Let $M$ be a compact connected surface with boundary. We prove that the signal condition given by the Gauss-Bonnet theorem is necessary and sufficient for a given smooth function $f$ on $\partial M$ (resp. on $M$) to be geodesic curvature of the boundary (resp. the Gauss curvature) of some flat metric on $M$ (resp. metric on $M$ with geodesic boundary). In order to provide analogous results for this problem with $n\geq 3,$ we prove some topological restrictions which imply, among other things, that any function that is negative somewhere on $\partial M$ (resp. on $M$) is a mean curvature of a scalar flat metric on $M$ (resp. scalar curvature of a metric on $M$ and minimal boundary with respect to this metric). As an application of our results, we obtain a classification theorem for manifolds with boundary.

21 pages; Final version, to appear in Calc. Var. Partial Differential Equations