diff --git a/install.sh b/install.sh
index 3d7f51b0..8d373032 100755
--- a/install.sh
+++ b/install.sh
@@ -427,6 +427,7 @@ build_cxxlib() {
         ${OCL_GENERATOR_PLATFORM:+"-A ${OCL_GENERATOR_PLATFORM}"} \
         -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="${build_type}" \
         -D BUILD_CXX_LIB="ON" \
+        -D USE_STATIC_BOOST="ON" \
         -D Boost_ADDITIONAL_VERSIONS="${boost_additional_versions}" \
         ${OCL_DISABLE_OPENMP:+"-DUSE_OPENMP=OFF"} \
         ${OCL_INSTALL_PREFIX:+"-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${OCL_INSTALL_PREFIX}"} \
@@ -478,6 +479,7 @@ build_nodejslib() {
         ${OCL_GENERATOR:+"--generator=${OCL_GENERATOR}"} \
         ${OCL_GENERATOR_PLATFORM:+"--platform=${OCL_GENERATOR_PLATFORM}"} \
         --CDBUILD_NODEJS_LIB="ON" \
+        --CDUSE_STATIC_BOOST="ON" \
         --CDBoost_ADDITIONAL_VERSIONS="${boost_additional_versions}" \
         --CDCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="${OCL_INSTALL_PREFIX:-"${install_prefix_fallback}"}" \
         ${OCL_DISABLE_OPENMP:+"--CDUSE_OPENMP=OFF"} \
@@ -538,6 +540,7 @@ ${OCL_BOOST_PREFIX:+"-D BOOST_ROOT=${OCL_BOOST_PREFIX} "}"
             ${OCL_GENERATOR_PLATFORM:+"-A ${OCL_GENERATOR_PLATFORM}"} \
             -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="${build_type}" \
             -D BUILD_PY_LIB="ON" \
+            -D USE_STATIC_BOOST="ON" \
             -D Boost_ADDITIONAL_VERSIONS="${boost_additional_versions}" \
             -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="${OCL_INSTALL_PREFIX:-"${install_prefix_fallback}"}" \
             ${OCL_DISABLE_OPENMP:+"-DUSE_OPENMP=OFF"} \
@@ -569,6 +572,7 @@ build_emscriptenlib() {
         -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="${build_type}" \
         -D BUILD_EMSCRIPTEN_LIB="ON" \
         -D USE_OPENMP="OFF" \
+        -D USE_STATIC_BOOST="ON" \
         -D Boost_ADDITIONAL_VERSIONS="${boost_additional_versions}" \
         -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="${OCL_INSTALL_PREFIX:-"${install_prefix_fallback}"}" \
         ${OCL_BOOST_PREFIX:+"-DBOOST_ROOT=${OCL_BOOST_PREFIX}"} \
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index 4915cea5..9c6a445a 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -50,6 +50,9 @@ option(VERSION_STRING
 option(USE_PY_3
     "Use Python V3" ON)
 
+option(USE_STATIC_BOOST
+    "Use static boost" OFF)
+
 if(NOT BUILD_CXX_LIB)
   message(STATUS " Note: will NOT build pure c++ library")
 endif()
@@ -99,7 +102,9 @@ endif()
 include_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
 
 set(Boost_DEBUG ON CACHE BOOL "boost-debug")
-set(Boost_USE_STATIC_LIBS ON CACHE BOOL "boost-use-static-libs")
+if(USE_STATIC_BOOST)
+  set(Boost_USE_STATIC_LIBS ON CACHE BOOL "boost-use-static-libs")
+endif()
 if(DEFINED ENV{BOOST_ROOT} OR DEFINED BOOST_ROOT)
   set(Boost_NO_SYSTEM_PATHS ON)
 endif()
@@ -160,40 +165,6 @@ if(USE_OPENMP)
   endif()
 endif()
 
-if(EXISTS ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/version_string.hpp)
-  file(STRINGS "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/version_string.hpp" PROJECT_BUILD_SPECIFICATION REGEX "^[ \t]*#define[ \t]+VERSION_STRING[ \t]+.*$")
-  if(PROJECT_BUILD_SPECIFICATION)
-    string(REGEX REPLACE ".*#define[ \t]+VERSION_STRING[ \t]+\"(.*)\".*" "\\1" MY_VERSION ${PROJECT_BUILD_SPECIFICATION})
-  else()
-    message(FATAL_ERROR "Data were not found for the required build specification.")
-  endif()
-  set(version_string ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/version_string.hpp)
-else()
-  ################ create version_string.hpp, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3780667
-  # include the output directory, where the version_string.hpp file is generated
-  include_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
-  if(VERSION_STRING)
-    set( vstring "//version_string.hpp - written by cmake. changes will be lost!\n"
-               "#ifndef VERSION_STRING\n"
-               "#define VERSION_STRING \"${VERSION_STRING}\"\n"
-               "#endif\n"
-    )
-    file(WRITE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/version_string.hpp ${vstring} )
-    set(MY_VERSION ${VERSION_STRING})
-    set(version_string ${VERSION_STRING})
-  else()
-    include(version_string.cmake)
-    # now parse the git commit id:
-    string(REGEX REPLACE "([0-9]+).*" "\\1" GIT_MAJOR_VERSION "${GIT_COMMIT_ID}" )
-    string(REGEX REPLACE "[0-9]+.([0-9]+)-.*" "\\1" GIT_MINOR_VERSION "${GIT_COMMIT_ID}" )
-    string(REGEX REPLACE "[0-9]+.[0-9]+-(.*)-.*" "\\1" GIT_PATCH_VERSION "${GIT_COMMIT_ID}" )
-    set(MY_VERSION "${GIT_MAJOR_VERSION}.${GIT_MINOR_VERSION}.${GIT_PATCH_VERSION}" CACHE STRING "name")
-    set(version_string ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/version_string.hpp)
-  endif()
-endif()
-
-message(STATUS "OpenCAMLib version: ${MY_VERSION}")
-
 # this defines the source-files
 set(OCL_SRC
   ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/ocl.cpp
@@ -336,7 +307,7 @@ if(BUILD_DOC)
       message(STATUS "dvips command DVIPS_CONVERTER not found but usually required.")
     endif()
 
-    configure_file(${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/Doxyfile ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/Doxyfile COPYONLY)
+    configure_file(${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/Doxyfile ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/Doxyfile @ONLY)
     set(DOXY_CONFIG ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/Doxyfile)
 
     execute_process(
diff --git a/src/Doxyfile b/src/Doxyfile
index 79133582..9cc80ec1 100644
--- a/src/Doxyfile
+++ b/src/Doxyfile
@@ -898,12 +898,11 @@ WARN_LOGFILE           =
 # spaces. See also FILE_PATTERNS and EXTENSION_MAPPING
 # Note: If this tag is empty the current directory is searched.
 
-INPUT                  = "../src/manual.hpp" \
-                         "../src/cutters" \
-                         "../src/algo" \
-                         "../src/geo" \
-                         "../src/dropcutter" \
-                         "../src/common"
+INPUT                  =  "@CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR@/cutters" \
+                          "@CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR@/algo" \
+                          "@CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR@/geo" \
+                          "@CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR@/dropcutter" \
+                          "@CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR@/common"
 
 # This tag can be used to specify the character encoding of the source files
 # that doxygen parses. Internally doxygen uses the UTF-8 encoding. Doxygen uses
diff --git a/src/cxxlib/cxxlib.cmake b/src/cxxlib/cxxlib.cmake
index 7c97e5d3..c3dd4aa3 100644
--- a/src/cxxlib/cxxlib.cmake
+++ b/src/cxxlib/cxxlib.cmake
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ add_library(ocl
     ${OCL_COMMON_SRC}
 )
 
+if(DEFINED VERSION_STRING)
+  target_compile_definitions(ocl VERSION_STRING=${VERSION_STRING})
+endif()
+
 if(WIN32)
   # on windows, prefix the library with lib, and make sure the .lib file is installed as well
   set_target_properties(ocl PROPERTIES
diff --git a/src/emscriptenlib/emscriptenlib.cmake b/src/emscriptenlib/emscriptenlib.cmake
index d857a877..fb5ff4f5 100644
--- a/src/emscriptenlib/emscriptenlib.cmake
+++ b/src/emscriptenlib/emscriptenlib.cmake
@@ -25,6 +25,10 @@ add_executable(ocl
 	${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/emscriptenlib/emscriptenlib.cpp
 )
 
+if(DEFINED VERSION_STRING)
+  target_compile_definitions(ocl VERSION_STRING=${VERSION_STRING})
+endif()
+
 target_link_libraries(
   ocl
   ${Boost_LIBRARIES}
diff --git a/src/nodejslib/nodejslib.cmake b/src/nodejslib/nodejslib.cmake
index a39be700..8fead368 100644
--- a/src/nodejslib/nodejslib.cmake
+++ b/src/nodejslib/nodejslib.cmake
@@ -45,6 +45,11 @@ target_link_libraries(
 		Boost::boost
 		${CMAKE_JS_LIB}
 )
+
+if(DEFINED VERSION_STRING)
+  target_compile_definitions(ocl VERSION_STRING=${VERSION_STRING})
+endif()
+
 if(USE_OPENMP)
   target_link_libraries(ocl PRIVATE OpenMP::OpenMP_CXX)
 endif()
diff --git a/src/ocl.cpp b/src/ocl.cpp
index 31e4f8e5..580aa956 100644
--- a/src/ocl.cpp
+++ b/src/ocl.cpp
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@
 #ifdef _OPENMP
 #include <omp.h>
 #endif
-#include "version_string.hpp"
 
 namespace ocl
 {
diff --git a/src/ocl.hpp b/src/ocl.hpp
index 5cd6149b..583db842 100644
--- a/src/ocl.hpp
+++ b/src/ocl.hpp
@@ -23,6 +23,10 @@
 
 #include <string>
 
+#ifndef VERSION_STRING
+#define VERSION_STRING "unknown-version"
+#endif
+
 namespace ocl
 {
   int max_threads();
diff --git a/src/pythonlib/ocl.cpp b/src/pythonlib/ocl.cpp
index 72f0efc8..b652a190 100644
--- a/src/pythonlib/ocl.cpp
+++ b/src/pythonlib/ocl.cpp
@@ -27,8 +27,6 @@
 #include <boost/python.hpp>
 #include <boost/python/docstring_options.hpp>
 
-#include "version_string.hpp" // autogenerated by version_string.cmake
-
 std::string ocl_docstring() {
     return "OpenCAMLib docstring";
 }
diff --git a/src/pythonlib/pythonlib.cmake b/src/pythonlib/pythonlib.cmake
index 87b47e89..a352a84a 100644
--- a/src/pythonlib/pythonlib.cmake
+++ b/src/pythonlib/pythonlib.cmake
@@ -25,6 +25,10 @@ MODULE
   pythonlib/ocl.cpp
 )
 
+if(DEFINED VERSION_STRING)
+  target_compile_definitions(ocl VERSION_STRING=${VERSION_STRING})
+endif()
+
 target_link_libraries(
   ocl
 PRIVATE
diff --git a/src/version_string.cmake b/src/version_string.cmake
deleted file mode 100644
index 88ffc645..00000000
--- a/src/version_string.cmake
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,73 +0,0 @@
-#use git for a pretty commit id
-#uses 'git describe --tags', so tags are required in the repo
-#create a tag with 'git tag <name>' and 'git push --tags'
-
-#version_string.hpp will define VERSION_STRING to something like "test-1-g5e1fb47"
-# where test is the name of the last tagged git revision, 1 is the number of commits since that tag,
-# 'g' is ???, and 5e1fb47 is the first 7 chars of the git sha1 commit id.
-
-
-find_package(Git)
-
-if(NOT GIT_FOUND)
-    # cmake 2.8.1 (in Lucid) does not have a git Cmake interface
-    # cmake 2.8.5 (in Oneiric) does have it
-    message(STATUS "couldn't find Cmake interface to git, old version of Cmake?  looking by hand...")
-    execute_process(
-        COMMAND git --version
-        RESULT_VARIABLE RC
-    )
-    if (${RC} EQUAL 0)
-        set(GIT_FOUND 1)
-        set(GIT_EXECUTABLE "git")
-    else()
-        message(ERROR "couldn't run git executable!")
-    endif()
-endif()
-
-if(GIT_FOUND)
-    execute_process(
-        WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}
-        COMMAND ${GIT_EXECUTABLE} describe --tags 
-        RESULT_VARIABLE res_var 
-        OUTPUT_VARIABLE GIT_COM_ID 
-        OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE
-        ERROR_QUIET
-    )
-    if( NOT ${res_var} EQUAL 0 )
-        message( WARNING "Git failed (not a repo, or no tags)." )
-        file(READ "git-tag.txt" GIT_COM_ID)
-        string( REPLACE "\n" "" GIT_COMMIT_ID ${GIT_COM_ID} )
-        message( STATUS "version_string.cmake read from file GIT_COMMIT_ID: " ${GIT_COMMIT_ID})
-    else()
-        string( REPLACE "\n" "" GIT_COMMIT_ID ${GIT_COM_ID} )
-        message( STATUS "version_string.cmake git set GIT_COMMIT_ID: " ${GIT_COMMIT_ID})
-    endif()
-    
-else()
-    # if we don't have git, try to read git-tag from file instead
-    file(READ "git-tag.txt" GIT_COMMIT_ID)
-    
-    #set( GIT_COMMIT_ID "unknown (git not found!)")
-    message( STATUS "version_string.cmake read from file git-tag.txt: " ${GIT_COMMIT_ID})
-    #message( WARNING "Git not found. Reading tag from git-tag.txt instead: " ${GIT_COMMIT_ID})
-endif()
-
-set( vstring "//version_string.hpp - written by cmake. changes will be lost!\n"
-             "#ifndef VERSION_STRING\n"
-             "#define VERSION_STRING \"${GIT_COMMIT_ID}\"\n"
-             "#endif\n"
-)
-
-file(WRITE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/version_string.hpp ${vstring} )
-set_source_files_properties(
-    ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/version_string.hpp
-    PROPERTIES GENERATED TRUE
-    HEADER_FILE_ONLY TRUE
-)
-
-# copy the file to the final header only if the version changes
-# reduces needless rebuilds
-#execute_process(COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_if_different
-#                        version_string.hpp.txt /version_string.hpp)
-