boost181 @1.81.0+universal: "combined" is not a known value of feature <architecture> :info:build error: legal values: "x86" ... "arm+x86"

[kaamui]

Boost 1.81.0 fails to build on Mac M1 with the following output :

sudo port install boost181 +universal
--->  Computing dependencies for boost181
--->  Fetching archive for boost181
--->  Attempting to fetch boost181-1.81.0_4+no_single+no_static+python310+universal.darwin_21.arm64-x86_64.tbz2 from https://packages.macports.org/boost181
--->  Attempting to fetch boost181-1.81.0_4+no_single+no_static+python310+universal.darwin_21.arm64-x86_64.tbz2 from https://fra.de.packages.macports.org/boost181
--->  Attempting to fetch boost181-1.81.0_4+no_single+no_static+python310+universal.darwin_21.arm64-x86_64.tbz2 from https://nue.de.packages.macports.org/boost181
--->  Fetching distfiles for boost181
--->  Verifying checksums for boost181
--->  Extracting boost181
--->  Applying patches to boost181
--->  Configuring boost181
--->  Building boost181                                  
Error: Failed to build boost181: command execution failed
Error: See /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_devel_boost181/boost181/main.log for details.
Error: Follow https://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets if you believe there is a bug.
Error: Processing of port boost181 failed

main.log is attached, but the issue seems to be related to the fact that "combined" was replaced in boost by "arm+x86" (see in commit below)

:info:build /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_devel_boost181/boost181/work/boost_1_81_0/tools/build/src/build/feature.jam:491: in feature.validate-value-string from module feature
:info:build error: "combined" is not a known value of feature <architecture>
:info:build error: legal values: "x86" "ia64" "sparc" "power" "loongarch" "mips" "mips1" "mips2" "mips3" "mips4" "mips32" "mips32r2" "mips64" "parisc" "arm" "riscv" "s390x" "arm+x86"
:info:build /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_devel_boost181/boost181/work/boost_1_81_0/tools/build/src/build/property.jam:337: in validate1 from module property
:info:build /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_devel_boost181/boost181/work/boost_1_81_0/tools/build/src/build/property.jam:363: in property.validate from module property
:info:build /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_devel_boost181/boost181/work/boost_1_81_0/tools/build/src/build/build-request.jam:286: in convert-command-line-element from module build-request
:info:build /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_devel_boost181/boost181/work/boost_1_81_0/tools/build/src/build/build-request.jam:222: in build-request.convert-command-line-elements from module build-request
:info:build /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_devel_boost181/boost181/work/boost_1_81_0/tools/build/src/build-system.jam:774: in load from module build-system
:info:build /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_devel_boost181/boost181/work/boost_1_81_0/tools/build/src/kernel/modules.jam:294: in import from module modules
:info:build /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_devel_boost181/boost181/work/boost_1_81_0/tools/build/src/kernel/bootstrap.jam:135: in module scope from module

Note that Boost 1.81.0 adds a workaround that could resolve boost issues in universal variant: #64954 #66686

​https://github.com/boostorg/build/commit/d312a161524213b7966eec440158f38fbaa497c2

Fixing Boost 1.81.0 compilation would probably enable boost but also poppler (that depends on boost 1.76 actually, should be upgraded to 1.81.0) as universal packages

[kaamui]

​https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/macports/macports-ports/pull/17570.patch

Can be patched by simply editing the Portfile (see patch above), but leads to linker issues (a boost/@coroutine issue => ​https://github.com/boostorg/coroutine/issues/60, ​https://github.com/boostorg/context/issues/203)

Undefined symbols for architecture arm64:
:info:build   "_jump_fcontext", referenced from:
:info:build       boost::coroutines::detail::coroutine_context::jump(boost::coroutines::detail::coroutine_context&, void*) in coroutine_context.o
:info:build   "_make_fcontext", referenced from:
:info:build       boost::coroutines::detail::coroutine_context::coroutine_context(void (*)(boost::context::detail::transfer_t), boost::coroutines::detail::preallocated const&) in coroutine_context.o
:info:build       boost::coroutines::detail::coroutine_context::coroutine_context(void (*)(boost::context::detail::transfer_t), boost::coroutines::detail::preallocated const&) in coroutine_context.o
:info:build ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture arm64

[kaamui]

Using the script of Jesse in ​this thread, I was able to compile boost 1.81.0 as a universal binary.

It seems to be a configuration issue on boost's side, when using the arm+x86 option.

boost issue => ​https://github.com/boostorg/coroutine/issues/60

Maybe the linkflags option is helping the linker not to fail for coroutine_context, and is what's missing when arm+x86 option is used : ./b2 toolset=clang-darwin target-os=darwin architecture=arm abi=aapcs cxxflags="-arch arm64" cflags="-arch arm64" linkflags="-arch arm64" -a

in the main.log file ​L627, we can see that patches are applied for sysv architecture, where I'm on a arm64 (hence aapcs architecture). Maybe these patches are applied independently of the arch, maybe some equivalent patches are missing for aapcs architecture.

[kencu (Ken)]

the script basically does what our muniversal PG does…

which may well be where all the boost versions are headed if we want universal to work properly.

[kaamui]

In 1eaf0913f9f8a00a97becef29e0b31b29914c57b/macports-ports (master):

combined option has been renamed to arm+x86 (​https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/17570)

For more details, please see :
​https://github.com/boostorg/build/commit/da10b56586850f6b2fbe3b6f4db65f9e6a5c639c
​https://github.com/boostorg/build/commit/04b562ac8b6d6de4aae78a85f9fc3e17f7aa4821
​https://github.com/boostorg/build/commit/d312a161524213b7966eec440158f38fbaa497c2

Fixes: #66820