libboost-python naming conventions on Ubuntu

[ahwitz]

Line 27 of https://github.com/DDMAL/libmei/blob/master/python/setup.py looks for boost_python-mt by default. boost dropped the separate python-mt file on Ubuntu as of version 1.54, which is the oldest version available for Ubuntu 14.04.

Building with the default setup.py config gives the following error:

/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lboost_python-mt-py27

Removing the -mt suffix from the above line allows the python bindings to be built correctly on 14.04 - is there a way to to maintain support for older versions of Ubuntu while also building correctly on 14.04+?

[ahankinson]

You could check for the Ubuntu version number and append -mt if it's below a certain one. Look at the platform Python module to see if that's of any help.

[ahwitz]

in retrospect, that's not guaranteed either: lower versions do have boost-1.54/1.55 in apt as well so the newer version could be installed

I'll look into this at some point if no one else has, but I more wanted to get this documented because this is the umpteenth time I've run into this issue and I kept forgetting to document it

[ahankinson]

Figure something out, then submit a PR. (You can do an internal libmei branch PR if you don't want to fork it.)

[tiagovaz]

Hi, is there any particular need to keep "-mt" sufix, considering boost libraries seem to be multi-threading safe by default now?

Thanks!

[matangover]

@ahankinson We're encountering the same problem with the -mt suffix. Considering Boost.Python has dropped -mt naming several years ago, do you think it would be logical to remove it from setup.py script so that the Python extensions could be built without manually modifying the setup.py file?