How to set JAMSHELL in Boost Build/b2/bjam

Question

The documentation mentions the variable JAMSHELL which allows changing the shell that b2 uses to execute commands. But when I set it in my jamroot it seems that it has no effect.

I use the MSVC compiler.

Example:

JAMSHELL = cmddd /C % ; # cmddd is not a shell on my computer so should break b2 but it does not

Answer 1

You need to inject it into the module msvc:

using msvc : 14.2 ; # you probably already have this line if using MSVC
import modules ;
modules.poke msvc : JAMSHELL : cmddd /C % ;

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