[Windows, Ubuntu] Boost 1.72.0 will be removed from images on March, 8

[MaksimZhukov]

Breaking changes
Boost 1.72.0 will be removed from Windows and Ubuntu images. Please note that 1.72.0 is the single version of Boost pre-installed on images.

Target date
Image deployment will start March, 8 and will take 3-4 days.

The motivation for the changes
We are going to deprecate Boost due to lack of free space on images, maintenance concerns and low popularity.

Possible impact
If your project depends on Boost 1.72.0 — build will be broken.

Virtual environments affected

• Ubuntu 16.04
• Ubuntu 18.04
• Ubuntu 20.04
• macOS 10.13
• macOS 10.14
• macOS 10.15
• macOS 11.0
• Windows Server 2016 R2
• Windows Server 2019

What's the future of Boost?
We don't have plans to install any version of Boost on the images. Please see details in this issue: #2425

Please note the actions/boost-versions repository will not be maintained in the future.

Mitigation ways
If you need to continue using Boost 1.72.0 in your build, please consider the following ways to install it in runtime:

1. Windows

• Install Boost 1.72.0 from releases of actions/boost-versions repository:

# Use the boost-1.72.0-win32-msvc14.1-x86_64.tar.gz for Windows 2016
$url = "https://github.com/actions/boost-versions/releases/download/1.72.0-20200608.4/boost-1.72.0-win32-msvc14.2-x86_64.tar.gz"
(New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile($url, "$env:TEMP\boost.tar.gz")
7z.exe x "$env:TEMP\boost.tar.gz" -o"$env:TEMP\boostArchive" -y | Out-Null
7z.exe x "$env:TEMP\boostArchive" -o"$env:TEMP\boost" -y | Out-Null
Push-Location -Path "$env:TEMP\boost"
Invoke-Expression .\setup.ps1

The above code snippet will install Boost to the C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Boost\1.72.0\x86_64 folder.

• Download official pre-build binaries provided by Boost team:

# Use the boost_1_72_0-msvc-14.1-64.exe for Windows 2016
$Url = "https://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost-binaries/1.72.0/boost_1_72_0-msvc-14.2-64.exe"
(New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile($Url, "$env:TEMP\boost.exe")
Start-Process -Wait -FilePath "$env:TEMP\boost.exe" "/SILENT","/SP-","/SUPPRESSMSGBOXES","/DIR=C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Boost\1.72.0\x86_64"

2. Ubuntu:

• Install Boost 1.72.0 from releases of actions/boost-versions repository:

# Use the boost-1.72.0-linux-16.04-gcc-x64.tar.gz for Ubuntu 16.04
$url = "https://github.com/actions/boost-versions/releases/download/1.72.0-20200608.4/boost-1.72.0-linux-18.04-gcc-x64.tar.gz"
(New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile($url, "/tmp/boost.tar.gz")
mkdir "/tmp/boost"
tar -xzf "/tmp/boost.tar.gz" -C "/tmp/boost"
Push-Location -Path "/tmp/boost"
Invoke-Expression "bash ./setup.sh"

The above code snippet will install Boost to the /opt/hostedtoolcache/boost/1.72.0/x64 folder.

• Use apt packages: https://www.osetc.com/en/how-to-install-boost-on-ubuntu-16-04-18-04-linux.html
• Use vcpkg + caching feature (the first build could take much time but consuming existing cache works really fast)

3. macOS: install via brew install boost

[vadi2]

For anyone who uses a header-only boost and doesn't need to compile, the following will work on macOS/Linux/Windows. Courtesy of Mudlet.

    env:
      BOOST_ROOT: ${{github.workspace}}/3rdparty/boost
      BOOST_URL: https://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost/1.72.0/boost_1_72_0.tar.bz2/download

    steps:
    - name: Restore Boost cache
      uses: actions/cache@v2
      id: cache-boost
      with:
        path: ${{env.BOOST_ROOT}}
        key: boost

    - name: Install Boost
      if: steps.cache-boost.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
      run: |
        if [ "$OS" == "Windows_NT" ]; then
          # fix up paths to be forward slashes consistently
          BOOST_ROOT=$(echo $BOOST_ROOT | sed 's/\\/\//g')
        fi
        mkdir -p $BOOST_ROOT
        curl --progress-bar --location --output $BOOST_ROOT/download.tar.bz2 $BOOST_URL
        7z -o$BOOST_ROOT x $BOOST_ROOT/download.tar.bz2 -y -bd
        7z -o$BOOST_ROOT x $BOOST_ROOT/download.tar -y -bd
        cd $BOOST_ROOT && cp -r boost_*/* .
        rm -rf boost_*/* download.tar.bz2 download.tar
      shell: bash

[mathbagu]

Hi,

Since few minutes (?), my build that requires boost 1.72 has starting to fail because boost is not found anymore. Does anything change recently and make it unavailable 2 weeks before the announced breaking change?

The configure command use BOOST_ROOT_1_72_0 variable

cmake -S $GITHUB_WORKSPACE -B $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$BOOST_ROOT_1_72_0 -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON

This issue is present only with ubuntu-latest environment (works well under Windows or Macos).

[maxim-lobanov]

@mathbagu , no changes from our side yet.

[miketimofeev]

@mathbagu probably your workflow was switched to Ubuntu 20, which doesn't contain Boost at all #1816

[adegomme]

somehow boost is still present on some windows environments and not others ? I had to guard the installation (version 1 of the proposed one ) against presence of the directory, to avoid random issues and failures on some builds.

 | The file 'C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\boost\1.72.0\x86_64.complete' already exists.

cf https://github.com/simgrid/simgrid/runs/2087441243?check_suite_focus=true

edit: probably a propagation issue, it was launched on
Environment: windows-2019
Version: 20210219.1

while https://github.com/adegomme/simgrid/runs/2086527977?check_suite_focus=true which was launched before on my fork was running on
Environment: windows-2019
Version: 20210309.0

[miketimofeev]

@adegomme you're right, it takes 3-4 days to propagate the new image version to all the environment. Sorry for the inconvenience

[Heru788]

Good

[e-kwsm]

actions/boost-versions has been archived, but its README just says

This repository is deprecated and should no longer be used.

I would appreciate if the reason and alternative solutions are mentioned (or linked to this issue) in the description or README in the repository.