I am a complete beginner in C++ programming and have been advised to use CLion. I am trying to get the Boost package to work.
I found many posts and tutorials online, however they all skip the basics not known to someone who is not a programmer. Namely, there is no explanation of how to get from the moment you open a new project to using some function from the Boost package?
This is what I found to be lacking from previous answers:
Here we are advised to use live incboost live template, however there is no explanation on where to find it or how to use it.
Here seems like a clear tutorial, however it is aimed at Visual Studio, not CLion.
Here I am not sure what each of those files are and how to adjust them to match my case.
I have downloaded boost_1_70_0 from https://www.boost.org/users/download/ and it is now unzipped and saved in C:\...\boost_1_70_0.
Could someone please explain really simply how to get from a blank project to being able to use functions stored in boost?
Considering you are using CLion and it supports only CMake at this time and you have installed BOOST library in the default directory, then your CMakeLists.txt file should look like this. I have used it in linux operating system but it should be able in Windows too.
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.13)
project(LaserCV)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
#local
file(GLOB SOURCES
*.hpp
*.cpp
)
add_executable(LaserCV ${SOURCE_FILES} ${SOURCES})
#add_executable(LaserCV main.cpp)
SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS -pthread)
#boost
find_package(Boost REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(LaserCV ${Boost_LIBRARIES})
include_directories(${Boost_INCLUDE_DIR})
Then simply include a header file for your wanted boost function, for example:
#include <boost/random.hpp>
Related
I'd like to import external boost in a c++ cmake project.
I did several tries and finally got the following CMakeLists.txt works:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.14)
project(my_project
VERSION 0.0.1
LANGUAGES C CXX)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(
boost
URL https://boostorg.jfrog.io/artifactory/main/release/1.78.0/source/boost_1_78_0.tar.bz2
)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(boost)
set(Boost_ROOT "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/_deps/boost-src")
set(BOOST_INCLUDEDIR ${Boost_ROOT})
find_package(Boost 1.78)
include_directories(${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS})
add_executable(
boost_test
tests/boost_test.cpp)
However, I feel a little uncomfortable because set(Boost_ROOT "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/_deps/boost-src") looks hacky -- it has a strong assumption that the fetched content will be stored in _deps folder, which I rather want to put it in a dedicated folder like 3rd_party or external as typical C++ project layout conventions.
I found there're 2 ways for doing that:
Use FetchContent_Declare to download the project. However, I don't know how to execute extra build commands to compile non-header-only libraries.
Use ExternalProject_Add to download and compile the boost project. It looks like an old-fashing way, besides, I don't know how to add boost as part of dependencies to top-level CMakeLists.txt in this way.
The way I adopted is the former one, but I wonder if it's the correct way to include external boost (not system-default installed one) as part of a C++ project, or is there a best practice for doing this?
Any comments, suggestions, answers are welcome. Thanks.
The best way to use Boost in a CMake project is like this:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.25)
project(boost-example)
find_package(Boost REQUIRED)
add_executable(myapp main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE Boost::headers)
target_compile_features(myapp PRIVATE cxx_std_11)
Boost::headers is the library to link to for all of the Boost header-only components. If you need a component that includes a real library, then link to Boost::<component>, too, and be sure to name <component> after the REQUIRED argument to find_package.
Don't mess with FetchContent. Your users will know how to get the necessary dependencies. You can provide a vcpkg.json file or a conanfile.txt to make it easier to use Vcpkg and/or Conan, respectively.
I know this is a daft question, but I'm a beginner in visual studio/c++/cmake. I'm looking for a quick intro on how to use Qt5 installed via vcpk using:
vcpkg install qt5-base:x64-windows
This all installed ok and I got the following:
The package qt5-base:x64-windows provides CMake targets:
find_package(Qt5Concurrent CONFIG REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(main PRIVATE Qt5::Concurrent Qt5::ConcurrentPrivate)
etc....
I just don't know what to do next! Before using libs in VS I just did an <#include> now I'm confronted with this lot... Pref. I want some sort of explanation at newbie level please.
If I add the line (at the top of a .cpp file just as a test):
#include <QtWidgets/QApplication>
It gives: Error (active) E1696 cannot open source file "QtWidgets/QApplication"
I'm new, I thought vcpkg took all the pain out of having to add all the libs etc to the project options? What do I need to do?
If you ran vcpkg integrate install and are just using VS you can just #include <Qt5/QtWidgets/QApplication>
If you are using CMake:
find_package(Qt5 COMPONENTS Widgets Concurrent CONFIG REQUIRED) and use target_link_libraries as described by the other answers. But you probably have to switch to #include <QApplication> since cmake file add the QtWidgets folder to the include folders.
For find_package to find the vcpkg build versions you have to specify the vcpkg.cmake toolchain file as the CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=<vcpkgroot>/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake (must be set in the first CMake call or rather early in the CMakeLists.txt before any project() call) and maybe also VCPKG_TARGET_TRIPLET=<sometriplet> (must also be defined early before CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE is loaded) if you installed Qt5 using one of the static triplets.
vcpkg is a cross-platform C++ package manager. Unlike winget, apt, and brew, vcpkg is designed for developers. For example, it builds the binaries from the source by default.
So it help user to have libraries installed in their projects and be able to find them.
You still need to learn how CMake canonical find_package() work IMHO.
Qt provide a cmake config package and usually, you'll need to use
find_package(Qt5Core REQUIRED)
find_package(Qt5Gui REQUIRED)
find_package(Qt5Widgets REQUIRED)
then
target_link_libraries(main PRIVATE ... Qt5::Core Qt5::Gui Qt5::Widgets)
ie rule of Thumb: you need a QtWidget/* include ? then target_link to Qt5::Widget etc...
Please note that CMake also provides (i.e. built-in) a few tools to ease Qt-related dev...
set(CMAKE_AUTOMOC ON)
set(CMAKE_AUTOUIC ON)
set(CMAKE_AUTORCC ON)
-> you should try to read the CMake doc...
This question already has answers here:
CMake link to external library
(6 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
I am trying to link to a shared library using CMake. I understand that this can bee achieved using the target_link_libraries() command. I have been able to get this working but not quite in the way that I would like.
Using the below CMakeLists.txt, I've been able to link to the shared library.
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.7)
project(DylibTest)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
set(SOURCE_FILES main.cpp)
add_executable(DylibTest ${SOURCE_FILES})
target_link_libraries(DylibTest
${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/Resources/libDynamicTest.dylib)
This seems to tell the linker to look in the directory that the project is located in. This is fine for development, but how would I distribute this project? End-users will clearly not have this same folder.
I've tried to pass in a relative path like so:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.7)
project(DylibTest)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
set(SOURCE_FILES main.cpp)
add_executable(DylibTest ${SOURCE_FILES})
target_link_libraries(DylibTest /Resources/libDynamicTest.dylib)
When doing this, I get the following error:
No rule to make target `/Resources/libDynamicTest.dylib', needed by `DylibTest'. Stop.
I've looked at the documentation for target_link_directories() but it has not been helpful. I've also looked at numerous other questions here.
In case it's not clear, my intention is to distribute the executable with a folder named "Resources" that contains the shared library. How should my CMakeLists.txt file look in order to do this?
EDIT: In response to this question being marked as a possible duplicated of this question, I do concede that that question is basically asking the same thing, the answers there do not work for me.
Here's how my CMakeLists.txt looks after trying a accepted answer on the other question:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.7)
project(DylibTest)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
set(SOURCE_FILES main.cpp)
add_executable(DylibTest ${SOURCE_FILES})
link_directories(${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/Resources)
target_link_libraries(DylibTest DynamicTest)
This unfortunately does not work an results in an error stating that the library could not be found.
Have a look at https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.0/command/find_library.html.
You can specify one or more alternative search folder for cmake to look for the library. It also looks in the default library folder for your OS as well.
find_library(YOURLIB
NAMES your // without the lib
PATHS ${CUSTOM_LIB_PATH})
You can then link the library with
target_link_library(targetname ${YOURLIB})
You might be looking for Creating packages with CPack? This lets you describe how your project shall be packaged into a setup routine and what the file layout after installing looks like.
I have learned the basics of C++ programming and thought of ways how I could proceed, in order to practise. One thing that caught my interest was Web Scraping. Since I only knew BeautifulSoup, I searched for an alternative for C++ and found libXML for C++, however I'm trying to install it but don't seem to get it to work, since I barely have an idea on how to configure a CMake file. I'm using CLion as an IDE and Windows as my operating system, if it matters. My project folder is
C:\Users\Laurenz\Documents\Programming\untitled10
and the place where I've put the libXML library is
C:\Users\Laurenz\Documents\Programming\untitled10\libXML
however, I think the "main" directory is the one below (since it contains most of the Source files), but I'm not sure which of both I need to include.
C:\Users\Laurenz\Documents\Programming\untitled10\libXML\libxml++
I've searched around in the internet and found dozens of methods on how people include libraries, so I'm not sure which I need to use. What I currently have:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.6)
project(untitled10)
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")
set(SOURCE_FILES main.cpp)
add_executable(untitled10 ${SOURCE_FILES})
set(CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH "C:\\Users\\Laurenz\\Documents\\Programming\\untitled10\\libXML\\libxml++")
find_package(LibXML++ REQUIRED)
include_directories(${LibXML++_INCLUDE_DIRS})
set(LIBS ${LIBS} ${LibXML++_LIBRARIES})
target_link_libraries(untitled10 ${LIBS})
However, I get the following error message:
Error:By not providing "FindLibXML++.cmake" in CMAKE_MODULE_PATH this project has asked CMake to find a package configuration file provided by "LibXML++", but CMake did not find one.
Could not find a package configuration file provided by "LibXML++" with any of the following names:
LibXML++Config.cmake libxml++-config.cmake
Add the installation prefix of "LibXML++" to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH or set "LibXML++_DIR" to a directory containing one of the above files. If "LibXML++" provides a separate development package or SDK, be sure it has been installed.
Could someone tell me how to properly configure LibXML? And maybe someone knows some resources where I can learn how CMake files work, because it confuses me a bit.
Thanks!
I'm quite new to CMake and C++ in general, so today I've tried to import an external library like SFML to my project in Jetbrain's IDE CLion, but without any luck.
After spending a whole day learning about CMake in general and making SFML work with CMake in particular, I've finally managed my project's CMake to find the SFML library files.
However, when I approached a header file of my own to include a SFML header, I encountered a problem as it didn't find any headers from the library - And by that I mean the #include directives.
Since I am a newbie, I'm quite lost here.
Here's my CMakeLists.txt file:
# Set CMake's minimum required version
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.5)
set(CMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE on)
#Set CMake's project name
project(testproj)
include_directories("${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}")
#Set CMake's flags
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")
#Set source files
set(SOURCE_FILES Animal.cpp Animal.hpp ConstantValues.hpp Enums.hpp Mamal.hpp Mammals/Lion.cpp Mammals/Lion.hpp)
add_library(testproj SHARED ${SOURCE_FILES})
#Set CMake's module path to find the SFML Lib
set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/Modules/" ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH})
set(CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH ${CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH} "C:\\SFML\\SFML-2.3.2")
#Find the SFML lib
find_package(SFML 2 REQUIRED audio)
if (SFML_FOUND)
include_directories(${SFML_INCLUDE_DIR})
target_link_libraries(testproj ${SFML_LIBRARIES})
endif (SFML_FOUND)
It is worth noting that I'm working on Windows and I look only for the audio module in SFML.
What am I missing?
OK So I've managed to pull to this off thanks to #Tsyvarev's help.
When I realized that the problem is related only to the #include directives and not the CMake script, I took a bit deeper look in it and found out that opposed to SFML's official documentation, the header files for each module are located under their matching directory.
So for example to include a header file from the audio module, I should do this:
#include <SFML/Audio/sound.hpp>
The key here is to look in the SFML folder first, just as you would do with boost.