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# Boost Mailing Lists and other resources

The mailing lists are the heart of the Boost community. You may read the lists via full-content email, email digests, or via newsgroup reader.

Hosting for the mailing lists is donated by the Open Systems Lab at Indiana University.

Access to Boost mailing lists via newsgroup (NNTP) is contributed by GMANE.

Before Posting

Read the Discussion Policy and Guide to Effective Posting. Doing so will help you to ensure that your post is read by the people who can help you and received in the spirit in which it was intended.

Subscribe your posting address. As an anti-spam measure, postings to most Boost mailing lists will only be accepted if the posting's "From:" header contains an email address that is subscribed to the list. If you try to post from an address that isn't subscribed, you will probably get a message that says:

> `You are not allowed to post to this mailing list, and your message has been automatically rejected. If you think that your messages are being rejected in error, contact the mailing list owner at` list administrator's email address.

If you need to post from multiple email addresses, you should subscribe each one separately. You can configure your subscription settings for any address to disable mail delivery via each mailing list's web interface.

Even postings made through the GMane news server need to be made from subscribed addresses because GMane simply forwards your postings on to the appropriate email list. Don't be fooled by GMane's authentication message that says "you are now authorized to post to this list" after you answer its autogenerated mail; only subscribed addresses may post.

Boost Users list
Boost developers list
  Archives for the Boost developers list
Boost Announce list
Boost Interest list
Project-Specific lists
  Boost.Build list
  Python C++-Sig (for Boost.Python)
  Language Binding (for generalized C++ bindings)
  Boost.Spirit lists
  Boost.Documentation list
  Testing list (about regression-testing the boost libraries, not for the Boost.Test library specifically)
  Boost.uBlas (numerics) list
  Boost.Thread list
Boost Sandbox
#boost IRC channel

## Boost Users mailing list (also available via newsgroup)

This list is oriented toward casual users of the Boost libraries. It is a good place to start if you are having trouble getting started with Boost or its individual libraries. Feel free to post both "newbie" and more challenging questions, but please check first to see if there's an appropriate Project-Specific list; you'll often get better answers in a forum dedicated to your problem area. This list is relatively low volume (less than 500 per month). Subscribe or unsubscribe at the Boost Users list home page.

For those who prefer to participate via an NNTP (newsgroup) interface, a gateway to the Boost Users mailing list is available at news://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.user. You can also browse Gmane's searchable archive.

## Boost developers mailing list (also available via newsgroup)

This is the main Boost mailing list. It is high volume (over 1000 messages per month), very technical, and oriented toward Boost library developers. It is also read by many other members interested in watching the Boost library development process. Virtually all Boost decisions, major or minor, technical or otherwise, are reached via public discussion on this mailing list. It is where the formal reviews of proposed libraries take place. Subscribe or unsubscribe at http://lists.boost.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/boost.

When we talk about the "members of Boost", we are talking about those signed up for this main mailing list.

For those who prefer to participate via an NNTP (newsgroup) interface, a gateway to the Boost mailing list is available at news://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.devel.

Preliminary libraries under discussion are available from the Vault.

### Archives for Boost developers list

A searchable mailing list archive has been generously contributed to the ActiveState Programmer Network by ActiveState Corporation.

Other archives of Boost messages include the Boost GMane NNTP Archive, The Mail Archive, The Free Network Group, and of course there is a Google search link for our MailMan Archive on our home page.

## Boost Announce mailing list

This is an announce-only list for notification of upcoming software releases and formal reviews of proposed libraries. One to three messages per month. Subscribe or unsubscribe at the Boost Announce list home page.

## Boost Interest Mailing List

This list is a moderated low-traffic announcement-only list of interest to the Boost community. On topic messages will include announcements of books, magazine articles, papers, talks, seminars, products, tools, events, or conferences on advanced uses of C++, generic/generative/meta-programming, and, of course, the Boost libraries. Off topic will be discussion of any kind and job postings. Subscribe or unsubscribe at the Boost-Interest home page.

## Project-Specific lists

Several mailing lists have been established for specific Boost projects:

  ### Boost.Build list

  The mailing list for the Boost Build System is located here. GMane provides NNTP access and Searchable Archives as well.

  ### Python C++-Sig (for Boost.Python)

  The Python C++-sig is not strictly Boost-specific, but nearly all the traffic concerns Boost.Python. See also the Language Binding list below. GMane provides NNTP access and Searchable Archives as well. There are also searchable archives at ASPN.

  ### Language Binding

  The Language Binding list is for discussion of a generalized framework for binding C++ to other languages and systems based on the technology of Boost.Python and Luabind. The plan is to provide a single front-end for describing bindings with runtime-pluggable back ends for binding to specific languages. It is highly recommended that new subscribers read through the message history from the beginning before posting; it will save time as much design progress has already been made. GMane provides NNTP access and Searchable Archives as well.

  ### Boost.Spirit lists

  Spirit has two additional mailing lists. Spirit-general for Spirit users and Spirit-devel for Spirit developers (open to anyone who wishes to hang out with Spirit coders). Both have GMane NNTP access (Spirit-general and Spirit-devel) with searchable archives ( Spirit-general and Spirit-devel).

  ### Boost.Documentation list

  The SourceForge mailing list for the Boost Documentation System is located here. GMane provides NNTP access and Searchable Archives as well.

  ### uBLAS development (ublas-dev) list

  A seperate user and developer mailing list for Boost uBLAS specific topics is located here.

  ### Thread development (threads-devel) list

  A seperate developer mailing list for Boost Thread specific topics is located here.

  Important: This mailing list is for the discussion of the specification and implementation of Boost.Threads only — questions regarding usage should be directed to the Boost Users list, or the main Boost developers list.

  GMane provides NNTP access and Searchable Archives as well.

  ### Testing list

  The setup, procedures and tools necessary for running Boost regression tests are discussed on this list. The list main participants are regression runners - people who run Boost tests on a variety of compilers and platforms, and the maintainers of tools for collecting and processing test results.

  Important: questions relevant to a wider audience, including questions about Boost.Test framework or test results for a particular library, should be posted to main development list.

  NNTP access and Searchable Archives are available on GMane.

  ### Boost Subversion Commit Messages

  The boost-commit mailing list receives messages whenever a change is committed to the Boost Subversion repository.

## Boost Sandbox

In addition to the main Boost CVS repository, a separate Sandbox is available for Boost developers wishing to collaborate on projects prior to formal acceptance of a new library. Read-only access is available via Subversion and web browser at http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox.

Developer access to the sandbox uses the Subversion repository at https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox. For more information about the Boost Subversion repository, please see http://svn.boost.org.

## #boost IRC channel

In addition to the mailing lists presented above, a #boost IRC channel on freenode is frequented by some boost users. As usual with IRC channels, one should not necessarily expect that his questions will be answered. The channel is not moderated.

Revised 04 December, 2005

Copyright Beman Dawes and David Abrahams 2001-2005

Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)