Lua script to clone latest revision of boost repository and to clone latest revisions of all the submodules. Also containing hints of how to build and install boost complitely. The download traffic is minimal possible: only single branch, only latest revision of the branch.

get and build latest boost on ubuntu.lua

-- mkdir boost ; cd boost ; lua ../git-submodules-clone-HEAD.lua https://github.com/boostorg/boost.git .
local module_url = arg[1] or 'https://github.com/boostorg/boost.git'
local module = arg[2] or module_url:match('.+/([_%d%a]+)%.git')
local branch = arg[3] or 'master'
function execute(command)
    print('# ' .. command)
    return os.execute(command)
end
-- execute('rm -rf ' .. module)
if not execute('git clone --single-branch --branch ' .. branch .. ' --depth=1 ' .. module_url .. ' ' .. module) then
    io.stderr:write('can\'t clone repository from ' .. module_url .. ' to ' .. module .. '\n')
    return 1
end
-- cd $module ; git submodule update --init --recursive --remote --no-fetch --depth=1
execute('mkdir -p ' .. module .. '/.git/modules')
assert(io.input(module .. '/.gitmodules'))
local lines = {}
for line in io.lines() do
    table.insert(lines, line)
end
local submodule
local path
local submodule_url
for _, line in ipairs(lines) do
    local submodule_ = line:match('^%[submodule %"([_%d%a]-)%"%]$')
    if submodule_ then
        submodule = submodule_
        path = nil
        submodule_url = nil
    else
        local path_ = line:match('^%s*path = (.+)$')
        if path_ then
            path = path_
        else
            submodule_url = line:match('^%s*url = (.+)$')
        end
        if submodule and path and submodule_url then
            -- execute('rm -rf ' .. path)
            local git_dir = module .. '/.git/modules/' .. path:match('^.-/(.+)$')
            -- execute('rm -rf ' .. git_dir)
            execute('mkdir -p $(dirname "' .. git_dir .. '")')
            if not execute('git clone --depth=1 --single-branch --branch=' .. branch .. ' --separate-git-dir ' .. git_dir .. ' ' .. module_url .. '/' .. submodule_url .. ' ' .. module .. '/' .. path) then
                io.stderr:write('can\'t clone submodule ' .. submodule .. '\n')
                return 1
            end
            path = nil
            submodule_url = nil
        end
    end
end
--[[
# after cloning
export CC=clang
export CFLAGS="-march=native"
export CXX=clang++
export CXXFLAGS="-march=native -std=gnu++1z"
export LFLAGS="-march=native"
bash bootstrap.sh --with-toolset=clang
sudo apt-get install libbz2-dev zlibc zlib1g zlib1g-dev
sudo ./b2 -j`nproc` toolset=clang --build-dir=/tmp/build-boost --without-mpi install
# you should to add "-a" key to completely rebuild
# maybe you'll need run this command twice
]]