Where are nuget package manager include directories set in VS 2015? - c++

i am currently trying my first steps with nuget package manager (3.4.3.855) in VS 2015 (Enterprise). For my C++/Qt project i managed to find some libraries i need and they seem to be correctly downloaded to <myprojectDir>/packages/<package_name>/... folders.
However, it is a mystery to me, where and how include folders for headers and/or libs are specified for the project?
I mean, for example with the Eigen library, after importing the nuget package i can just #include <Eigen/core>, which is located in
<myprojectDir>\packages\Eigen.3.2.9\build\native\include
and everything works fine, but i neither have the packages\Eigen.3.2.9\build\native\include-path popping up in the VC++ Directories->Include Directories list in the property pages nor is there a custom property page in the project properties (yes, i did not click the solution properties ;) ) as seen e.g. in this example video with the zlib package. I do not even have this property page if I install the zlib package.
While it seems to work somehow under the hood for Eigen, it does not for the Visual Leak Detector (vld) package... so knowing how things work would be great ;)
Thanks for any help...

From NuGet 2.5, C++ project recognizes the installed packages through MSBuild properties and targets files from NuGet package. After installing packages in C++ project, the MSBuild files are imported into your project file. So the projects will know how to find and use the contents of the NuGet Packages.
To make MSBuild integration better, NuGet has created a new convention for automatically importing MSBuild properties and targets from a NuGet package. Alongside the existing \content, \lib, and \tools folders, NuGet now recognizes a new top-level folder: \build. You could open the Eigen package that you have installed through NuGet Package Explorer, there has a \build folder and a Eigen.targets file which contains MSBuild properties.
Please refer to the MSBuild Integration part from below link:
http://blog.nuget.org/20130426/native-support.html

Related

How do I create nuget package and update metadata for C++/CLI vcxproj project

I have created C++/CLI project to wrap native library. How can I create nuget package using powershell command to add this wrapper library as well as native C++ dll it wraps.
I can see some posts for how to use nuget packages in C++/CLI projects but cannot find anything useful for actually creating nuget package for C++/CLI project itself. Nuget.exe "pack" command fails for .vcxproj project.
The NuGet.exe will automatically replace metadata like id, version etc from assembly/csproj file but we are not using vcxproj to build nuget package for C++ CLI project.
I solved the problem by using nuspec file directly while building the library from bamboo itself. I used bamboo to set the build version of the metadata. All other metadata is hardcoded in the nuspec file which does not need to change with every build.
& "NuGet.exe" pack "Library.nuspec" -Version ${bamboo.BuildVersion} -OutputDirectory ${bamboo.build.working.directory}

Nuget "Manage Packages" dialog. Project names are mixed up

I've got a Visual Studio 2017 solution with several C# class library projects. On disk they take this structure:
MyProduct
MyCompany
MyCompany.ModuleA
MyCompany.ModuleB
MyCompany.ModuleC
But when I look at them in the "Manage NuGet Packages for Solution, the checkboxes show up in the dialog inconsistently. ModuleC appears strangely. Like this:
MyCompany.ModuleA
MyCompany.ModuleB
MyProduct\MyCompany\MyCompany.ModuleC
Also, whenever I build Module C, it keeps creating the following 3 files in its output /obj folder
- MyCompany.ModuleC.csproj.nuget.g.props
- MyCompany.ModuleC.csproj.nuget.g.targets
- project.assets.json
Neither of the other two modules does this.
I'm trying to understand the reason for the inconsistency and to fix it if I can. I have tried combing through the text of the .csproj files for these various projects but I can't spot any differences that might make this happen. And the raw text of the .SLN file project entry all look consistent for each of the 3 modules.
How does NuGet decide what name to put in the Manage Packages for Solution dialog?
Why is NuGet creating those temporary files in the output folder for Module C but not Module's A or B?
How does NuGet decide what name to put in the Manage Packages for Solution dialog?
It is depends on the NuGet manager type, packages.config or PackageReference.
If the project use packages.config, project name will be put in the Manage Packages for Solution dialog. If the project use PackageReference, project file name and relative path will be put in it. That because NuGet will update the project file .csproj when we install the nuget package with PackageReference. So, in the the Manage Packages for Solution dialog, it shows the relative path+project file name, like ClassLibrary1\ClassLibrary1.csproj.
Why is NuGet creating those temporary files in the output folder for
Module C but not Module's A or B?
That because NuGet with PackageReference controls the msbuild items that are generated for these files into the obj\projectname.csproj.nuget.g.props, obj\projectname.csproj.nuget.g.targets and project.assets.json file.
You can unload your project, check if the project file MyCompany.ModuleCuse the PackageReference, like:
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="Newtonsoft.Json">
<Version>11.0.2</Version>
</PackageReference>
</ItemGroup>
For some more details, please check this official blog: NuGet is now fully integrated into MSBuild.

Point Cloud Library with Visual Studio 2017

I'm having trouble using Point Cloud Library with Microsoft Visual Studio 2017.
I have installed [PCL-1.8.1-AllInOne-msvc2017-win64.exe] and I've followed the steps mentioned
here. to link it to my Visual Studio 2017 project.
My problem is that Visual Studio is not finding the header nor the source files of the library I need.
The error I'm getting is as follows:
[fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'pcl/io/pcd_io.h': No such file or directory]
To be more precise about my problem, I need to include three PCL header files in order to run thisIterative Closest Point Tutorial
I've followed the following steps to include the PCL into my project:
Added the include directories to my project at the Project Properties/Configuration Properties/VC++ Directories/Include Directories field - here I specified the path to my PCL/include directory and to all 3rd party include directories (PCL/3rdParty)
Added the library directories on the same settings page (Library Directories field) - hereI specified the path to my PCL/lib directory and to all non-header-only 3rd party libs (Boost, Flann, VTK)
Chose the libs to be used in the linker. In Project Properties/Configuration Properties/Linker/Input/Additional Dependencies field. I added all the libs required. As I'm trying to run it in debug mode for now, I've picked the "_debug.lib" library files.
Finally, I've added the PCL/bin folder to my system path variable.
Does anyone know if I'm missing something configuration-wise?
I've seen several old posts about incompatibility between older Point Cloud Libraries and older versions of Visual Studio. As far as I understood, the new versions are supposed to work well together, but it's not the case for me.
Installing pcl is tough because there are dozens of dependencies used along with pcl software. But with with vcpkg,a command line package manager, the installation becomes just like a one liner command.
Use Microsoft vcpkg to build a static or dynamic library for your project automatically. All the dependencies like boost,tiff,openssl,flann,szip,etc will be downloaded and installed by itself. After installing vcpkg type the following on Powershell.
.\vcpkg install pcl:x64-windows-static
The link you referenced is 3-4 years old. At the time, any binary build of PCL for Visual Studio 2012 or later was not provided, and thus. PCL needed to be built with target VS. And every include/library directory of PCL and any related library have to be manually added to setup the IDE. Since PCL is a large-scale collection of libraries, this made it difficult for its users to setup VS.
Now early 2018, binary builds of PCL for VS 2015/2017 and more automatic way to setup VS (e.g., adding library/include directories) using CMake are provided. Thus, installing PCL and creating a VS project using PCL does not take more than 10 minutes. I think you'd better follow the recommended way rather than setting VS by yourself.
the previous answer use vcpkg is good,but is better to use:
.\vcpkg install pcl:x64-windows
It can let you have fewer problems.
A small note for anyone who has issues with the install listed above, occasionally an install will get corrupted and not work. I got:
LINK : fatal error LNK1201
on a build, and the solution for that is find the downloaded item. This will be located in the vcpkg/downloads/ directory. Delete the item that was having issues and try the install again.

MSBuild to apply a nuget package to a project at build time

I have a cmake project that builds fine on Linux and that I want to build also on Windows. The code is portable and is made of C++ so... it should build. The only thing is that, on Windows, I need to use nuget to restore some packages, cpprestsdk is one of them. Now when I run
cmake .
CMake will generate solution files and projects files that I don't want to include in my VCS at all. The thing I want MSBuild to do is to apply the packages contained in my packages.config to all the project files found in the project directory.
Anyone knows how?
The thing I want MSBuild to do is to apply the packages contained in my packages.config to all the project files found in the project directory. Anyone knows how?
I am afraid you can not do such things. That because whether you are using MSBuild or NuGet to do this thing, you have to use to the nuget.exe to do it. However, install nuget packages to the project file relies on VS capabilities not nuget.exe and nuget team not plan to bring it to the exe.
The NuGet Command Line does not actually install any packages. The install command is actually doing a restore operation.
This means that nuget.exe install will only download and extract the package into the output location. It will not modify the project file. Although, the package manager console seem to offer "Install-Package" for doing this, but you have to open each project files with Visual Studio and execute Install-Package in the package manager console for each project files, which is not what you want. So you could not enable this script outside of visual studio.
So we could not use MSBuild to apply the packages contained in the packages.config to all the project files found in the project directory.
You can refer to this thread and this thread for details.
Hope this helps.

Visual C++ nuget: boost include files not found

I'm pretty new to visual studio as I usually work in linux.
I installed boost package via nuget and I can see all the headers files installed correctly into my solution's 'packages' folder.
However whenever I try to include a boost header I get an error, e.g:
Cannot open include file: 'boost/type_traits/has_equal_to.hpp': No such file or directory
At the same time I installed SFML libraries and those work perfectly.
Also I noticed, that in my project properties, 'Referenced Packages' section SFML libraries are listed, but boost ones are not. This is strange, because when I installed the packages I did click the checkboxes for the projects I installed the packages for.
I tried hard to find how to add package references but miserably failed. I'm probably just being thin here...
I'm using Visual Sudio 14 (2015) Update 3 Community Edition.
You need to add the following path:
$(SolutionDir)\packages\boost.w.x.y.z\lib\native\include\boost
in Configuration Properties > C/C++ > General > Additional Include Directories