Dates, times, leap seconds, infinity, and more, from Jeff Garland.
  • Dynamic Bitset added - A runtime sized version of the std::bitset class from Jeremy Siek and Chuck Allison.
  • Format Library added - Type-safe 'printf-like' format operations, from Samuel Krempp.
  • Function Library: Major syntactic changes have been made. Some old syntax and little-used features have been deprecated (and will be removed shortly), and the syntax for the boost::function class template has been greatly improved on conforming compilers. Please see the compatibility note for more information.
  • Multi-array Library added - Multidimensional containers and adaptors for arrays of contiguous data, from Ron Garcia.
  • Preprocessor Library: Major upgrade, from Paul Mensonides.
  • Python Library - Version 2 is released, from Dave Abrahams and others. This is a major rewrite which works on many more compilers and platforms, with a completely new interface and lots of new features. Boost.Python v2 requires Python 2.2 or later.
  • Signals Library added - Managed signals & slots callback implementation, from Doug Gregor.
  • Test Library: Major new version, including full unit test capabilities, from Gennadiy Rozental.
  • uBLAS Library added - Basic linear algebra for dense, packed and sparse matrices, from Joerg Walter and Mathias Koch.

1.28.0 (15 May 2002)

1.27.0 (5 Feb 2002)

1.26.0 (30 Nov 2001)

1.25.1 (5 Nov 2001)

  • Boost Build System: Continued improvements.
  • Config Library: Continued refinements.
  • Graph Library: Final cleanup for upcoming the Boost Graph Library book.
  • Thread Library: Minor fixes - tests now pass on most Win32 and POSIX systems including Linux and Solaris. Semaphore removed as too error prone.
  • Function Library: direct support for member function pointers and documentation updates.
  • Boost-Users mailing list has been created to address topics of interest to users of Boost libraries.
  • Boost Wiki web added. Provides a place for Boost users to openly discuss and document the use of Boost libraries. It is not officially maintained by Boost developers.

1.25.0 (1 Oct 2001)

  • Thread Library added. Portable C++ multi-programming at last, from William Kempf.
  • Base From Member added to Utility Library. Support for the base from member idiom, from Daryle Walker.
  • Bind and mem_fn added - Generalized binders for function/object/pointers and member functions, from Peter Dimov.
  • Array Library: Minor updates, from Nico Josuttis.
  • Config Library: major redesign with much improved and automated configuration of Boost libraries for specific compilers, from John Maddock.
  • Random Number Library: Fixed bug when copying normal_distribution and improved the documentation, from Michael Stevens and Jens Maurer.
  • Special functions, octonions, quaternions updated, now useable with many more compilers, plus three new special functions, from Hubert Holin, Eric Ford, and others.
  • Tokenizer Library: fixes/enhancements to escaped_list_separator based on empty fields and tokens comments from Johan Nillson and Jens Maurer.
  • Coming Soon - A mailing list for Boost users!

1.24.0 (19 Aug 2001)

  • Tuple Library added. Tuples ease definition of functions returning multiple values, and more, from Jaakko Järvi.
  • Minor fixes to some other libraries.
  • Boost Build System added. Preliminary release of an innovative build system for Boost libraries, from Dave Abrahams and others.
  • Formal Review Schedule added. Shows current, future, and recent past review dates.

1.23.0 (6 Jul 2001)

  • Any Library added. Safe, generic container for single values of different value types, from Kevlin Henney.
  • Function Library added. Function object wrappers for deferred calls or callbacks, from Doug Gregor.
  • Tokenizer Library added. Break a string into a series of tokens, from John Bandela.
  • Special functions, octonions, quaternions added, from Hubert Holin.
  • Smart Pointer Library: shared_ptr polymorphic pointers now work on more broken compilers.
  • IBM/Aix Compiler status table contributed by Toon Knapen.
  • Minor fixes to a number of other libraries.

1.22.0 (25 May 2001)

1.21.2 (24 Apr 2001)

  • Compatibility Library added: Help for non-conforming standard libraries missing CXX headers from Ralf Grosse-Kunstleve, and help for missing standard library <limits> header from Jens Maurer. (These are unreviewed implementation libraries, treated as maintenance steps only.)
  • Random Number Library: Split into separate headers, updated documentation, added lagged_fibonacci generator.
  • Integer Library: Minor portability update.
  • Graph Library: Changed algorithm interfaces to use named parameters technique. Added graph isomorphism algorithm.
  • Download refinements - files now available from either FTP or web server.
  • Tracker Added: View and submit bug, support, and feature requests.
  • Minor portability fixes in several other libraries.

1.21.1 (14 Mar 2001)

1.21.0 (9 Mar 2001)

1.20.2 (10 Feb 2001)

1.20.1 (10 Jan 2001)

1.20.0 (6 Jan 2001)

1.19.0 (10 Dec 2000)

1.18.3 (18 Nov 2000)

1.18.2 (3 Nov 2000)

  • Cast Library Fix numeric_cast<> bugs with floating types.
  • Graph Library minor fixes.
  • Regular Expression Library minor fixes.
  • Configuration Header more fixes for broken compilers.
  • Boost Header Dependencies page added.
  • Terminology change: Several headers previously lumped together as a "utility" library are now considered separate libraries. For historical reasons, their non-header files still live in the "utility" sub-directory.

1.18.1 (15 Oct 2000)

1.18.0 (28 Sep 2000)

  • Preliminary release of two important new libraries:
    • Graph Library - Generic graph components and algorithms from Jeremy Siek and a University of Notre Dame team.
    • Regular Expression Library - Text pattern matching in all its glory from John Maddock.
  • Other changes:
    • Array Library improvements reflecting formal review comments.
    • functional.hpp compiler workarounds added.
    • tie() function template added to utility.hpp for easier handling of std::pair<> return values.
    • Integer Library improved handling of 64-bit integers.
    • Minor web site page updates.

1.17.0 (3 Aug 2000)

  • Array Library added - An STL compliant container wrapper for arrays of constant size from Nicolai Josuttis.
  • array traits header renamed array_traits.hpp (was array.hpp).
  • Random Number Library: more minor changes to support more compilers.
  • Smart Pointer Library: performance reducing exception-specifications removed.
  • Compiler and test program fixes for call_traits, compressed_pair, and type_traits.
  • Updated cast.hpp to clear compiler warning messages.
  • Linux Compiler Status added.
  • Boost source code now lives in a publicly accessible Concurrent Versions System (CVS) repository.

1.16.1 (5 Jul 2000)

1.16.0 (28 Jun 2000)

1.15.1 (21 Jun 2000)

Fixes to cast.hpp and operators fix. Minor additions to config.hpp for Microsoft compilers. The 1.15.0 operators changes seem to have introduced incompatibilities. We are working on fixing them, and have started to build a regression test to prevent similar future problems.

1.15.0 (17 Jun 2000)

Random Number Library from Jens Maurer added. Updated utility library operators eliminates code bloat. Minor additions to config.hpp and cast.hpp for Microsoft compilers.

1.14.3 (29 May 2000)

Minor additions to config.hpp for Borland compilers. Minor fix to type_traits example. Minor web site fixes. Library Formal Review Process page added.

1.14.2 (9 May 2000)

No libraries updated. Library Requirements and Guidelines expanded, Library Submission Process added.

1.14.1 (17 Mar 2000)

Minor fix to rational.hpp. Minor documentation changes to the Smart Pointer Library and call_traits, compressed_pair, and type_traits. Updated Library Guidelines and People page.

1.14.0 (5 Mar 2000)

Integer Library status upgraded after removing bin_bun.hpp. The "Experimental" library category has been removed; the boost files/vault now serves the purpose. Minor fix to smart_ptr.hpp line endings.

1.13.0 (29 Feb 2000)

Adds Utility Library type_traits, call_traits, and compressed_pair headers from John Maddock, Steve Cleary and Howard Hinnant.

1.12.0 (23 Feb 2000)

Adds a integer_traits header from Jens Maurer to the Integer Library.

1.11.2 (21 Feb 2000)

Smart pointer timings added (thanks to Gavin Collings). Minor fix to min_rand sample program. Minor fixes to config.hpp.

...And the remainder are lost to the mists of time (for now, anyway)....