Compiling and Installing Boost C++ Libraries on CentOS

Boost C++ libraries provides free peer-reviewed portable C++ source libraries. Boost libraries are intended to be widely useful, and usable across a broad spectrum of applications.

Easy Build and Install (Taken from Getting Started on Unix Variants)

$ cd path/to/boost_1_52_0
$ ./bootstrap.sh --help

Select your configuration options and invoke ./bootstrap.sh again without the --help option. Unless you have write permission in your system's /usr/local/ directory, you'll probably want to at least use

$ ./bootstrap.sh --prefix=/usr/local/boost
$ ./b2 install

This will leave Boost binaries in the lib/ subdirectory of your installation prefix. You will also find a copy of the Boost headers in the include/ subdirectory of the installation prefix, so you can henceforth use that directory as an #include path in place of the Boost root directory.