cmake does not find boost header on linux - c++

Boost header files are on /usr/include/boost.
In CMakeLists.txt I include the folder with include_directories
include_directories(/usr/include /usr/include/boost/
/usr/include/boost/smart_ptr)
However, cmake insists in not finding header files. The problem arises in intrusive_ptr.hpp, which includes #include <boost/smart_ptr/intrusive_ptr.hpp:
boost/smart_ptr/intrusive_ptr.hpp: No such file or directory
/usr/include/boost/intrusive_ptr.hpp
My guess is it does not like boost/smart_ptr/ prefix.
So, include_directories did not work.
CMake Error:
CMake Error at /usr/local/share/cmake-3.3/Modules/FindBoost.cmake:1245
(message):
Unable to find the requested Boost libraries.
Unable to find the Boost header files. Please set BOOST_ROOT to the root
directory containing Boost or BOOST_INCLUDEDIR to the directory containing
Boost's headers.
What should I do?
Thanks.

While I do not know what failed in your case, I'd recommend to simply use find_package with the included FindBoost.cmake file:
find_package(Boost REQUIRED)
include_directories(${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS})
Done

I think you are using 3.3 cmake version, which support target_include_directories.
Even target_link_library should help here which gives the include path free if we link the library.
How do you add boost libraries in CMakeLists.txt

Related

What's the shape of CMake library when using find_library()

What is the file structure of CMake library?
For example, here is my library located in library folder:
library
\mylib1.so
\mylib2.so
The headers are in other dir out of library.
Can I use find_library(mylib1 PATHS library) to find my library and use target_include_directories() or include_directories() to include my headers? For my testing, it's failed. So what's the right structure?
Do I need put the header files (.h or .hpp) into library/include folder and put .so in lib folder or put them all into the library folder?
I didn't find any explain in CMake documents. I also find other commands in CMake documents but they are lack of something in details that I don't understand. So I'd like to known how do I find the documents like this.
find_library is used to find a file, but it doesn't create identify provide any information about include directories or other information required by the linking target.
To be able to use your lib after installing it's best to make use of find_package.
You could place files like into a install directory MyLibrary like this:
MyLibrary/lib/MyLib-0.1.1/MyLibraryConfig.cmake
MyLibrary/lib/MyLib-0.1.1/MyLibraryConfigVersion.cmake
MyLibrary/lib/MyLib-0.1.1/libmylibrary.so
MyLibrary/include/MyLib-0.1.1/include/...
MyLibraryConfigVersion.cmake
This file is used to check, if the version of the library is compatible with the build configuration of the project using find_package. Additionaly it provides cmake with information about the version of the library:
set(PACKAGE_VERSION 0.1.1)
if(NOT UNIX # must be the same target platform
OR NOT CMAKE_SIZEOF_VOID_P EQUAL 8 # assuming the installed lib is 64 bit
OR PACKAGE_VERSION VERSION_LESS PACKAGE_FIND_VERSION)
set(PACKAGE_VERSION_COMPATIBLE FALSE) # inform find_package this is not a suitable version of the lib
else()
set(PACKAGE_VERSION_COMPATIBLE TRUE)
if(PACKAGE_FIND_VERSION STREQUAL PACKAGE_VERSION)
set(PACKAGE_VERSION_EXACT TRUE)
endif()
endif()
MyLibraryConfig.cmake
This file is used to actually create the imported lib to use by the project calling find_package; It's only included, if the version file considers the configuration suitable.
if (NOT TARGET MyLibrary) # avoid issues with using find_package(MyLibrary) multiple times
add_library(MyLibrary IMPORTED)
# provide the necessary info about the target
set_target_properties(MyLibrary PROPERTIES
IMPORTED_LOCATION "${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/libmylibrary.so" # specify absolute library file location using the directory containing this cmake file
)
target_include_directories(MyLibrary INTERFACE "${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/../../include/MyLib-0.1.1/include")
endif()
This allows you to "tell" cmake about the location of the install dir and use find_package like this:
list(APPEND CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH /path/to/MyLibrary) # this could be passed via -D option during configuration instead
find_package(MyLibrary REQUIRED)
Note that there are alternative paths where to put the cmake configuration files, see the documentation of find_package. Furthermore there is cmake functionality that can take over generating some, if not all of the cmake configuration files for you automatically on installation, see
install()
The CMakePackageConfigHelpers cmake module

How to link libs in CLion?

I'm using CLion as my IDE for C++ development and I'm trying to get Eigen included.
How do I do this?
I've downloaded and unzipped Eigen and placed it in C:/ (Which I've read online is the path where CMake looks for libs when you use find_library())
In the CMakeLists.txt I've added
find_library(Eigen3 3.4 REQUIRED NO_MODULE)
add_executable(Lecture03 main.cpp)
target_link_libraries (Lecture03 Eigen3::Eigen)
But then it can't find Eigen, I get the following error when reloading my CMakeLists:
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:6 (find_library):
Could not find Eigen3 using the following names: 3.4
My question is, what did I do wrong? Did I place the Eigen folder in the wrong directory? Can I change where CMake looks for libs in CLion?
Eigen (https://eigen.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Main_Page) is a template library. That means it is header only, there is nothing to link against.
For CMake that means you can use find_path to find the header file
The solution ended up being to use
include_directories(C:/CPP_Libs/Eigen3)
in my CMakeLists.txt, and
#include <Eigen/Dense>
in whichever file needs it

Resolving competing include directories in CMake

I have a C++ project that requires two external libraries (boost and htslib). I link the libraries to my projects target octopus as follows:
find_package (Boost 1.65 REQUIRED COMPONENTS ${REQUIRED_BOOST_LIBRARIES} REQUIRED)
if (Boost_FOUND)
target_include_directories (octopus PRIVATE ${Boost_INCLUDE_DIR})
target_link_libraries (octopus ${Boost_LIBRARIES})
endif (Boost_FOUND)
find_package (HTSlib 1.4 REQUIRED)
if (HTSlib_FOUND)
target_include_directories (octopus PRIVATE ${HTSlib_INCLUDE_DIRS})
target_link_libraries (octopus ${HTSlib_LIBRARIES})
endif (HTSlib_FOUND)
Both boost and htslib are usually installed into /usr/local, and therefore have header files in /usr/local/include. However, users can specify alternative library locations by specifying CMake variables BOOST_ROOT and HTSLIB_ROOT.
The problem is that if only one of the libraries is given an alternative location, then the header files in the include directory of the other linked library (e.g. in /usr/local/include) get included for both libraries, and if incomparable versions of the library are installed then compilation can fail. For example, if I set BOOST_ROOT to ~/.linuxbrew then Boost_INCLUDE_DIR is correctly set to ~/.linuxbrew/include, but HTSlib_INCLUDE_DIRS is /usr/local/include, which contains /usr/local/include/boost, and for reasons I don't quite understand, these are the headers used for building, even though they are incompatible with the libraries in ~/.linuxbrew/lib/boost.
How can I ensure that the include directory for a linked library are used only for that library?
Which header file is considered is a matter of include directories order - the compiler will typically consider the first file that matches the given name in any of the include folders. While you cannot tell the compiler to look for one file in one specific directory and for the other in another specific directory, what you can determine to some degree is the order of the include directories. It sounds like in your case, the boost include directory should be checked before the other, so try the BEFORE keyword in the target_include_directories call, like this:
target_include_directories (octopus BEFORE PRIVATE ${Boost_INCLUDE_DIR})

How do I include packages in different directory with CMake?

I am trying to compile a piece of C++ code on a server with CentOS. I need to include a library (NLopt) that is installed as a module at the location "/services/tools". I have tried "module load NLopt", but CMake does still not find the library.
What do I need to do to make CMake find the package?
"By default, [it] installs the NLopt static library (libnlopt.a) in /usr/local/lib and the NLopt header file (nlopt.h) in /usr/local/include, as well manual pages and a few other files."
So, you can include the header as
include_directories("/usr/local/include")
and link the library as
target_link_libraries(project "/usr/local/lib/lbnlopt.a")
Ideally you could try to find a CMake find module for the library.
Assuming your libraries are in /service/tools/lib and the headers in /service/tools/include, you can also set CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH, like this:
list(APPEND CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH /service/tools)

"No rule to make target" error in cmake when linking to shared library

In Ubuntu, I have downloaded a third-party shared library, mylibrary.so, which I have placed in the directory /home/karnivaurus/Libraries. I have also placed the associated header file, myheader.h, in the directory /home/karnivaurus/Headers. I now want to link to this library in my C++ code, using CMake. Here is my CMakeLists.txt file:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.0.0)
project(DemoProject)
include_directories(/home/karnivaurus/Headers)
add_executable(demo demo.cpp)
target_link_libraries(demo /home/karnivaurus/Libraries/mylibrary)
However, this gives me the error message:
:-1: error: No rule to make target `/home/karnivaurus/Libraries/mylibrary', needed by `demo'. Stop.
What's going on?
While the other answer posted here is valid, it is out-dated. CMake now provides better solutions for using a pre-built external library in your code. In fact, CMake itself even discourages the use of link_directories() in its documentation.
The target_link_libraries() command takes very specific syntax for linking to an external library. A more modern solution is to create an IMPORTED CMake target for your external library:
add_library(MyExternalLib SHARED IMPORTED)
# Provide the full path to the library, so CMake knows where to find it.
set_target_properties(MyExternalLib PROPERTIES IMPORTED_LOCATION /home/karnivaurus/Libraries/mylibrary.so)
You can then use this imported CMake target later on in your code, and link it to your other targets:
target_link_libraries(demo PRIVATE MyExternalLib)
For other ways to use an external third-party library in your CMake code, see the responses here.
You may use a full path to the static library. To link w/ dynamic one, better to use link_directories() like this:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.0.0)
project(DemoProject)
include_directories(/home/karnivaurus/Headers)
link_directories(/home/karnivaurus/Libraries)
add_executable(demo demo.cpp)
target_link_libraries(demo mylibrary)
and make sure mylibrary has prefix lib and suffix .so in file name (i.e. full name is /home/karnivaurus/Libraries/libmylibrary.so).
To make you project more flexible, you'd better to write a finder module and avoid hardcode paths like /home/karnivaurus/*