C++ Programming/Compiler/Linker/Libraries/Configuring Visual Studio

Example: Configuring MS Visual C++ to use external libraries

The Boost library is used as example library.

Note:
Boost.org has a install guide named Getting Started on Windows, that points to an automatic installed provided by BoostPro Computing (commonly supporting the previous and older release versions), noting also that if used with the option “Source and Documentation” deselected (selected by default), it will not show the libs/ subdirectory. This will disable the user from rebuilding part of the libraries that aren't only header files. This makes installing it yourself as shown in this section the best option.

Considering you already have decompressed and have the binary part of the Boost library built. There the steps which have to be performed:

Include directory

Set up the include directory. This is the directory that contains the header files (.h/hpp), which describes the library interface:

Library directory

Set up the library directory. This is the directory that contains the pre-compiled library files (.lib):

Library files

Enter library filenames in additional dependencies for the libraries to use:

Some libraries (such as e.g. Boost) use auto-linking to automate the process of selecting library files for linking, based on which header-files are included. Manual selection of library filenames are not required for such libraries if your compiler supports auto-linking.

Dynamic libraries

In case of dynamically loaded (.dll) libraries, one also has to place the DLL-files either in the same folder as the executable, or in the system PATH.

Run-time library

The libraries also have to be compiled with the same run-time library as the one used in your project. Many libraries therefore come in different editions, depending on whether they are compiled for single- or multi-threaded runtime and debug or release runtime, as well as whether they contain debug symbols or not.