failed updating 58 targets when trying to build boost, what happened?

Question

build with command
[mirror@hugemeow boost_1_51_0]$ ./b2 --prefix=$HOME/ins/ins-boost2

and failed with the following message, why?

common.copy stage/lib/libboost_timer.a
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/instantiate_cpp_exprgrammar.o
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/instantiate_cpp_grammar.o
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/instantiate_cpp_literalgrs.o
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/instantiate_defined_grammar.o
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/instantiate_predef_macros.o
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/instantiate_re2c_lexer.o
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/instantiate_re2c_lexer_str.o
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/token_ids.o
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/wave_config_constant.o
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/cpplexer
common.mkdir bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/cpplexer/re2clex
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/cpplexer/re2clex/aq.o
gcc.compile.c++ bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/cpplexer/re2clex/cpp_re.o
gcc.archive bin.v2/libs/wave/build/gcc-4.1.2/release/link-static/threading-multi/libboost_wave.a
common.copy stage/lib/libboost_wave.a
...failed updating 58 targets...
...skipped 12 targets...
...updated 887 targets...
[mirror@hugemeow boost_1_51_0]$ echo $?
1

this issue is not the same as Failed to build boost or Unable to build Boost libraries with GCC, i following the instruction with link http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_51_0/more/getting_started/unix-variants.html

Solution

Boost has a few libraries that are not standalone and require installation of 3rd party libraries. These are:

• Boost.IOStreams Bzip2 filters
• Boost.IOStreams Zlib filters
• Boost.MPI
• Boost.Python
• Boost.Regex ICU support

If you do not install these dependencies, Boost.Build will skip them which explains your build message. If you want the optional components, then you have more work to do. This is explained in great detail in this answer.

Comments

[David Doria]

Those should be listed under "skipped", not "failed" though, right?

[TemplateRex]

@DavidDoria well, technically, you are right, but the build script continues to build all the other Boost libraries, even some might fail. That's what I mean with skipped.

[Chaitanya Bapat]

More importantly, installing libboost via automation script [for e.g. dockerfile] causes issues. libboost causes the docker build process to terminate due to this error.