Explore the development and evolution of Boost.Process, a C++ library for managing system processes, in this comprehensive CppNow conference talk. Delve into the challenges faced during the library's five-year journey, examining rejected ideas and lessons learned. Gain insights into cross-platform support, version history, and key concepts such as child processes, redirecting, and Windows startup infrastructure. Learn about the library's capabilities for running shell commands, creating child processes, setting up environment variables and standard streams, and communicating with child processes both synchronously and asynchronously. Discover the current state of Boost.Process and discuss new ideas for its future development.