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# Boost Download and Installation

The boost libraries are intended for easy download and installation; many libraries require nothing more that downloading and unpacking to be ready for use, including full documentation. When required, see Building Boost Libraries to create object libraries.

## Download

The boost libraries are available in various formats:

- FTP download all of Boost as a single archive file (.zip or .tar.gz) file from our SourceForge FTP site. Older versions also available. (FTP download is suggested first since it doesn't count against our web site host's monthly fee. But some users behind firewalls can't use FTP, and the SourceForge FTP site is sometimes down or very busy.)

- ZIP download all of Boost as a single archive file from our web site.

- TAR.GZ download all of Boost as a single archive file from our web site.

- Command line or browser access to Boost's CVS repository.

- Download individual files from links in the documentation on the web site. Because of the number of files involved, and header dependencies, this option usually isn't very useful.

### .zip file

The .zip format is widely supported by both free decoders and commercial compress/archive utilities. If you don't already have a .zip file decoder, download one from the Info-ZIP web site, which supplies versions for many operating systems.

Text file line endings in the .zip file are as supplied by each library developer. This works fine for Windows, but not for Unix/Linux. The .tar.gz file supplies Unix/Linux friendly line endings.

### .tar.gz file

The .tar.gz format is widely supported on Unix/Linux platforms. Some Windows compress/archive utilities can read the format as well. Because the gzip format compresses the archive as a single file rather than compressing each file individually, the .tar.gz file is smaller that the .zip file.

Text file line endings in the .tar.gz file have been converted to newlines for ease of use on Unix/Linux platforms.

### CVS command line access

For those who have CVS installed, the libraries are also available from the public CVS repository. The general procedure for command-line clients is something like this:

> `cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.boost.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/boost login`
> [Hit <return> when it asks for a password]
> `cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.boost.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/boost checkout boost
> cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.boost.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/boost logout`

Read the manual for your CVS client for further information.

This access is read-only; if you are a library author and wish to have CVS write access, please contact one of the moderators.

### CVS Browser access via WebCVS

For access to the CVS archive from any modern web browser, you can also use the web browser interface. Try one of the color diffs to see how a file has changed over time.

## Installation

Many boost libraries are implemented entirely within their header files. The only preparation for their use is to add the path for the parent directory of the boost headers sub-directory to your compiler's list of `#include` search directories.

For example, using Windows 2000, if you have unzipped release 1.20.2 from boost_all.zip into the top level directory of your C drive, for Borland, GCC, and Metrowerks compilers add '-Ic:/boost_1_20_2' to the compiler command line, and for the Microsoft compiler add '/I "c:/boost_1_20_2"'. For IDE's, add 'c:/boost_1_20_2' (or whatever you have renamed it to) to the search list using the appropriate GUI dialog.

Some Boost libraries are implemented as separate source files, and thus require compilation into object libraries before any use. See Building Boost Libraries for an automatic tool to prepare such libraries. Some of the individual libraries also include make and/or project files for various compilers, but these will become obsolete as Boost.Build matures..

Revised 19 August, 2001

Written by Jens Maurer 2001-02-11