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Boost.URL

Overview

Boost.URL is a portable C++ library which provides containers and algorithms which model a ``URL'', more formally described using the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) specification (henceforth referred to as rfc3986). A URL is a compact sequence of characters that identifies an abstract or physical resource. For example, this is a valid URL which satisfies the absolute-URI grammar:

https://www.example.com/path/to/file.txt?userid=1001&page=2&results=full

This library understands the various grammars related to URLs and provides for validating and parsing of strings, manipulation of URL strings, and algorithms operating on URLs such as normalization and resolution. While the library is general purpose, special care has been taken to ensure that the implementation and data representation are friendly to network programs which need to handle URLs efficiently and securely, including the case where the inputs come from untrusted sources. Interfaces are provided for using error codes instead of exceptions as needed, and all algorithms provide a mechanism for avoiding memory allocations entirely if desired. Another feature of the library is that all container mutations leave the URL in a valid state. Code which uses Boost.URL will be easy to read, flexible, and performant.

Network programs such as those using Boost.Asio or Boost.Beast often encounter the need to process, generate, or modify URLs. This library provides a very much needed modular component for handling these use-cases.

Example

using namespace boost::urls;

// Parse a URL. This allocates no memory. The view
// references the character buffer without taking ownership.
//
url_view uv( "https://www.example.com/path/to/file.txt?id=1001&name=John%20Doe&results=full" );

// Print the query parameters with percent-decoding applied
//
for( auto v : uv.params() )
    std::cout << v.key << "=" << v.value << " ";

// Prints: id=1001 name=John Doe results=full

// Create a modifiable copy of `uv`, with ownership of the buffer
//
url u = uv;

// Change some elements in the URL
//
u.set_scheme( "http" )
 .set_encoded_host( "boost.org" )
 .set_encoded_path( "/index.htm" )
 .remove_query()
 .remove_fragment()
 .params().append( {"key", "value"} );

std::cout << u;

// Prints: http://boost.org/index.htm?key=value

Design Goals

The library achieves these goals:

Require only C++11
Works without exceptions
Fast compilation, no templates
Strict compliance with rfc3986
Allocate memory or use inline storage
Optional header-only, without linking to a library

Requirements

Requires Boost and a compiler supporting at least C++11
Aliases for standard types use their Boost equivalents
Link to a built static or dynamic Boost library, or use header-only (see below)
Supports -fno-exceptions, detected automatically

Header-Only

To use as header-only; that is, to eliminate the requirement to link a program to a static or dynamic Boost.URL library, simply place the following line in exactly one new or existing source file in your project.

#include <boost/url/src.hpp>

Embedded

Boost.URL works great on embedded devices. It can be used in a way that avoids all dynamic memory allocations. Furthermore it is designed to work without exceptions if desired.

Supported Compilers

Boost.URL is tested with the following compilers:

clang: 3.8, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
gcc: 4.8, 4.9, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
msvc: 14.0, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3

and these architectures: x86, x64, ARM64, S390x

Quality Assurance

The development infrastructure for the library includes these per-commit analyses:

Coverage reports
Benchmark performance comparisons
Compilation and tests on Drone.io

Visual Studio Solution Generation

cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A Win32 -B bin -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchains/msvc.cmake
cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A x64 -B bin64 -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchains/msvc.cmake

License

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

Latest Boost.Url posts

Manipulating URLs with Boost URL
May 14th, 2026 #URL

René Ferdinand Rivera Morell Board Member, C++ Alliance
Implementation of Nix functional package manager
Sep 23rd, 2025 #URL

Joaquín M López Muñoz Software Engineer, C++ Alliance
Alan's Q2 Update 2024
Jul 14th, 2024 #URL

Alan de Freitas Software Engineer, C++ Alliance

View all posts

Boost.Url

About Boost.Url

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