[package] Boost/1.90.0: build error on Linux

[gav2xlin]

Description

There's an error. I tried this release and got an error. My build type was Debug.

boost/1.90.0: Package folder /home/gav2xlin/.conan2/p/b/boost248117d998be8/p
ERROR: boost/1.90.0: Error in package_info() method, line 2024
raise ConanException(f"These libraries were built, but were not used in any boost module: {non_used}")
ConanException: These libraries were built, but were not used in any boost module: {'boost_cobalt_io_ssl'}

It repeats without any conanfile files.

boost cobalt io ssl is here (as I see):
https://github.com/boostorg/cobalt/blob/10fa59946e1bb8413c32802cc089dafa644ec814/src/io/ssl.cpp

Package and Environment Details

• Package Name/Version: boost/1.90.0
• Operating System+version: Ubuntu 25.10
• Compiler+version: GCC 15.2.0
• Conan version: conan 2.24.0
• Python version: Python 3.11.13

Conan profile

[settings]
arch=x86_64
build_type=Release
compiler=gcc
compiler.cppstd=gnu23
compiler.cstd=gnu17
compiler.libcxx=libstdc++11
compiler.version=15
os=Linux

Steps to reproduce

conan create . --version=1.90.0 --build=missing

Logs

Click to expand log

======== Installing packages ========
bzip2/1.0.8: Already installed! (1 of 4)
libbacktrace/cci.20210118: Already installed! (2 of 4)
zlib/1.3.1: Already installed! (3 of 4)
boost/1.90.0: Already installed! (4 of 4)
ERROR: boost/1.90.0: Error in package_info() method, line 2024
	raise ConanException(f"These libraries were built, but were not used in any boost module: {non_used}")
	ConanException: These libraries were built, but were not used in any boost module: {'boost_cobalt_io_ssl'}

[mologie]

I'm getting a related/similar error:

ERROR: boost/1.90.0: Error in package_info() method, line 2024
	raise ConanException(f"These libraries were built, but were not used in any boost module: {non_used}")
	ConanException: These libraries were built, but were not used in any boost module: {'boost_container'}

Using this choker to configure Boost since unfortunately all libs are on by default:

    default_options.update({f"boost/*:without_{name}": True for name in [
        "atomic", "charconv", "chrono", "cobalt", "container", "context", "contract", "coroutine",
        "date_time", "exception", "fiber", "filesystem", "graph", "graph_parallel", "iostreams",
        "json", "locale", "log", "math", "mpi", "nowide", "process", "python", "random", "regex",
        "serialization", "stacktrace", "test", "thread", "timer", "type_erasure", "wave"
    ]})

Boost container shows up as "not building" in the build output, yet the exception says it's there, not sure what's happening but the 1.90 release here in Conan seems broken right now.

[jcar87]

Thanks @gav2xlin and @mologie

Please post the entire build log of the command you are running, including:

• the bit at the top where Conan prints the profile configuration
• the entirety of the boost build log (the error in the package_info() is usually better understood if we can see what the boost configurator reported)

it would be great if you could also pass -c:a tools.build:verbosity=verbose as the boost recipe is configured to output more information in that case, thanks!

[gav2xlin]

@jcar87 attached

build.log

[uilianries]

@gav2xlin @mologie Out of curiosity, are you using Boost Cobalt?

[uilianries]

I have just updated PR #26059 to include a fix for this issue as well. The Boost.Cobalt introduced some bugs in the package since its introduction in the recipe. I discussed with Memsharded some time ago to keep it disabled by default to avoid breaking users, as it requires C++20 to be enabled.

[mologie]

@uilianries I'm afraid that even with your PR applied (gh pr checkout 26059 && git rebase origin/master && conan export --version 1.90.0 all, then inserted that into conan.lock), the issue still reproduces for me on 2.24.0, macOS 26.2 arm64, Xcode 26.2.

I'm attaching build log with -c:a tools.build:verbosity=verbose, where most boost libraries except program_options and url are off. b2 claims that container will not be built, yet it is and that (correctly) trips the recipe:

conan-boost-1.9.0-build.log

Edit: My build profile:

$ cat ~/.conan2/profiles/default
[settings]
arch=armv8
build_type=Release
compiler=apple-clang
compiler.cppstd=gnu23
compiler.libcxx=libc++
compiler.version=17
os=Macos

[mologie]

@gav2xlin @mologie Out of curiosity, are you using Boost Cobalt?

To not leave that one unanswered, no, I am not using Cobalt and explicitly turn it off.

It appears the workaround for this issue I'm having is to leave with_container on. If it's off, then the recipe crashes with the described exception.

[uilianries]

@mologie Thank you for the information and build log! I'll be investigating it.

[uilianries]

@mologie I'm able to reproduce your case using a similar scenario: boost-1.90.0-osx-aarch64-clang17-release-static.log

It's important to note your are not using the exactly recipe as from that PR: The recipe revision from your log is not the same from the PR and my log: f5a7e8f9032db9888aefba29e8a8f713, please, make sure using the exact same recipe to avoid possible differences when building.

Still, I'm afraid you spotted another unexpected scenario related to Boost internal dependencies, not the first in those last versions. The PR #26059 is about Boost Cobalt and indeed it uses Boost container as a dependency, but it's not the only one. With the introduction of modular Boost, even when you say during the setup to "not build module X" and the setup says "X: not building", in case any library which needs module X is built, the X library will be built too. And it's not easy track it down, because it maybe transitive dependencies as well, not a direct dependency.

I'll report your case in Boost directly, as I don't see it connected to Cobalt, it can be one of those header libraries that need boost container instead. To validate it's not Cobalt, I made a change in the recipe, to not only disable Container option in Cobalt, but also erase from its build to make it will not be consumed as a mistake:

diff --git a/recipes/boost/all/conanfile.py b/recipes/boost/all/conanfile.py
index 37eefc86b6..5fc2f190be 100644
--- a/recipes/boost/all/conanfile.py
+++ b/recipes/boost/all/conanfile.py
@@ -152,8 +152,6 @@ class BoostConan(ConanFile):
     default_options.update({f"without_{_name}": False for _name in CONFIGURE_OPTIONS})
     default_options.update({f"without_{_name}": True for _name in ("graph_parallel", "mpi", "python", "cobalt")})
 
-    short_paths = True
-    no_copy_source = True
     _cached_dependencies = None
 
     def export(self):
@@ -857,6 +855,10 @@ class BoostConan(ConanFile):
         get(self, **self.conan_data["sources"][self.version],
             destination=self.source_folder, strip_root=True)
         apply_conandata_patches(self)
+        rm(self, "Jamfile", os.path.join(self.source_folder, "libs", "container_hash", "benchmark"))
+        replace_in_file(self, os.path.join(self.source_folder, "libs", "cobalt", "build", "Jamfile"),
+                "<boost.cobalt.pmr>boost-container:<library>/boost/container//boost_container",
+                "")
 
     def generate(self):
         if not self.options.header_only:
@@ -1441,7 +1443,7 @@ class BoostConan(ConanFile):
             # INFO: https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/cxx-coroutines
             if self.settings.compiler == "gcc" and Version(self.settings.compiler.version) == "10":
                 cxx_flags.append("-fcoroutines")
-            flags.append('boost.cobalt.pmr=boost-container')
+        flags.append('boost.cobalt.pmr=no')
 
         cxx_flags = f'cxxflags="{" ".join(cxx_flags)}"'
         flags.append(cxx_flags)

Still, even using the version option set that you pointed, url=True program_options=True, Boost container is still produced. It's true both don't use Boost container directly, but they use other dependencies that should require Container.

UPDATE: I just opened the issue boostorg/program_options#152 reporting the case.