opencv.hpp file not found vscode Mac M1 - c++

Question

I have been trying to set up opencv on my M1 chip Mac in Vscode, I used home-brew and followed all of the necessary steps to install it on my Mac. I created a vscode project and included it in the c_cpp_properties.json and task.json files. When I wrote up a simple test program I built the program using g++ but the build failed and threw an error stating:
fatal error: 'opencv2/opencv.hpp' file not found
I tried a bunch of different ways of including the libraries but there is still a squiggled line in front of #include <opencv2/opencv.hpp> in my program which wasn't there prior to building the program. Intellisense provides me with suggestions in the program and everything. I went through the few existing questions on stack overflow and none of them had a working solution for me.
I tried a bunch of different solutions that I found online and in and around the forums but nothing seems to be working
These are my c_cpp_properties.json and task.json files:
Task.json:
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"type": "cppbuild",
"label": "C/C++: g++ build active file",
"command": "/usr/bin/g++",
"args": [
"-fdiagnostics-color=always",
"-g",
"${file}",
"-o",
"${fileDirname}/${fileBasenameNoExtension}",
"-I",
"/Users/user/Desktop/OpenCV/opencv/include/opencv2",
"/usr/local/include/opencv4"
],
"options": {
"cwd": "${fileDirname}"
},
"problemMatcher": [
"$gcc"
],
"group": "build",
"detail": "compiler: /usr/bin/g++"
}
]
}
c_cpp_properties.json:
{
"configurations": [
{
"name": "Mac",
"includePath": [
"${workspaceFolder}/**",
"/Users/user/Desktop/OpenCV/opencv/include/opencv2",
"/usr/local/include/opencv4"
],
"defines": [],
"macFrameworkPath": [
"/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks"
],
"compilerPath": "/usr/bin/clang",
"cStandard": "c17",
"cppStandard": "c++17",
"intelliSenseMode": "macos-clang-arm64",
"configurationProvider": "ms-vscode.cmake-tools"
}
],
"version": 4
}
the code for my sample code is as follows:
#include <opencv2/opencv.hpp>
#include <iostream>
using namespace cv;
using namespace std;
///////////////// Images //////////////////////
int main() {
string path = "/Users/brettmylek/Desktop/OpenCV/Img/TestImg.jpg";
Mat img = imread(path);
imshow("Image", img);
waitKey(0);
return 0;
}
it is simply there to open an image to test whether or not the install was successful so I could go on developing my actual project.

Answer 1

I'll start with c_cpp_properties.json more precisely the includePath element. This element is only and only for IntelliSense. It has no other use whatsoever. This should answer why IntelliSense is working.
If you then look into tasks.json one thing that caught my eye is this:
"args": [
"-fdiagnostics-color=always",
"-g",
"${file}",
"-o",
"${fileDirname}/${fileBasenameNoExtension}",
--> "-I",
--> "/Users/user/Desktop/OpenCV/opencv/include/opencv2",
--> "/usr/local/include/opencv4"
],
This most likely doesn't work the way you think it does. What you want instead is:
"args": [
"-fdiagnostics-color=always",
"-g",
"${file}",
"-o",
"${fileDirname}/${fileBasenameNoExtension}",
"-I/Users/user/Desktop/OpenCV/opencv/include/opencv2",
"-I/usr/local/include/opencv4"
],
EDIT: You might have to link against built opencv libraries (last time I checked it's not a header-only library)
EDIT2: Also are you sure about this path: /Users/user/Desktop/OpenCV/opencv/include/opencv2"
Last time I checked there is no /Users on Linux
EDIT3: I've checked their github. If the error persists it's most likely a wrong include path i.e. instead of
"-I/Users/user/Desktop/OpenCV/opencv/include/opencv2"
Maybe it should be (based on their github) this:
"-I/Users/user/Desktop/OpenCV/opencv/include"