'cmake' is not recognised as an internal or external command - c++

Question

I'm trying to run cmake in Visual Studio 10, for esys-particle-win.
My path to cmake:C:\Program Files (x86)\CMake 2.8\bin\cmake.exe
My path to esys-particle-win:C:\esys-particle-win\trunk\buildvs2010\mkvs10.bat
The commands I'm typing in the administrator command prompt of Visual Studio 2010 are:
cd c:\esys-particle-win\trunk\buildvs2010
mkvs10.bat
and I'm getting this error:
'cmake' is not recognized as an internal or external command
contents of mkvs10.bat:
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 10" -G "NMake Makefiles"
could anyone tell me where I am wrong?. I don't know computer programming. I followed the instructions mentioned in section 2.3.1 of this site: `
https://launchpadlibrarian.net/139659869/esys-particle-win-%28v2.1%29-build-instructions.pdf
`
Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thank you.

Answer 1

The error message means it cannot find cmake.
You can add its location to your path from the prompt like this:
set PATH="C:\Program Files (x86)\CMake 2.8\bin\";%PATH%

Answer 2

As #doctorlove mentioned above, the error message means it cannont find Cmake.
Note that quotes aren't needed in PATH environmental variables on Windows. So the above example on Windows would look like:
set PATH=C:\Program Files (x86)\CMake 2.8\bin\;%PATH%
I had the same issue, and resolved it in this post.

Answer 3

note that if you installed cmake via chocolatey, you may have neglected to add the argument --installargs 'ADD_CMAKE_TO_PATH=System'. If you've already choco-installed cmake without that argument, re-installing via --force won't respect the new argument: you'll need to uninstall and then install. specifically choco install cmake --installargs 'ADD_CMAKE_TO_PATH=System'

Answer 4

I had the same problem since I intalled CMake in D:\Program Files , I fixed it by manually adding a path variable.
Open control panel
Go to System and Security then go to System.
How it looks like in after step 2
Here Select advanced System settings, a dialogue box will appear.
The dialogue box
Now go to Environment Variables.
Now select path and then click on edit
After the 4th Step
Here add a new path at the bottom of many pre existing paths.
In my case i installed CMake in D:\Program Files\
So I need to add path D:\Program Files\CMake\bin. You should copy the path to your CMake folder and add \bin at the end.
Now open you have to restart command prompt to see the changes.

Answer 5

I found the CMake to be:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\CMake\CMake\bin
I added it to the User PATH as described above, by hrithik singla, and node-gyp worked, specifically "npm install". I expect it will change again in the future. So the way I found it was by having Windows Explorer search "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019" and then dig through the results for the CMake path. Probably, other development tools will install CMake to different folders.

Answer 6

I'm trying to build a project with my recently downloaded Visual Studio Community 2017, but had no CMake on my path.
It did not help, even after I had gained VCVars: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat" x64
Instead of separately installing a copy that might work with these answers, although I'm not sure it would have the generators I need(?), I found one in the installation directory, which had a different path than what was in the guide I was using.
Here is my invocation line: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\CMake\CMake\bin\cmake.exe" -G "Visual Studio 15 2017" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=%CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE% ..

Answer 7

There are a few issues that can cause this. And it's mostly windows related. This is more on the cmake side of things, but it addresses a few windows specific problems you may encounter using CMake with Windows. This is fresh in my head, and this popped up, so I'll drop this here. Here we go.
1. CMake will separate a variable to list if there are spaces in the path.
If you are calling another instance of CMake from within CMake, Sending a Program Files path will slice those strings, and divide your variable into a 3 item list. The spaces will be replace by a semicolon divider.
set(CMAKE_EXE C:\Program Files (x86)\CMake\bin\cmake.exe)
"C:\Program;Files;(x86)\CMake\bin\cmake.exe <- CMAKE_EXE is now a 3 item list separated by ; "
list(LENGTH ${CMAKE_EXE} count)
message("CMAKE_EXE has ${count} items") "-> displays 3"
On Windows, All path variables should be enclosed in quotations to infer that they are 1 single string variable. Not just for cmake, but for batch scripting, basic command line etc.
set(CMAKE_EXE "C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake/bin/cmake.exe")
Now, any time you reference CMAKE_EXE you'll need to always keep it enclosed in quotations, becuase cmake WILL break it to a list again otherwise.
execute_command(COMMAND cmd /c ${CMAKE_EXE} -P myScript.cmake) <-- BAD
execute_command(COMMAND cmd /c "${CMAKE_EXE}" -P myScript.cmake) <- GOOD
Just get in the habit of always putting quotations around paths you reference.
2. Stay away from the Windows back slashes!.
Windows uses back slashes by default for it's path divider, which are escape sequences in most coding languages, including CMake. Just send windows / forward slashes instead. This eliminates any headaches you'll have with doubling up escape characters in string literals to match the path. \
And remember, windows is always gonna try to give you paths in \ format. Windows likes backslashes in certain places like environment paths, and settings files, while cmake likes forward slashes. You need at some point to convert between the different formats.
Use something like this to convert the path to be more cross platform compatible. You can replace "in place" on your existing variable.
"CMAKE_EXE = C:\Program Files (x86)\CMake\bin\cmake.exe <- value before"
string(REPLACE "\\" "/" CMAKE_EXE "${CMAKE_EXE}") "<- notice the quotes again"
"CMAKE_EXE = C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake/bin/cmake.exe <- value after"
Take a look at these CMake functions designed to do path conversions.
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/command/file.html#to-native-path
3. Sometimes, Windows interprets unquoted paths as 8.3SFN (8DOT3) format
8.3 filename
Back in the days of MSDOS and Windows 95, we dealt with the FAT file system and 8.3Short Filenames. The command prompt could not work with more than 8 character filenames so we needed a way to access long windows filenames before quotation string support. 8 characters + 3 for the extension. And most systems still support 8.3 today. Here's an example.
C:\Program Files\Windows\System32\Calc.exe <- \Program Files\ is 13 characters
in order to CD into this path without quotes, you have to use the short path. like so.
CD C:\Progra~1\Windows\System32\Calc.exe <-- *Progra~1 is 8 characters, 1st occurrence.*
You just break the File or Folder name down to 6 characters, plus ~n (n=occurrence)
If we had a C:\Program Files (x86) path then, like we do today, it would be the 2nd path who's first 6 characters matched, and both exceeded 8 characters.
C:\Program Files becomes -> C:\Progra~1\
C:\Program Files (x86) becomes -> C:\Progra~2\
C:\MyLongFilename.txt becomes -> C:\MyLong~1\
Whenever I am having trouble accessing the full length file system through software that is unable to send escape sequences or quotations, some other kind of limitation, I have to resort to using the 8.3 short filename to access certain paths. On some Windows boxes, quotes won't even work and it will be some LONG process to enable them on the host machine. This makes for a good workaround when that happens.
Getting the short path (via sending to command prompt)
C:\ for %A in ("C:\Program Files (x86)\CMake\bin\cmake.exe") do #echo %~sA
will produce C:\Progra~1 for you to use
Or, get the short path by sending the path as an argument to a batch file.
::getShortPath.bat
#ECHO OFF
echo %~s1
USE:-> getShortPath.bat "C:\Program Files (x86)\CMake\bin\cmake.exe"
To wrap this up, here are three examples of what could be happening in the background behind CMake when a windows path is not resolving.
Not using quotations around the path
Using quotes works. But sometimes you can lose your quotes if the stdio >> runs through more than one process. In which case you'll need to send them in as escape sequences "\"C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake/bin/cmake.exe\""
4. Paths and Command Line Arguments need to be separate variable or instances from each other.
When sending arguments from CMake, you DO want them to be separate variables from the path variable. Set(CMAKE_EXE "C:\Program Files (x86)\CMake\bin\cmake.exe --version") will not work. Only paths and arguments with spaces in them need to be wrapped in quotes.
set(CMAKE_EXE "C:\Program Files (x86)\CMake\bin\cmake.exe" --version --trace "C:\My Soure Dir")
Putting it all together
If anyone is having problems with Windows/CMake paths like I was in the past, Study this code thoroughly until you completely understand it. All of the quotation placements. When you understanding what's quoted and what's not, and why, it should help a lot in the long run.
set(CMAKE_EXE "C:\Program Files (x86)\CMake\cmake.exe" CACHE INTERNAL "") <- make it a global variable.
set(ARGUMENTS --version --trace)
set(MyStringWithQuotesIncluded "\"This String wants it's quotes included\"")
set(MyCMakeLists "C:\MyApp\ProjectDirectory")
set(BuildHere "C:\MyBuilds\MyOSProject\bin")
set(FULL_COMMAND "${CMAKE_EXE}" ${ARGUMENTS} -DSTRING_VARIABLE="${MyStringWithQuotesIncluded}" -S "${MyCMakeLists}" -B "${BuildHere}")
execute_command(COMMAND cmd /c ${FULL_COMMAND} WORKING_DIRECTORY "${BuildHere}")
I had loads of issues working with windows paths through layers of CMake when I first started out. I hope this can help someone avoid all of that in the future.

Answer 8

Step 0: Install CMAKE
Make sure you have CMAKE installed on Windows:
https://cmake.org/download/
The installer will ask you if you want it to automatically set the PATH variable for you.

Answer 9

set the path to C:\Program Files\CMake\bin