Homebrew: how to install boost with a specific version

Created at 2018-02-06 Updated at 2018-02-06 Category Homebrew Tag Homebrew

Since boost 1.58 and boost-python 1.58 are not available in the newest homebrew, one way to install them using homebrew is to downgrade the formula–editing the formula file so that you can install boost 1.58 and boost-python via homebrew. See this page: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3939651/how-to-modify-a-homebrew-formula

The newest boost formula file is here: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/master/Formula/boost.rb, and you can also find boost-python formula file.

So, how can we edit the formula of boost and boost-python? Just use edit option in brew command,

Note that all the sha256 values and the corresponding URLs should be right. And if you tried to install boost from source, you should remove boost first, see this page: https://askubuntu.com/questions/325504/ubuntu-12-04-uninstall-boost-installed-from-source

Edit boost formula

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brew edit boost       
Editing /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core/Formula/boost.rb
Warning: Using vim because no editor was set in the environment.
This may change in the future, so we recommend setting EDITOR,
or HOMEBREW_EDITOR to your preferred text editor.

change the code

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class Boost < Formula
  desc "Collection of portable C++ source libraries"
  homepage "https://www.boost.org/"
  #url "https://dl.bintray.com/boostorg/release/1.65.1/source/boost_1_65_1.tar.bz2"
  #sha256 "9807a5d16566c57fd74fb522764e0b134a8bbe6b6e8967b83afefd30dcd3be81"
  url "https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/boost/boost/1.58.0/boost_1_58_0.tar.bz2"
  sha256 "fdfc204fc33ec79c99b9a74944c3e54bd78be4f7f15e260c0e2700a36dc7d3e5"
  head "https://github.com/boostorg/boost.git"

also, edit boost-python formula

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brew edit boost-python

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class BoostPython < Formula
  desc "C++ library for C++/Python interoperability"
  homepage "https://www.boost.org/"
  #url "https://dl.bintray.com/boostorg/release/1.65.1/source/boost_1_65_1.tar.bz2"
  #sha256 "9807a5d16566c57fd74fb522764e0b134a8bbe6b6e8967b83afefd30dcd3be81"
  url "https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/boost/boost/1.58.0/boost_1_58_0.tar.bz2"
  sha256 "fdfc204fc33ec79c99b9a74944c3e54bd78be4f7f15e260c0e2700a36dc7d3e5"
  head "https://github.com/boostorg/boost.git"

And then install boost and boost-python without specifying version

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brew install boost 
brew install boost-python # python2
# or python 3
brew install boost-python3 # python 3

Just wait for about 30 minutes to install these libraries.