Reputation: 20195

How to determine the Boost version on a system?

Is there a quick way to determine the version of the Boost C++ libraries on a system?

Upvotes: 172

Answers (15)

hkaiser

Reputation: 11521

#include <boost/version.hpp>
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    std::cout << "Boost version: " 
          << BOOST_VERSION / 100000
          << "."
          << BOOST_VERSION / 100 % 1000
          << "."
          << BOOST_VERSION % 100 
          << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

Update: the answer has been fixed.

Upvotes: 47

Martin Dorey

Reputation: 3004

Can it really be that no one has suggested that, at least from the advent of Boost Predef with Boost 1.55.0, we can:

~~#include <boost/predef.h> #include <boost/version.hpp> ... #if BOOST_VERSION < BOOST_VERSION_NUMBER(1, 67, 0)~~

... if we wanted, for example, to know whether a work around was needed for this ~2038 problem in Boost DateTime? Perhaps it's a minority-interest reading of the question, but it's the one that brought me here.

No, and it's as well they shouldn't, because it doesn't work. The BOOST_VERSION_NUMBER macro from Boost Predef is incompatible with Boost's own version number! I don't see that documented as recently as Boost 1.84.0. I like the two stage idea, though, so I'll use:

#include <boost/version.hpp>
...
#define BOOSTS_OWN_VERSION_NUMBER(major, minor, patch) ((major) * 100 * 1000 + (minor) * 100 + (patch))
#if BOOST_VERSION < BOOSTS_OWN_VERSION_NUMBER(1, 67, 0)

Upvotes: 1

Vertexwahn

Reputation: 8142

Include #include <boost/version.hpp>

std::cout << "Using Boost "     
          << BOOST_VERSION / 100000     << "."  // major version
          << BOOST_VERSION / 100 % 1000 << "."  // minor version
          << BOOST_VERSION % 100                // patch level
          << std::endl;

Possible output: Using Boost 1.75.0

Tested with Boost 1.51.0 to 1.63, 1.71.0 and 1.76.0 to 1.83.0

Upvotes: 92

Dino Source

Reputation: 1

All the answers above are pretty good. However, I wondered if I can type in my terminal simple command boost --version just like I usually do for any other tool. So I implemented it in C++:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <boost/version.hpp>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    if (argc >= 2) {
        if (std::string arg(argv[1]); arg == "--version" || arg == "-v") {
            auto major_version = BOOST_VERSION / 100000;
            auto minor_version = BOOST_VERSION / 100 % 1000;
            auto patch_version = BOOST_VERSION % 100;

            std::cout   
                << "Boost library version: "
                << major_version << '.'
                << minor_version << '.'
                << patch_version << '\n';
        }
        else if (arg == "--help" || arg == "-h") {
            std::cout
                << "This is small helper utility to figure out installed Boost version.\n"
                << "Use --version parameter to print installed Boost library version.\n\n"
                << "Boost is a set of libraries for the C++ programming language that provides\n"
                << "support for tasks and structures such as linear algebra, pseudorandom number\n"
                << "generation, multithreading, image processing, regular expressions, and unit testing.\n"
                << "If you want to know more about Boost please visit https://www.boost.org\n";
        }
        else {
            std::cout
                << "Unknown parameter " << arg 
                << ". Use --version or --help as a parameter instead.\n";
        }
    }
}

Then I built it using following command:
g++ -Wextra -Wall -pedantic -std=c++20 main.cpp -o boost
to get executable named just "boost". When it has been done I copied this executable to my /usr/bin using following command:
sudo cp -r ./boost /usr/bin
Since then I'm able to type in my terminal boost --version to figure out installed Boost version.

Upvotes: 0

Rambo8

Reputation: 31

cat /usr/local/include/boost/version.hpp | grep BOOST_LIB_VERSION

Upvotes: 3

User12547645

Reputation: 8447

@Vertexwahns answer, but written in bash. For the people who are lazy:

boost_version=$(cat /usr/include/boost/version.hpp | grep define | grep "BOOST_VERSION " | cut -d' ' -f3)
echo "installed boost version: $(echo "$boost_version / 100000" | bc).$(echo "$boost_version / 100 % 1000" | bc).$(echo "$boost_version % 100 " | bc)"

Gives me installed boost version: 1.71.0

Upvotes: 6

jakob.j

Reputation: 963

If one installed boost on macOS via Homebrew, one is likely to see the installed boost version(s) with:

ls /usr/local/Cellar/boost*

Upvotes: 1

tdao

Reputation: 17668

Another way to get current boost version (Linux Ubuntu):

~$ dpkg -s libboost-dev | grep Version
Version: 1.58.0.1ubuntu1

Ref: https://www.osetc.com/en/how-to-install-boost-on-ubuntu-16-04-18-04-linux.html

Upvotes: 4

JulianW

Reputation: 101

I stugeled to find out the boost version number in bash.

Ended up doing following, which stores the version code in a variable, supressing the errors. This uses the example from maxschlepzig in the comments of the accepted answer. (Can not comment, don't have 50 Rep)

I know this has been answered long time ago. But I couldn't find how to do it in bash anywhere. So I thought this might help someone with the same problem. Also this should work no matter where boost is installed, as long as the comiler can find it. And it will give you the version number that is acutally used by the comiler, when you have multiple versions installed.

{
VERS=$(echo -e '#include <boost/version.hpp>\nBOOST_VERSION' | gcc -s -x c++ -E - | grep "^[^#;]")
} &> /dev/null

Upvotes: 6

Jayhello

Reputation: 6602

As to me, you can first(find version.hpp the version variable is in it, if you know where it is(in ubuntu it usually in /usr/include/boost/version.hpp by default install)):

 locate `boost/version.hpp`

Second show it's version by:

 grep BOOST_LIB_VERSION /usr/include/boost/version.hpp

  grep BOOST_VERSION /usr/include/boost/version.hpp.

As to me, I have two version boost installed in my system. Output as below:

xy@xy:~$ locate boost/version.hpp |grep boost

/home/xy/boost_install/boost_1_61_0/boost/version.hpp
/home/xy/boost_install/lib/include/boost/version.hpp
/usr/include/boost/version.hpp

xy@xy:~$ grep BOOST_VERSION /usr/include/boost/version.hpp
#ifndef BOOST_VERSION_HPP
#define BOOST_VERSION_HPP
//  BOOST_VERSION % 100 is the patch level
//  BOOST_VERSION / 100 % 1000 is the minor version
//  BOOST_VERSION / 100000 is the major version
#define BOOST_VERSION 105800
//  BOOST_LIB_VERSION must be defined to be the same as BOOST_VERSION

# or this way more readable
xy@xy:~$ grep BOOST_LIB_VERSION /usr/include/boost/version.hpp
//  BOOST_LIB_VERSION must be defined to be the same as BOOST_VERSION
#define BOOST_LIB_VERSION "1_58"

Show local installed version:

xy@xy:~$ grep BOOST_LIB_VERSION /home/xy/boost_install/lib/include/boost/version.hpp
//  BOOST_LIB_VERSION must be defined to be the same as BOOST_VERSION
#define BOOST_LIB_VERSION "1_61"

Upvotes: 6

Haresh Karnan

Reputation: 35

Might be already answered, but you can try this simple program to determine if and what installation of boost you have :

#include<boost/version.hpp>
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
cout<<BOOST_VERSION<<endl;
return 0;
}

Upvotes: 0

P-M

Reputation: 1399

Depending on how you have installed boost and what OS you are running you could also try the following:

dpkg -s libboost-dev | grep 'Version'

Upvotes: 25

Kamil S Jaron

Reputation: 546

Boost installed on OS X using homebrew has desired version.hpp file in /usr/local/Cellar/boost/<version>/include/boost/version.hpp (note, that the version is already mentioned in path).

I guess the fastest way to determine version on any UNIX-like system will be to search for boost in /usr:

find /usr -name "boost"

Upvotes: 9