I just built boost - and the output is sat on my desktop - boost

Question

I followed these instructions from github to clone and build the boost libraries.
https://github.com/boostorg/boost/wiki/Getting-Started
The end of the ./b2 command tells me
The Boost C++ Libraries were successfully built!
The following directory should be added to compiler include paths:
/home/user/Desktop/boost
The following directory should be added to linker library paths:
/home/user/Desktop/boost/stage/lib
What should I do with these folders? I would like to put boost in the "regular place it should go in order for gcc to see it".
This is probably /usr/include ? Is it safe for me to move the folder boost to this location? What about the boost/stage/lib folder. Where does this go?
gcc -v /dev/null -o /dev/null
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-redhat-linux
Configured with: ../configure --enable-bootstrap --enable-languages=c,c++,objc,obj-c++,fortran,ada,go,lto --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --with-bugurl=http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --enable-checking=release --enable-multilib --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --disable-libunwind-exceptions --enable-gnu-unique-object --enable-linker-build-id --with-linker-hash-style=gnu --enable-plugin --enable-initfini-array --disable-libgcj --with-isl --enable-libmpx --enable-gnu-indirect-function --with-tune=generic --with-arch_32=i686 --build=x86_64-redhat-linux
Thread model: posix
gcc version 6.3.1 20161221 (Red Hat 6.3.1-1) (GCC)
COMPILER_PATH=/usr/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/:/usr/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/:/usr/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/:/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/:/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/
LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/:/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/../../../../lib64/:/lib/../lib64/:/usr/lib/../lib64/:/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/../../../:/lib/:/usr/lib/
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-v' '-o' '/dev/null' '-mtune=generic' '-march=x86-64'
/usr/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/collect2 -plugin /usr/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/liblto_plugin.so -plugin-opt=/usr/libexec/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/lto-wrapper -plugin-opt=-fresolution=/tmp/cce2dq2i.res -plugin-opt=-pass-through=-lgcc -plugin-opt=-pass-through=-lgcc_s -plugin-opt=-pass-through=-lc -plugin-opt=-pass-through=-lgcc -plugin-opt=-pass-through=-lgcc_s --build-id --no-add-needed --eh-frame-hdr --hash-style=gnu -m elf_x86_64 -dynamic-linker /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 -o /dev/null /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/../../../../lib64/crt1.o /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/../../../../lib64/crti.o /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/crtbegin.o -L/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1 -L/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/../../../../lib64 -L/lib/../lib64 -L/usr/lib/../lib64 -L/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/../../.. /dev/null -lgcc --as-needed -lgcc_s --no-as-needed -lc -lgcc --as-needed -lgcc_s --no-as-needed /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/crtend.o /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/6.3.1/../../../../lib64/crtn.o
/dev/null: file not recognized: File truncated
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

Answer 1

I would like to put boost in the "regular place it should go in order for gcc to see it".
For gcc run cpp -v /dev/null -o /dev/null. In its output there are include search directories and LIBRARY_PATH with a list of library search directories. These are the regular places. Copying the headers and libraries into the regular places normally requires root permissions.
Alternatively, use -I/home/user/Desktop/boost extra command line option when compiling and -L/home/user/Desktop/boost/stage/lib -Wl,-rpath=/home/user/Desktop/boost/stage/lib when linking to use it from the current location.
Another way to build boost (and other 3rd-party libraries) is to have it installed in a separate directory, e.g. /usr/local with versioned directories, e.g. /usr/local/boost-1.60.0.
To build boost into /usr/local/boost-1.60.0 do the following commands in bash:
$ cd boost-1.60.0 # The directory with boost sources.
$ JOBS=8
$ PREFIX=/usr/local/boost-1.60.0
$ mkdir -p ${PREFIX}
$ ./bootstrap.sh --prefix=${PREFIX} --libdir=${PREFIX}/lib64
$ B2FLAGS="-j${JOBS} --layout=system --disable-icu variant=release link=shared threading=multi runtime-link=shared linkflags=-Wl,-rpath,${PREFIX}/lib64 boost.locale.icu=off boost.locale.iconv=on"
$ ./b2 ${B2FLAGS}
$ ./b2 ${B2FLAGS} install
The linkflags=-Wl,-rpath,${PREFIX}/lib64 bit makes sure that when you run your application boost shared libraries that depend on other boost shared libraries find them in that ${PREFIX}/lib64 directory.
And then use the following flags when builing your applications with boost you just built:
Flags for compiling (CPPFLAGS): -I/usr/local/boost-1.60.0/include.
Flags for linking (LDFLAGS): -L/usr/local/boost-1.60.0/lib64 -Wl,-rpath=/usr/local/boost-1.60.0/lib64.