Visual Studio 2015 Ignores project specific includes - c++

I am attempting to create a fresh VC++ project in Visual Studio 2015, in which I will be using the following libraries:
SDL2
GLEW
GLM
As I have done many times before, I have set the project up as follows:
Create empty project and add main.cpp with usual minimal main
function and build.
Add folder to solution directory (called lib), add copy the desired libraries to the folder.
In project properties, under all configurations, I navigate to VC++ directories, and enter the path for each library under includes, and library directories.
Under Linker>Input, I add the .lib files I will be using.
Finally, I copy the .dll files into debug/release folders in the solution directory.
At this stage, I should be able to type #include <sdl2.h>, or #include <gl\glew.h>, however, the headers cannot be found.
I have double checked all the filenames and paths, and all are correct. It's possible I may have missed something, but I've run through a few setup tutorials and checked a few old projects and everything seems fine.
Has anyone else heard of this, and if so, did you find a solution?

As it turned out, I had to reinstall visual studio. I had previously installed 2017 before 2015, so installed them in chronological order. I don't know that if that made a difference, but everything works fine now.

Related

How can I tell Visual studio where my additional .dll files are?

I have recently switched my IDE to Visual Studio 2019 for C++ projects. I easily followed a tutorial into setting up a new library like SFML into visual studio, and tell it where the additional include and library directories are.
But there is something else that is required for it to work, which are the .dll files. Every page I followed, even the Documentation by the SFML website, it says that they have to be in the same directory as my project. That means I need to copy-paste the 7-8 files into my project directory. This really makes the folder look untidy. I would like to create a new folder and tell Visual Studio where those files are. I tried going doing this
Project -> Properties -> Linker -> Input -> Additional dependencies
Usually, the lines that would work are
sfml-system-d.lib
sfml-window-d.lib
...
I tried doing $(ProjectDir)valid path\ sfml-files.lib but this gives me the linker error, saying that It could not find the file.
If I simply move the .dlls into a folder without doing anything, the code would compile and link fine. But when it runs, Windows gives me a pop-up box with the same error message.
Here is how it currently looks
Looks really messy, I just want to be able to move them into dependencies like how src contains the source files.
How can I achieve this?
As it is now, it works perfectly fine. The issue only occurs when I try to create a new folder.
I hope I have covered the important information required for a good answer, If not please let me know what more I should add
Microsoft Visual Studio 2019
Currently running 64-bit platform with Debug configuration. Hence the -d suffix
You could create a path environment for your specified directory, which is like drescherjm’s suggestion. The steps:
Right-click “This PC” -> “Properties”-> “Advance System settings”
Click “Environment Variables”
In the System Variables group, edit “Path”
Add your directory, for example: ”D:\ SFML-2.5.1\bin”
Restart your visual studio and re-open your project
The easier solution might be to put them in the x64 subdirectory. This allows you to have various builds side by side (x86/x64, debug/release).
Since this x64 directory is where the EXE is located, it is the first directory searched for DLL's. It will take precedence over the Path solution suggested in the other answer. The Path directories are searched last of all.

Linking libpqxx from Visual Studio 2015 on Windows 10

I've recently decided to try out PostgreSQL as the database platform for some C++ development I'm working on. I decided to use libpqxx as the connection library for my project, and quickly found out this would be an uphill battle to do from VS 2015 on a Windows 10 machine.
After much teeth-gnashing and nail-biting, I have gotten libpqxx to compile on Windows 10.
This leaves me with the following directory structure
Per libpqxx's documentation, I also placed a copy of libpq.dll in my project's executable directory. Please note: I have done this for both debug and release builds, tried to build both, and ended up with the same result.
All the tutorials I've seen seem to indicate that the library can be used after linking it and simply #including pqxx/pqxx, so I set up a small project to do just that. I receive the error:
fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'pqxx/pqxx': No such file or directory
When attempting to build the project. I have also tried this will both debug and release builds, to no avail.
Here is a screenshot of my linker settings.
Does anyone have any suggestions for how I might be able to link and use this library from Visual Studio 2015?
As Sami Kuhmonen pointed out, this was not actually a linker error, but a compiler error. I needed to include an actual header, which Visual Studio needed to be able to find. After adding the correct folder (C:\libpqxx\include in my case) to Visual Studio's "additional include directories" setting under C\C++ -> General per drescherjm's suggestion, the program compiles just fine.
For future reference:
I did also run into unresolved external linker errors after solving the initial issue. This is because you need to make sure to also link to ws2_32.lib and libpq.lib. You also need to copy some other DLL files that libpq also relies on into your libpqxx lib folder. On my system, I believe these were ssleay32.dll, libeay32.dll, and libintl-8.dll. These files reside under the root of the PostgreSQL install. The DLL step is mentioned under libpqxx's INSTALL.txt file, however I believe it stated that the DLLs resided one folder under where I actually found them.
I have also faced same issue. Then I realized that I was building ,my application as a 32bit. I changed the target to x64 and it compiled successfully

Visual Studio 2013 cannot open 'glfw3.lib'

I'm having a few issues getting GLFW3 set up. I've downloaded the 64-bit binaries from the official site, added glfw3.dll, glfw3.lib and glfw3.h to their respective places, specified the proper include, and added the appropriate linker input to my project. However, when I test the library with glfwInit(), VS spits this out:
error LNK1104: cannot open file 'glfw3.lib' Path/To/Project
My guess was that VS didn't know what directory the library was in, but seeing as it's in the IDE's own lib folder, I don't think this is it. Does anyone have any suggestions? Sorry if this has already been solved, I got in as deep as to read the steps of compilation before I gave up searching.
Edit: I also changed the solution platform to x64, since I am using the 64-bit GLFW binaries.
Following Andon M. Coleman's advice, I moved the headers and library folders to a new directory outside of Visual Studio's built-in ones (D:\opengl-wrappers\lib & D:\opengl-wrappers\include, for example). After including those libraries in the project settings (C/C++->General-> Additional Include Directories and Linker->General->Additional Library Directories), everything compiled beautifully.

Visual studio 2015 gives me errors upon creating a simple test console program

Here is the code I am using.
#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
int main() {
std::cout << "hi";
return 0;
}
When I create simple c++ console application and try to build it, this error occurs:
cannot open include file 'stdio.h': No such file or directory
Why? Shouldn't stdio.h be included as a standard library? What can I do to get it back?
edit: I have just looked into C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\include directory. There is no stdio.h or stdafx.h . I really am not sure why. How can I get them back?
That's because Visual studio changed the path to C headers.
There you have the info about that: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/vcblog/2015/03/03/introducing-the-universal-crt/
What i did to solve this is:
Go to Project->Properties->. In Configuraton Properties->VC++ Diretories->Library Directories add a path to C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Lib\10.0.10150.0\ucrt\(Choose your architecture)
And in C/C++->General->Additional include directories add a path to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Include\10.0.10150.0\ucrt
Note: The 10.0.10150.0 may vary depending on your version.
I had a similar problem upgrading an existing C project from Visual Studio 2013 to VS2017 (I'd skipped VS2015); none of the standard headers were found there either.
The accepted answer (by Cezar Azevedo de Faveri) did work for me, but it's inelegant to just jam an absolute path in the settings, especially considering someone can change the install path of both Visual Studio and the SDKs; I'd like to write code that "just works" where possible.
So I spent a little time studying how VS2017 generates a new project, and I eventually found an answer, which is that when VS2017 upgrades an existing C project, it forgets to upgrade one critical project value, and that incorrect value — the Windows SDK Version — makes the headers unable to be found:
By default, VS2017 installs the headers only for the Windows 10 UWP SDK, but it doesn't change the "Windows SDK Version" in any projects it upgrades to a version of the SDK that was actually installed! Mine were set to "8.1" after the upgrade, and there are no headers installed for Windows 8.1
So if you're upgrading an existing project, you'll have to change this setting manually to whichever version of the headers you actually have: In my case, that was by explicitly adding 10.0.14393.0 to the list (that's the version number for the Windows 10 UWP SDK headers that come with VS2017).
(The list of installed versions can be found in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Include folder, and in the similar folders near it.)
I know I am a bit late to this but instead of messing with the path settings, in Visual Studio 2017 you can
right-click the project
select retarget projects
select the latest or any new version of windows SDK and click OK
This will automatically take care of all include paths and libraries.
#include "stdafx.h"
There is a well-known difference between the <...> and "..." includes: briefly, that the former is for library includes and the latter is for local includes.
You mention that you were looking around for stdafx.h but couldn't find it in the compiler installation. This suggests that:
You think stdafx.h is a library file (it is not, unless it's some MS-specific extension, which I doubt, although it is traditionally used as a default filename for precompiled headers by the same--if you have made one, which you almost certainly haven't).
Because of 1., you haven't made a local file stdafx.h, and therefore this include directive should fail. If it hasn't, then something fishy is happening.
As to your actual problem, I have some notes:
<stdio.h> is the C header, not the C++ one. If you're including from a C++ file (extension .cpp, probably, for MSVC), then you should use the C++ header <cstdio>. However, this shouldn't actually cause the problem.
You aren't using the stdio anyway (at least not directly). You're using iostream, which you're properly including. If that include is the one that's causing the error, then iostream is trying to include it, can't, and your compiler installation is borked.
Try the similar program:
#include <iostream>
int main() {
std::cout << "hi" << std::endl;
return 0;
}
I have just checked myself that this compiles and executes properly under Visual Studio 2015 Professional.
If this program does not compile, I suggest reinstalling Visual Studio. In my experience, this often fixes these tricky setup issues.
I faced the same issue , it got resolved when I ran vcvarsall.bat which is present at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC
Above there is provided solution is per project.
But if you don't want to reinstall VS from scratch or set the include directories and libraries on every solution you can modify Toolset.props found in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\Platforms\Win32\PlatformToolsets\v140\Toolset.props
<PropertyGroup>
....................
<IncludePath Condition="'$(IncludePath)' == ''">$(VC_IncludePath);$(WindowsSDK_IncludePath);**C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Include\10.0.10150.0\ucrt**</IncludePath>
.......................
<LibraryPath Condition="'$(LibraryPath)' == ''">$(VC_LibraryPath_x86);$(WindowsSDK_LibraryPath_x86);$(NETFXKitsDir)Lib\um\x86;**C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Lib\10.0.10150.0\ucrt\**</LibraryPath>
...........................
</PropertyGroup>
I had this error on VS2017 after upgrading from VS2015. I tried a clean + reinstall and it did not fix the error. The problem that I found was two-fold:
$(VC_IncludePath);$(WindowsSDK_IncludePath); was not in the default include path.
$(VC_IncludePath);$(WindowsSDK_IncludePath); was actually EXCLUDED in the default properties (how did this happen?!)
To fix for new projects:
Manually edit the following files:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0\Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.user.props
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0\Microsoft.Cpp.x64.user.props
Make sure that $(VC_IncludePath);$(WindowsSDK_IncludePath); is in the IncludePath and NOT in the ExcludePath.
To fix for old projects (that don't just inherit from the above files):
Manually edit your project properties in the Solution Explorer and make sure that $(VC_IncludePath);$(WindowsSDK_IncludePath); is in the IncludePath and NOT in the ExcludePath.
I had the same problem in Visual Studio Community 2015 after installing the current Windows SDK and as Signa already wrote earlier, this can be fixed for all projects within a "Toolset.props" file (at least for VS2015) and I find this to be the most convenient solution, because this has to be done only once. I've got a few side notes, because there is something to watch out for.
For each build platform there is an own "Toolset.props" file, so both need to be modified if you want to build for 32 and 64 bit targets:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\Platforms\Win32\PlatformToolsets\v140\Toolset.props
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\Platforms\x64\PlatformToolsets\v140\Toolset.props
The files are write-protected and you need to remove the write protection before you can change those files (remember to put it back on after you're done).
As of now the current SDK version is "10.0.15063.0" and you need to adjust that to the version you want to use (or to the SDK version you have installed).
Look out for the IncludePath and LibraryPath lines in those props files and add the following paths to them:
IncludePath: $(ProgramFiles)\Windows Kits\10\Include\10.0.15063.0\ucrt
LibraryPath: $(ProgramFiles)\Windows Kits\10\Lib\10.0.15063.0\ucrt\$(PlatformTarget)
Here a sample how this looks like for the 32 bit version:
// ... some XML before that ...
<PropertyGroup>
// ... executable path .....
<IncludePath Condition="'$(IncludePath)' == ''">$(VC_IncludePath);$(WindowsSDK_IncludePath);$(ProgramFiles)\Windows Kits\10\Include\10.0.15063.0\ucrt;</IncludePath>
// ... reference path ...
<LibraryPath Condition="'$(LibraryPath)' == ''">$(VC_LibraryPath_x86);$(WindowsSDK_LibraryPath_x86);$(NETFXKitsDir)Lib\um\x86;$(ProgramFiles)\Windows Kits\10\Lib\10.0.15063.0\ucrt\$(PlatformTarget);</LibraryPath>
// ... more XML ...
</PropertyGroup>
// ... even more XML ....
After running in similar problems once more with VS2017 I took a closer look at what caused all this. And the main reason was that I was still using modified user.props files. Which was for a while a solution to add global include and library paths to all projects. But this feature is deprecated by Microsoft and the content of those files should be reset.
The files I'm talking about are the user.props files in C:\Users\your_name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0
For testing you can simply rename (or delete if you like risks) them and restart VS. It will create empty files for those now. And if you are on Windows 10 then in most cases this is already enough to fix all your problems. Even in older VS versions (I tested with VS2010-VS2017, for even older VS versions the troubles tend to involve registry keys and don't involve this props files). Windows/VS has become now really good at finding all the system libraries (including DirectX which was the main reason we had to modify those files in the past) and adding them in the correct include order.
Also a warning as I've seen other people recomment that. Do not change any .prop installed by the SDK. If you really need to work with props then create and add your own property sheets (which can overwrite any defaults) to your project. And don't worry, those will not be checked in to source-control so you can still distribute your project to others.
If you are still on an older Windows it might not be as easy as in Windows 10, but I'll try to give some hints:
What you are missing for that concrete error is the new $UniversalCRT_IncludePath. No need to hardcode that path, that macro should contain the correct one. So add $(UniversalCRT_IncludePath); to the IncludePath in your own property which you add then to the project.
And for LibraryPath add the correct path per platform-file, like $(UniversalCRT_LibraryPath_x64); for .x64. and $(UniversalCRT_LibraryPath_x86); for .Win32.
What also might be useful when trying to fix this: You can find out the values of all the $(MACRO) variables used in the build system inside VisualStudio. They are just very well hidden: Go in properties - custom build steps - click on command line - then don't type anything but click the down button to get "edit..." - you click that - you get a dialog which has a "Macros>>" button. And that contains a list with all macro values.
Installing Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 solves this issue, both for new projects and for existing projects created before the update.
https://www.visualstudio.com/news/releasenotes/vs2015-update3-vs

Building & Linking FreeImage with Visual Studio Express 2013

I'm having a lot of trouble linking my project with FreeImage library with VSE 2013
I've followed this answer for VS2010 to no avail: Linking FreeImage as a static library in VS2010?
I am getting LNK2019 errors when calling FreeImage functions.
I've linked the library just as I would any library. Below are the following steps I made:
Download FreeImage Source.
Open the 2008 Solution (converted to 2013) and changed Code Generation to /MDd for all projects
Attempted to build project but for some reason min/max functions were not defined So I included algorithm.h to those files and that stopped those errors.
Attempted to build project and I get an error: "Could not open "afxres.h". So I swapped afxres.h with windows.h as suggested in another topic.
Built the project -> success
Copied Fresh FreeImaged.lib to to my project
Added directory to "Additional Library Directories"
Added FreeImaged.lib to Additional Dependencies under linker
Copied FreeImaged.dll to my debug folder where the .exe is being built
Added FreeImage.h to the project
Added #define FREEIMAGE_LIB before including the header
Attempted to build my project -> LNK2019s everywhere.
If anyone has been able to build FreeImage on VS2013 and could share how they did it I would greatly appreciate it, or if anyone has any suggestions.
The reason for your troubles is that with Visual Studio 2013 some breaking changes (as outlined by Microsoft) were introduced in related to C++11 conformity.
One includes that in order to use std::min()/std::max(), you now have to include the header . This also concerns FreeImage. Unfortunately, up until version 3.6.1 (the most recent as of today) this hasn't been fixed yet.
This blog post explains what you need to do to get it to compile. The most relevant part is:
Specifically, you will need to add
include <algorithm>
to the following files:
Source/OpenEXR/IlmImf/ImfOutputFile.cpp
Source/OpenEXR/IlmImf/ImfScanLineInputFile.cpp
Source/OpenEXR/IlmImf/ImfTiledMisc.cpp
Source/OpenEXR/IlmImf/ImfTiledOutputFile.cpp
Source/OpenEXR/Imath/ImathMatrixAlgo.cpp
I was able to get this to work by going into the Configuration Manager unchecking FreeImage and checking FreeImageLib under build. Also disabling whole program optimization seems to make the binary size more normal and, gets rid of warnings when linking.
I know this question is over a year old. Just providing an answer to anyone google searching this problem like me.
version: FreeImage3170Win32Win64.zip
os.env.: win7 64bit visualstudio ULTIMATE 2013
operation:
1_ just unpacking the zip somewhere
e.g. (D:/library/FreeImage3170Win32Win64/FreeImage)
2_ in C/C++->General->Additional Including Directerories
add (D:/library/FreeImage3170Win32Win64/FreeImage/Dist/x32)
3_ in Linker->General->Additional Library Directerories
add (D:/library/FreeImage3170Win32Win64/FreeImage/Dist/x32)
4_ in Linker->Input->Additional Dependency
add (FreeImage.lib)
PS0: i just add a new entry to Include Directories and Library
Directories and FreeImage.lib to Linker->input in Visual Studio without rebuild the FreeImage library
:)
PS1: error LNK2019 occured when i added the FreeImage/Dist/x64 option
;( ( got no idea about this)
maybe this helps :)