Versions tested: from 1.79.0 upto 1.85.0 .

• Arniiiii/ModernCppStarterExampleBoostCmake

1. Add CPM.cmake in your project somehow (or if you know how, use ExternalProject or FetchContent).
2. Download AddBoost.CMake:

CPMAddPackage(
  NAME AddBoost.CMake
  GIT_TAG 3.0
  GITHUB_REPOSITORY Arniiiii/AddBoost.cmake
)

3. Use the add_boost macro. Notice NOT wrapping variables TRY_BOOST_VERSION and so on when sending arguments to the macro

set(TRY_BOOST_VERSION "1.85.0")
set(BOOST_MY_OPTIONS "BOOST_ENABLE_PYTHON ON;")
set(BOOST_NOT_HEADER_ONLY_COMPONENTS_THAT_YOU_NEED "thread;python")
set(BOOST_HEADER_ONLY_COMPONENTS_THAT_YOU_NEED "asio;uuid")

add_boost(
  TRY_BOOST_VERSION BOOST_HEADER_ONLY_COMPONENTS_THAT_YOU_NEED
  BOOST_NOT_HEADER_ONLY_COMPONENTS_THAT_YOU_NEED your_target_name your_target_name2 your_target_name...
)

4. Add Boost's install target (notice ${boost_install_targets}):

string(TOLOWER ${PROJECT_NAME}/version.h VERSION_HEADER_LOCATION)
string(TOLOWER ${PROJECT_NAME}/export.h EXPORT_HEADER_LOCATION)

set_property(TARGET ${PROJECT_NAME} PROPERTY VERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION})
set_property(TARGET ${PROJECT_NAME} PROPERTY SOVERSION 1)


CPMAddPackage(
  NAME PackageProject.cmake
  VERSION 1.11.2
  GITHUB_REPOSITORY "TheLartians/PackageProject.cmake"
)

packageProject(
  NAME ${PROJECT_NAME}
  VERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION}
  NAMESPACE ${PROJECT_NAME}
  BINARY_DIR ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}
  INCLUDE_DIR ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/include
  INCLUDE_DESTINATION include/${PROJECT_NAME}
  VERSION_HEADER "${VERSION_HEADER_LOCATION}" 
  EXPORT_HEADER "${EXPORT_HEADER_LOCATION}"
  COMPATIBILITY "AnyNewerVersion" DISABLE_VERSION_SUFFIX ON
  DEPENDENCIES "${ADDBOOSTCMAKE_PACKAGEPROJECT_INSTALL_TARGETS}"
)

• Find local Boost
• Download boost if there's local Boost with lower version than needed or if local Boost doesn't exist on the system or if -DCPM_DOWNLOAD_ALL=1 is set
• Links Boost to what targets you need by itself
• If you don't want to download Boost multiple times, set -DCPM_SOURCE_CACHE=./.cache/cpm or something like.
• Gives appropriate string for you to add to PackageProject.cmake
• Makes Boost generate appropriate install targets
• If you download Boost, you can add additional configuring options just by setting them before calling function.
• Well tested at Arniiiii/ModernCppStarterExampleBoostCmake
• You can apply your options or by setting it by your self, or by setting BOOST_MY_OPTIONS to something like "OPTION value;OPTION2 value;" for example BOOST_ENABLE_PYTHON ON; .
• If you have your own Boost directory, set BOOST_USE_MY_BOOST_DIRECTORY to be the path with your Boost.
• If you want, you can link Boost libs yourself, since the code is macro, not a function.
• You can link Boost libs automagically to multiple targets just by adding them to the end of the addboost(...) macro.
• You can apply your patches to Boost. Define variable BOOST_ADD_MY_PATCHES to be a path to folder in which there's *.patch in such layout:

patches/
└── boost
    ├── 1.80.0
    │   ├── a.patch
    │   └── b.patch
    ├── 1.80.0.beta1
    │   └── c.patch
    ├── 1.81.0
    │   └── d.patch
    ├── 1.81.0.beta1
    │   └── d.patch
    ├── 1.82.0
    │   └── e.patch
    ├── 1.83.0
    │   └── f.patch
    ├── 1.84.0
    │   └── g.patch
    ├── patch_for_all_versions1.patch
    └── i_dont_care_to_what_boost_version_itll_apply.patch

Where in folder with specific version will be patches, that will apply only to this version, if it's specified.

MIT