Cmake not generating assimp solutions properly [Windows 10] - c++

Question

Cmake 3.15 32-bit
Assimp 4.1.0
Hi there, I'm experiencing some difficulties with cmake and assimp. For the past few days I have been trying to generate an assimp workspace for CodeBlocks via cmake.
I have tried to generate a solution with CMD and CmakeGUI approach but without satisfying results.
In GUI standard procedure for generating projects was followed by defining proper source and target paths and choosing appropriate generators (CodeBlocks MinGW Makefiles).
Code used in cmd for generating assimp project:
cmake -G "CodeBlocks - MinGW Makefiles" MakeLists.txt -S "source path" -B "build path"
Info log that I get after generating files:
-- The C compiler identification is GNU 8.2.0
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 8.2.0
-- Check for working C compiler: C:/MinGW/bin/gcc.exe
-- Check for working C compiler: C:/MinGW/bin/gcc.exe -- works
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Detecting C compile features
-- Detecting C compile features - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: C:/MinGW/bin/g++.exe
-- Check for working CXX compiler: C:/MinGW/bin/g++.exe -- works
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- Shared libraries enabled
-- Looking for DirectX...
-- DirectX_PREFIX_PATH changed.
-- Found DirectX: C:/MinGW/lib/libd3d9.a
-- DX lib dir: C:/MinGW/lib
-- Looking for ZLIB...
-- Could NOT find PkgConfig (missing: PKG_CONFIG_EXECUTABLE)
-- Could not locate ZLIB
-- compiling zlib from souces
CMake Deprecation Warning at contrib/zlib/CMakeLists.txt:8 (cmake_policy):
The OLD behavior for policy CMP0048 will be removed from a future version
of CMake.
The cmake-policies(7) manual explains that the OLD behaviors of all
policies are deprecated and that a policy should be set to OLD only under
specific short-term circumstances. Projects should be ported to the NEW
behavior and not rely on setting a policy to OLD.
-- Looking for sys/types.h
-- Looking for sys/types.h - found
-- Looking for stdint.h
-- Looking for stdint.h - found
-- Looking for stddef.h
-- Looking for stddef.h - found
-- Check size of off64_t
-- Check size of off64_t - done
-- Looking for fseeko
-- Looking for fseeko - not found
-- Looking for unistd.h
-- Looking for unistd.h - found
-- Could NOT find PkgConfig (missing: PKG_CONFIG_EXECUTABLE)
-- Could NOT find rt (missing: RT_LIBRARY)
INFO RT-extension not found. glTF import/export will be built without Open3DGC-compression.
-- Enabled formats: AMF 3DS AC ASE ASSBIN ASSXML B3D BVH COLLADA DXF CSM HMP IRRMESH IRR LWO LWS MD2 MD3 MD5 MDC MDL NFF NDO OFF OBJ OGRE OPENGEX PLY MS3D COB BLEND IFC XGL FBX Q3D Q3BSP RAW SIB SMD STL TERRAGEN 3D X X3D GLTF 3MF MMD
-- Disabled formats:
-- Could NOT find IL (missing: IL_LIBRARIES IL_INCLUDE_DIR)
CMake Warning at CMakeLists.txt:439 (MESSAGE):
Build of assimp_qt_viewer is disabled. Unsatisfied dendencies: Qt5 DevIL
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: E:/Assimp
Unfortunately the project fails to build in CodeBlocks with the following build log:
Checking if target is up-to-date: mingw32-make.exe -q -f Makefile all
Running command: C:/TDM-GCC-64/bin/mingw32-make.exe -f "E:/Assimp/Makefile" VERBOSE=1 all
"C:\Program Files\CMake\bin\cmake.exe" -SC:\Users\ognje\Downloads\assimp-4.1.0 -B"E:\Assimp" --check-build-system CMakeFiles\Makefile.cmake 0
"C:\Program Files\CMake\bin\cmake.exe" -E cmake_progress_start "E:\Assimp\CMakeFiles" "E:\Assimp\CMakeFiles\progress.marks"
C:/TDM-GCC-64/bin/mingw32-make.exe -f CMakeFiles\Makefile2 all
mingw32-make.exe[1]: Entering directory 'E:/Assimp'
C:/TDM-GCC-64/bin/mingw32-make.exe -f contrib\zlib\CMakeFiles\zlib.dir\build.make contrib/zlib/CMakeFiles/zlib.dir/depend
mingw32-make.exe[2]: Entering directory 'E:/Assimp'
[ 1%] Generating zlib1rc.obj
cd /d E:\PROGRA~3\PROGRA~1\Assimp\contrib\zlib && C:\MinGW\bin\windres.exe -D GCC_WINDRES -I C:/Users/ognje/Downloads/assimp-4.1.0/contrib/zlib -I "E:/Assimp/contrib/zlib" -o "E:/Assimp/contrib/zlib/zlib1rc.obj" -i C:/Users/ognje/Downloads/assimp-4.1.0/contrib/zlib/win32/zlib1.rc
gcc: error: i\: No such file or directory
gcc: error: Assimp/contrib/zlib: No such file or directory
C:\MinGW\bin\windres.exe: preprocessing failed.
mingw32-make.exe[2]: *** [contrib/zlib/zlib1rc.obj] Error 1
mingw32-make.exe[1]: *** [contrib/zlib/CMakeFiles/zlib.dir/all] Error 2
mingw32-make.exe: *** [all] Error 2
contrib\zlib\CMakeFiles\zlib.dir\build.make:60: recipe for target 'contrib/zlib/zlib1rc.obj' failed
mingw32-make.exe[2]: Leaving directory 'E:/Assimp'
CMakeFiles\Makefile2:134: recipe for target 'contrib/zlib/CMakeFiles/zlib.dir/all' failed
mingw32-make.exe[1]: Leaving directory 'E:/Assimp'
E:/Assimp/Makefile:128: recipe for target 'all' failed
Process terminated with status 2 (0 minute(s), 0 second(s))
6 error(s), 0 warning(s) (0 minute(s), 0 second(s))
Disclaimer:
Naturally I've already googled and tried all of the already existing solutions on the web [1] for this particular problem and disappointingly none of them work. I don't know much about compiling and libraries to be honest but in my opinion when reading the error logs I would say that the problem stems from zlib files, right? Can anyone help me with this problem? Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

The issue is caused by a wrong detected environment. The zlib-script tries to use the following option for the windows-resource-build:
C:\MinGW\bin\windres.exe -D GCC_WINDRES -I C:/Users/ognje/Downloads/assimp-4.1.0/contrib/zlib -I "E:/Assimp/contrib/zlib" -o "E:/Assimp/contrib/zlib/zlib1rc.obj" -i C:/Users/ognje/Downloads/assimp-4.1.0/contrib/zlib/win32/zlib1.rc
The option -i will be identified as a file-token:
gcc: error: i\: No such file or directory
And so the build for zlib failes because the option, which was used as an argument confuses the gcc-parsing of the following stuff, in this case the target zlib:
gcc: error: Assimp/contrib/zlib: No such file or directory
I guess this is caused by a missing identification which code has to be build when using your special version of mingw. Could you please open an issue report with the veYOu can do rsion of assimp you are using and which gcc-version is used in your build. You can do this here: Issue-tracker of Asset-Importer-Lib Project