How to Link C Programs with Boost Using CMake on Ubuntu?

Linking C programs with Boost using CMake on Ubuntu

Issue

When attempting to link a C program with the Boost library on Ubuntu, the following error may be encountered:

main.cpp:(.text+0x3b): undefined reference to `boost::program_options::options_description::m_default_line_length'

This error arises when the necessary Boost library is not properly linked to the program.

Solution using CMake

To resolve this issue, it is essential to leverage CMake's find_package function to locate the Boost library. Typically, a script named FindBoost.cmake is included with most CMake installations.

This script will provide instructions on how to use Boost_INCLUDE_DIR to include Boost header files and Boost_LIBRARIES to link to Boost libraries in your CMake project. Here's an example of how to achieve this:

FIND_PACKAGE(Boost 1.40 COMPONENTS program_options REQUIRED)
INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES(${Boost_INCLUDE_DIR})

ADD_EXECUTABLE(anyExecutable myMain.cpp)

TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(anyExecutable LINK_PUBLIC ${Boost_LIBRARIES})

Additional Information

• For further information regarding FindBoost.cmake, refer to the official Boost documentation: [CMake docs](https://cmake.org/Wiki/FindBoost)
• To access the source code for FindBoost.cmake, visit the GitHub repository: [FindBoost.cmake](https://github.com/Kitware/CMake/blob/master/Modules/FindBoost.cmake)

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