Boost Knowledge Base

Boost is a collection of peer-reviewed, portable C++ libraries that sit one layer above the standard library. Many of today's standard facilities — shared_ptr, optional, variant, filesystem, thread, <random>, <chrono> — were first prototyped in Boost and later standardised. These docs cover the libraries you actually reach for in real projects: what each one solves, when to prefer it over the standard equivalent, and the gotchas that bite people.

How this is organised

Roughly outside-in: Introduction → Build & Integration get you compiling against Boost; the middle sections (Core, Smart Pointers, Containers, Strings, Algorithms) are the day-to-day utilities; the later sections (Concurrency, I/O, Networking, Serialization, Graph, Diagnostics) are the larger, domain-specific libraries. Each folder is self-contained — follow the cross-links between pages.

Sections

	Section	What it covers
	Introduction	What Boost is, its philosophy, installing it, header-only vs compiled, relation to the standard
	Build & Integration	b2 (Boost.Build), CMake, vcpkg/Conan, Boost.Config portability macros
	Core & Utilities	Core, Utility, Assert, Optional, Variant, Any, lexical_cast
	Smart Pointers & Memory	shared_ptr, intrusive_ptr, scoped_ptr, Pool, Align
	Containers	Container, Unordered, MultiIndex, Bimap, Intrusive, circular_buffer
	Strings & Text	String Algo, Format, Tokenizer, Regex, Spirit
	Algorithms, Iterators & Ranges	Algorithm, Range, Iterator adaptors, BOOST_FOREACH
	Functional & Metaprogramming	Function, Bind, Phoenix, Hana, MPL, Fusion, TypeTraits
	Math & Numerics	Math, Multiprecision, Random, Rational, numeric conversion, Accumulators, uBLAS
	Concurrency & Async	Thread, Atomic, Asio, Lockfree, Fiber, Coroutine2, Interprocess
	I/O & System	Filesystem, Iostreams, Program_options, Process, DLL, System
	Networking	TCP/UDP with Asio, HTTP/WebSocket with Beast
	Serialization & Data	Serialization, PropertyTree, JSON
	Date, Time & Units	Date_Time, Chrono, Units (dimensional analysis)
	Graph & Geometry	The Boost Graph Library, Geometry, Polygon
	Diagnostics & Testing	Boost.Test, Stacktrace, Log
	Language Tools & Misc	Preprocessor, UUID, Signals2

How the pieces relate

Suggested reading paths

• New to Boost: What is Boost → Installation → CMake integration → Optional → smart pointers. Enough to use Boost in a real build.
• Coming from the standard library: read Boost and the standard, then the Boost versions of facilities you already know — Optional, Variant, Filesystem, Thread — to see what Boost adds beyond std.
• Networking / servers: Asio → Asio networking → Beast → JSON.
• Systems / performance: Intrusive, Lockfree, Interprocess, Pool and Stacktrace.

Conventions used across these docs

• Examples assume a recent Boost (1.7x+) and compile against C++17 or later; version notes are tagged inline where they matter.
• Admonitions flag the important bits: info for context, tip for guidance, note for asides, warning/danger for foot-guns.
• Where a Boost library has since been standardised, the page says so and points at the std equivalent so you can choose deliberately.
• Diagrams are Mermaid; tables prefer plain words over decorative symbols.