A header library is a library with all the code in the header.
If I have two cpp files that need code from the header lib, and if they both import the header, and both get compiled, the header file is getting compiled twice, I think. Would linking now throw and error because the header lib functions are being defined twice? If not an error, is this still bad practice?
What is the correct way to handle a header lib?
Just #include everywhere you want. If the library is not horribly broken, it will work fine. The library itself is responsible for having mechanisms that make it usable, in case of a header only library that means making it usable by including the header(s).
Nothing would make this bad practice, simply using by including is the purpose of a header only library.
Header files will use include guards (Include Guard wiki) that keep library functions from being defined twice. Basically, a header file will use a conditional statement that is evaluated during compilation that checks for an existing library definition. If it is defined already it ignores anymore additional definitions. These guards look like this:
/* library_name.h */
#ifndef SOME_IDENTIFIER
#define SOME_IDENTIFIER
[function prototypes]
#endif
A Daniel's Computer Blog article (Here) provides a very digestable explanation of what's going on behind the scenes and flushes out more nuances that I didn't address.
Baum mit Augen is right. If the lib uses include guards there will be no problem using #include<library_name> anywhere you want as many times as you want.
Ideally you will use #include<library_name> once at the top of any file that uses a function/class/constant from the library.
I have including problems in a C++ Project. I included math.h, but there are strange problems with my vector.h and my matrix.h header files. Am I allowed to call these files vector.h and matrix.h?
Two headers cannot have the same name.
By same name, the full path name is implied, so
#inlcude "testClass.h"
#include "heders/testClass.h" // OK, distinguishable
Visual studio prevents you from adding a header having a name that already exists in the project.
You should also check that your header is actually included in your project (or through your Makefile, build system etc). A quick check would be to cause a syntactic error in that header and see if it breaks the build
So to get back to your question, do you already have headers called vector.h and matrix.h? Cause that would be the only thing preventing you from naming new headers like that.
Keep in mind that headers accessed with #include <...> require their folder to be set as an include (external) directory so qualifying up to that path won't work
In theory I don't know of anything to prohibit doing so.
I'd consider vector.h close enough to <vector> that using it would be a poor idea.
I'm not exactly excited about matrix.h either, but at least it's not nearly so obviously a poor choice.
Of course, for any header you wrote yourself (rather than one provided by the tools you're using) you want to enclose the name in quotes, not angle brackets.
The rationale why C++ chose the unusual <vector> format without suffix is because the intent was to remain compatbile with existing C code which might very well have "vector.h". So the answer is yes, by design.
I have about a dozen functions all related to the same purpose, and I am trying to create a library. A library that I can store away in a directory somewhere that I can then include as an include directory and just go about my business including said library in my projects that require its use.
Side Note:
First I'd like to say, I have given considerable time into finding an answer to this. I had thought I found a solution to it when I realized the linker would throw errors when I included the library in multiple source files. Now that I know that, I have again searched for an answer to my woes. I started looking at other libraries I know to do the same thing, or that I believe to. I looked at conio.h as I include it all the time for its kbhit() and getch() functions. Though I didn't understand most of what I had in it, I searched a few keywords and found that it may in fact be including the function definitions through a dll.
I've also done a handful of google searches.
To explain what I am doing a little bit. I have create 2 or 3 data structures that allow me to create chunks of data with headers that specify what the data is and how it is to be treated. Then a couple more for reading and writing those chunks to files.
To allow easy creation of these structures I have made stand-alone functions. To allow easy manipulation of these structures I have made even more stand-alone functions.
I, simply put, need a way to include a library that somehow directly or indirectly defines all these functions and structures. How can I do so?
(without creating a myriad of inlines)
You can include a .lib dependency in your code by using the #pragma comment
#pragma comment (lib,"LibraryFileName.lib")
You can read more about #pragma comment here.
I normally like to make a a Linker.h file in my library soultion and include that file in every header found in my library. Here is an example of it.
#ifndef __GRAPHICCOMMUNICATOR_GUARD_linklib__
#define __GRAPHICCOMMUNICATOR_GUARD_linklib__
#if defined(_DEBUG)
#pragma comment (lib,"GraphicCommunicator-mt-d.lib")
#elif !defined(_DEBUG)
#pragma comment (lib,"GraphicCommunicator-mt.lib")
#else
#error link: no suitable library
#endif
#endif // __GRAPHICCOMMUNICATOR_GUARD_linklib__
Putting everything in one header is causing the problem.
You can leave class member funnctions defined inline or other inline function in headers and include them more than once.
Otherwise you need to move implementations into cpp files and build a static (or dynamic) library. If you are learning, static may be easier. Make a new project and select "Static library" from the application settings.
To use the library you could use the #pragma answer from Caeser, or just add the .lib to the linker settings in the projects that wish to use it, along with #including the headers you need.
I'm compiling a project in XCode where MySQL++ in included and linked to. For some reason, I keep getting the following compiler error:
'assert’ was not declared in this scope
originating from cpool.h, a header file that's part of MySQL++. Does anyone know why this is being triggered?
EDIT: For reference, MySQL++ was installed via Macports.
The most obvious answer would be that "assert.h" is not being included or is not being found in your include path. Another explanation is that the assert macro has been undefined at some point after the header was included.
Edit: Since you say that assert.h is included, and we'll assume for the moment that it's being found since it's a standard header, then that leaves us with the last possibility I stated above i.e. that the macro has been undefined.
Since cpool.h itself will not be doing this it must be the case that assert.h is included earlier either by yourself or indirectly by another 3rd party header and the undefining happening between this and your inclusion of cpool.h. This can easily be tested by moving your cpool.h include to the top of your file.
In c++ adding cassert header should fix your problem.
#include <cassert>
It could be that another library in your include path has a different "assert.h" file, and you are unknowingly including that one instead of the system's standard <assert.h>.
I ran into this issue when writing an application that uses gstreamer on Mac OSX. It turns out that gstreamer's include directory (/Library/Frameworks/GStreamer.framework/Headers) includes a file "assert.h", which is non-standard and an unsuitable replacement for the real assert.h. When I added -I/Library/Frameworks/GStreamer.frameworks/Headers to my compilation command, suddenly my sources, which just said "#include <assert.h>" where including the gstreamer version. This caused my compilation to fail with the same error you were getting.
I am working on a large C++ project in Visual Studio 2008, and there are a lot of files with unnecessary #include directives. Sometimes the #includes are just artifacts and everything will compile fine with them removed, and in other cases classes could be forward declared and the #include could be moved to the .cpp file. Are there any good tools for detecting both of these cases?
While it won't reveal unneeded include files, Visual studio has a setting /showIncludes (right click on a .cpp file, Properties->C/C++->Advanced) that will output a tree of all included files at compile time. This can help in identifying files that shouldn't need to be included.
You can also take a look at the pimpl idiom to let you get away with fewer header file dependencies to make it easier to see the cruft that you can remove.
PC Lint works quite well for this, and it finds all sorts of other goofy problems for you too. It has command line options that can be used to create External Tools in Visual Studio, but I've found that the Visual Lint addin is easier to work with. Even the free version of Visual Lint helps. But give PC-Lint a shot. Configuring it so it doesn't give you too many warnings takes a bit of time, but you'll be amazed at what it turns up.
There's a new Clang-based tool, include-what-you-use, that aims to do this.
!!DISCLAIMER!! I work on a commercial static analysis tool (not PC Lint). !!DISCLAIMER!!
There are several issues with a simple non parsing approach:
1) Overload Sets:
It's possible that an overloaded function has declarations that come from different files. It might be that removing one header file results in a different overload being chosen rather than a compile error! The result will be a silent change in semantics that may be very difficult to track down afterwards.
2) Template specializations:
Similar to the overload example, if you have partial or explicit specializations for a template you want them all to be visible when the template is used. It might be that specializations for the primary template are in different header files. Removing the header with the specialization will not cause a compile error, but may result in undefined behaviour if that specialization would have been selected. (See: Visibility of template specialization of C++ function)
As pointed out by 'msalters', performing a full analysis of the code also allows for analysis of class usage. By checking how a class is used though a specific path of files, it is possible that the definition of the class (and therefore all of its dependnecies) can be removed completely or at least moved to a level closer to the main source in the include tree.
I don't know of any such tools, and I have thought about writing one in the past, but it turns out that this is a difficult problem to solve.
Say your source file includes a.h and b.h; a.h contains #define USE_FEATURE_X and b.h uses #ifdef USE_FEATURE_X. If #include "a.h" is commented out, your file may still compile, but may not do what you expect. Detecting this programatically is non-trivial.
Whatever tool does this would need to know your build environment as well. If a.h looks like:
#if defined( WINNT )
#define USE_FEATURE_X
#endif
Then USE_FEATURE_X is only defined if WINNT is defined, so the tool would need to know what directives are generated by the compiler itself as well as which ones are specified in the compile command rather than in a header file.
Like Timmermans, I'm not familiar with any tools for this. But I have known programmers who wrote a Perl (or Python) script to try commenting out each include line one at a time and then compile each file.
It appears that now Eric Raymond has a tool for this.
Google's cpplint.py has an "include what you use" rule (among many others), but as far as I can tell, no "include only what you use." Even so, it can be useful.
If you're interested in this topic in general, you might want to check out Lakos' Large Scale C++ Software Design. It's a bit dated, but goes into lots of "physical design" issues like finding the absolute minimum of headers that need to be included. I haven't really seen this sort of thing discussed anywhere else.
Give Include Manager a try. It integrates easily in Visual Studio and visualizes your include paths which helps you to find unnecessary stuff.
Internally it uses Graphviz but there are many more cool features. And although it is a commercial product it has a very low price.
You can build an include graph using C/C++ Include File Dependencies Watcher, and find unneeded includes visually.
If your header files generally start with
#ifndef __SOMEHEADER_H__
#define __SOMEHEADER_H__
// header contents
#endif
(as opposed to using #pragma once) you could change that to:
#ifndef __SOMEHEADER_H__
#define __SOMEHEADER_H__
// header contents
#else
#pragma message("Someheader.h superfluously included")
#endif
And since the compiler outputs the name of the cpp file being compiled, that would let you know at least which cpp file is causing the header to be brought in multiple times.
PC-Lint can indeed do this. One easy way to do this is to configure it to detect just unused include files and ignore all other issues. This is pretty straightforward - to enable just message 766 ("Header file not used in module"), just include the options -w0 +e766 on the command line.
The same approach can also be used with related messages such as 964 ("Header file not directly used in module") and 966 ("Indirectly included header file not used in module").
FWIW I wrote about this in more detail in a blog post last week at http://www.riverblade.co.uk/blog.php?archive=2008_09_01_archive.xml#3575027665614976318.
Adding one or both of the following #defines
will exclude often unnecessary header files and
may substantially improve
compile times especially if the code that is not using Windows API functions.
#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
#define VC_EXTRALEAN
See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/166474
If you are looking to remove unnecessary #include files in order to decrease build times, your time and money might be better spent parallelizing your build process using cl.exe /MP, make -j, Xoreax IncrediBuild, distcc/icecream, etc.
Of course, if you already have a parallel build process and you're still trying to speed it up, then by all means clean up your #include directives and remove those unnecessary dependencies.
Start with each include file, and ensure that each include file only includes what is necessary to compile itself. Any include files that are then missing for the C++ files, can be added to the C++ files themselves.
For each include and source file, comment out each include file one at a time and see if it compiles.
It is also a good idea to sort the include files alphabetically, and where this is not possible, add a comment.
If you aren't already, using a precompiled header to include everything that you're not going to change (platform headers, external SDK headers, or static already completed pieces of your project) will make a huge difference in build times.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/szfdksca(VS.71).aspx
Also, although it may be too late for your project, organizing your project into sections and not lumping all local headers to one big main header is a good practice, although it takes a little extra work.
If you would work with Eclipse CDT you could try out http://includator.com to optimize your include structure. However, Includator might not know enough about VC++'s predefined includes and setting up CDT to use VC++ with correct includes is not built into CDT yet.
The latest Jetbrains IDE, CLion, automatically shows (in gray) the includes that are not used in the current file.
It is also possible to have the list of all the unused includes (and also functions, methods, etc...) from the IDE.
Some of the existing answers state that it's hard. That's indeed true, because you need a full compiler to detect the cases in which a forward declaration would be appropriate. You cant parse C++ without knowing what the symbols mean; the grammar is simply too ambiguous for that. You must know whether a certain name names a class (could be forward-declared) or a variable (can't). Also, you need to be namespace-aware.
Maybe a little late, but I once found a WebKit perl script that did just what you wanted. It'll need some adapting I believe (I'm not well versed in perl), but it should do the trick:
http://trac.webkit.org/browser/branches/old/safari-3-2-branch/WebKitTools/Scripts/find-extra-includes
(this is an old branch because trunk doesn't have the file anymore)
If there's a particular header that you think isn't needed anymore (say
string.h), you can comment out that include then put this below all the
includes:
#ifdef _STRING_H_
# error string.h is included indirectly
#endif
Of course your interface headers might use a different #define convention
to record their inclusion in CPP memory. Or no convention, in which case
this approach won't work.
Then rebuild. There are three possibilities:
It builds ok. string.h wasn't compile-critical, and the include for it
can be removed.
The #error trips. string.g was included indirectly somehow
You still don't know if string.h is required. If it is required, you
should directly #include it (see below).
You get some other compilation error. string.h was needed and isn't being
included indirectly, so the include was correct to begin with.
Note that depending on indirect inclusion when your .h or .c directly uses
another .h is almost certainly a bug: you are in effect promising that your
code will only require that header as long as some other header you're using
requires it, which probably isn't what you meant.
The caveats mentioned in other answers about headers that modify behavior
rather that declaring things which cause build failures apply here as well.