Boost mpi and python with macports

On my system, I installed MacPorts (formerly DarwinPorts) so that I could get matplotlib and numpy without any extra effort. In the process, it installed its own version of Python in /opt/local instead of the default mac one at /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/. The former is now the only Python version I use on my computer. It hadn't posed a problem until I tried to install boostmpi (see previous post on MPI with C++ and Python).

Well, after I told it to use the correct I got the unfortunate error:
"Fatal Python error: Interpreter not initialized (version mismatch?)" A little searching showed that the problem was that the libraries (specifically, the libboost_python dynamic library) was linking against the dynamic library found in /System/Library rather than the one set up in my environment and everywhere else. Using otool -L on the dynamic lib confirmed this, and I used the same tool while trying to find a solution (rather than using the Python failure to check).

On the Mac, installing Boost properly (with any of the libraries that need compiling) requires passing the --toolset=darwin option to bjam. Grepping the Boost source for "/System/Library" revealed that location to be hardwired as the default Python location if the darwin toolset is used. The solution is to specify in the user-config.jam file exactly what version of Python to use and where. My final install script (echo, bjam, and rm are the three commands):
echo "using mpi ; using python : 2.5 : /opt/local/bin : /opt/local/include/python2.5 : /opt/local/lib : ;" > ${HOME}/user-config.jam
bjam --with-mpi --with-python --with-math --with-serialization --toolset=darwin install --prefix=$INSTALLDIR
rm ${HOME}/user-config.jam

Using otool -L on the new libboost_python-xgcc40-mt-1_39.dylib verified that it linked against the correct Python, and boostmpi ran correctly after installing it.