How can I include Boost in my Qt Project File?

Question

I have tried to include Boost in Qt Creator since yesterday. But it doesn't work.

INCLUDEPATH += C:\boost_1_59_0

But how do I that with the ".a" files?

Sorry for my bad english.

Error Message:

C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(cpp_regex_traits.o): duplicate section `.data$_ZZN5boost16cpp_regex_traitsIcE21get_catalog_name_instEvE6s_name[__ZZN5boost16cpp_regex_traitsIcE21get_catalog_name_instEvE6s_name]' has different size
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(regex.o): duplicate section `.rdata$_ZTSN5boost16exception_detail19error_info_injectorISt13runtime_errorEE[__ZTSN5boost16exception_detail19error_info_injectorISt13runtime_errorEE]' has different size
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(regex.o): duplicate section `.rdata$_ZTSN5boost16exception_detail10clone_implINS0_19error_info_injectorISt13runtime_errorEEEE[__ZTSN5boost16exception_detail10clone_implINS0_19error_info_injectorISt13runtime_errorEEEE]' has different size
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(regex.o): duplicate section `.rdata$_ZTVN5boost16exception_detail19error_info_injectorISt13runtime_errorEE[__ZTVN5boost16exception_detail19error_info_injectorISt13runtime_errorEE]' has different size

C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(regex.o): duplicate section `.rdata$_ZTVN5boost16exception_detail10clone_implINS0_19error_info_injectorISt13runtime_errorEEEE[__ZTVN5boost16exception_detail10clone_implINS0_19error_info_injectorISt13runtime_errorEEEE]' has different size
debug/main.o: In function `ZN5boost9re_detail18basic_regex_parserIcNS_12regex_traitsIcNS_16cpp_regex_traitsIcEEEEE4failENS_15regex_constants10error_typeEiSsi':
C:/boost_1_59_0/boost/regex/v4/basic_regex_parser.hpp:220: undefined reference to `boost::regex_error::regex_error(std::string const&, boost::regex_constants::error_type, int)'
debug/main.o: In function `ZN5boost9re_detail19basic_regex_creatorIcNS_12regex_traitsIcNS_16cpp_regex_traitsIcEEEEE16fixup_recursionsEPNS0_14re_syntax_baseE':
C:/boost_1_59_0/boost/regex/v4/basic_regex_creator.hpp:774: undefined reference to `boost::regex_error::regex_error(std::string const&, boost::regex_constants::error_type, int)'
C:/boost_1_59_0/boost/regex/v4/basic_regex_creator.hpp:856: undefined reference to `boost::regex_error::regex_error(std::string const&, boost::regex_constants::error_type, int)'
debug/main.o: In function `ZN5boost9re_detail19basic_regex_creatorIcNS_12regex_traitsIcNS_16cpp_regex_traitsIcEEEEE16create_startmapsEPNS0_14re_syntax_baseE':
C:/boost_1_59_0/boost/regex/v4/basic_regex_creator.hpp:922: undefined reference to `boost::regex_error::regex_error(std::string const&, boost::regex_constants::error_type, int)'
debug/main.o: In function `ZN5boost9re_detail19basic_regex_creatorIcNS_12regex_traitsIcNS_16cpp_regex_traitsIcEEEEE15create_startmapEPNS0_14re_syntax_baseEPhPjh':
C:/boost_1_59_0/boost/regex/v4/basic_regex_creator.hpp:1125: undefined reference to `boost::regex_error::regex_error(std::string const&, boost::regex_constants::error_type, int)'
debug/main.o: In function `ZNK5boost9re_detail31cpp_regex_traits_implementationIcE18lookup_collatenameEPKcS4_':
C:/boost_1_59_0/boost/regex/v4/cpp_regex_traits.hpp:679: undefined reference to `boost::re_detail::lookup_default_collate_name(std::string const&)'
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(cpp_regex_traits.o):cpp_regex_traits.cpp:(.text+0x30): undefined reference to `__gxx_personality_sj0'
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(cpp_regex_traits.o):cpp_regex_traits.cpp:(.text+0x6c): undefined reference to `_Unwind_SjLj_Register'
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(cpp_regex_traits.o):cpp_regex_traits.cpp:(.text+0x261): undefined reference to `_Unwind_SjLj_Unregister'
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(cpp_regex_traits.o):cpp_regex_traits.cpp:(.text+0x430): undefined reference to `std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >::_M_create(unsigned int&, unsigned int)'
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(cpp_regex_traits.o):cpp_regex_traits.cpp:(.text+0x4ec): undefined reference to `std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >::_M_create(unsigned int&, unsigned int)'
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(cpp_regex_traits.o):cpp_regex_traits.cpp:(.text+0x5dc): undefined reference to `std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >::_M_create(unsigned int&, unsigned int)'
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(cpp_regex_traits.o):cpp_regex_traits.cpp:(.text+0x74e): undefined reference to `std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >::_M_append(char const*, unsigned int)'
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(cpp_regex_traits.o):cpp_regex_traits.cpp:(.text+0x76d): undefined reference to `std::runtime_error::runtime_error(std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&)'
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(cpp_regex_traits.o):cpp_regex_traits.cpp:(.text+0x84c): undefined reference to `std::__cxx11::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >::_M_create(unsigned int&, unsigned int)'
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(cpp_regex_traits.o):cpp_regex_traits.cpp:(.text+0x8ae): undefined reference to `_Unwind_SjLj_Resume'
C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(cpp_regex_traits.o):cpp_regex_traits.cpp:(.text+0x937): undefined reference to `_Unwind_SjLj_Resume'
C:/Qt/Qt5.5.0/Tools/mingw492_32/bin/../lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/4.9.2/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/bin/ld.exe: C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib/libboost_regex-mgw51-mt-1_59.a(cpp_regex_traits.o): bad reloc address 0x50 in section `.rdata'
collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status

Answer 1

To link external libraries in Qt project you should provide required linker options. Those options can be added to LIBS variable in the .pro file.

According to Link Your Program to a Boost Library:

Auto-Linking

Most Windows compilers and linkers have so-called “auto-linking support,” which eliminates the second challenge. Special code in Boost header files detects your compiler options and uses that information to encode the name of the correct library into your object files; the linker selects the library with that name from the directories you've told it to search.

The GCC toolchains (Cygwin and MinGW) are notable exceptions; GCC users should refer to the linking instructions for Unix variant OSes for the appropriate command-line options to use.

For MinGW the library search path is added by -Lpath option and the library name that should be linked by -llibrary, where library is the library name dropping the filename's leading lib and trailing suffix (.a in this case):

LIBS += -L"C:/boost_library_directory" -lname1 -lname2

---

Update according to new log of error messages

You use two different MinGW compilers:

• MinGW 4.9.2 shipped with Qt
• external MinGW 5.1.0 to build Boost

There is too large gap between those compilers and your Boost binaries are not compatible with Qt compiler. I was able to reproduce your error messages using MinGW 5.1.0 for Boost and MinGW 4.8 in my Qt installation.

Build Boost using compiler provided by Qt. Set proper toolchain path for building Boost:

PATH=C:\Qt\Qt5.5.0\Tools\mingw492_32\bin;%PATH%

It should work with proper library versions, for example -lboost_regex-mgw492-mt-1_59.

Note that there are also two types of Boost binaries: release and debug (tagged by -d in file name). According to doc:

Although it's true that sometimes these choices don't affect binary compatibility with other compiled code, you can't count on that with Boost libraries.

So, you may want different project options for debug and release builds. In Qt .pro it can be done by testing CONFIG variable:

# set common library path
LIBS += -L"C:/boost_1_59_0/stage/lib"
CONFIG(debug, debug|release) {
    # debug libraries
    LIBS += -lboost_regex-mgw492-mt-d-1_59
}
CONFIG(release, debug|release) {
    # release libraries
    LIBS += -lboost_regex-mgw492-mt-1_59

    # Release variant of Boost binary libraries is compiled with
    # disabled run-time assertion (NDEBUG is defined).
    # To align binaries with header-only libraries and other headers
    # it is possible to define NDEBUG for project release build.
    # It is not defined in Qt by default.
    DEFINES += NDEBUG
}