/boost-iosx

Builds Boost C++ libraries and packages them as XCFrameworks for iOS (simulator and device), visionOS (simulator and device), macOS, and Mac Catalyst (Intel & Apple Silicon M1).

Primary LanguageShellBoost Software License 1.0BSL-1.0

Boost C++ for iOS, visionOS, macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon M1) & Catalyst - arm64 / x86_64

Supported versions: 1.86.0, 1.85.0, 1.84.0, 1.83.0, 1.82.0, 1.81.0, 1.80.0, 1.79.0, 1.78.0, 1.77.0, 1.76.0, 1.75.0 (use the appropriate tag or branch to choose a version)

This repo provides a universal script for building static Boost C++ libraries for use in iOS, visionOS, and macOS & Catalyst applications. The latest supported Boost version is taken from: https://boostorg.jfrog.io/artifactory/main/release/1.86.0/source/boost_1_86_0.tar.bz2

Building libraries

atomic, charconv, chrono, cobalt (requires apple clang-15.0.0 or later), container, context, contract, coroutine, date_time, exception, fiber, filesystem, graph, iostreams, json, locale, log, math, nowide, program_options, random, regex, serialization, stacktrace, system, test, thread, timer, type_erasure, url, wave

Not building libraries

graph_parallel, mpi, python

Prerequisites

  1. Xcode must be installed because xcodebuild is used to create xcframeworks
  2. xcode-select -p must point to Xcode app developer directory (by default e.g. /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer). If it points to CommandLineTools directory you should execute: sudo xcode-select --reset or sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
  3. You should not have your own user-config.jam file in your home directory!
  4. For the creation of visionOS related artifacts and their integration into the resulting xcframeworks, XROS.platform and XRSimulator.platform should be available in the folder: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms

Building notes

  1. The 'locale' and 'regex' libraries are built using the ICU backend. ICU build scripts are taken from https://github.com/apotocki/icu4c-iosx and run using the 'pod' utility.
  2. The 'test' library is built for iOS with the BOOST_TEST_NO_MAIN flag.

How to build?

  • Manually
    # clone the repo
    git clone https://github.com/apotocki/boost-iosx
    
    # build libraries
    cd boost-iosx
    scripts/build.sh

    # have fun, the result artifacts will be located in 'frameworks' folder.
    # Then you can add desirable xcframeworks in your XCode project. The process is described, e.g., at https://www.simpleswiftguide.com/how-to-add-xcframework-to-xcode-project/
  • Use cocoapods. Add the following lines into your project's Podfile:
    use_frameworks!

    pod 'boost-iosx'
    # or optionally more precisely, e.g.:
    # pod 'boost-iosx', :git => 'https://github.com/apotocki/boost-iosx'

If you want to use particular boost libraries, specify them as in the following example for log and program_options libraries:

    pod 'boost-iosx/log'
    pod 'boost-iosx/program_options'

    # note: Some libraries depend on other Boost libraries. In this case, you should explicitly add all their dependencies to your Podfile.

Then install new dependencies:

   pod install --verbose

As an advertisement…

The Boost libraries built by this project are used in my iOS application on the App Store:

PotoHEX
HEX File Viewer & Editor

This application is designed to view and edit files at the byte or character level; calculate different hashes, encode/decode, and compress/decompress desired byte regions.

You can support my open-source development by trying the App.

Feedback is welcome!