I'm trying to add SVL to my project.
Without it I'm getting hundreds of errors (undefined reference...). After adding -lSVL all errors are gone, but gcc says: "cannot find -lSVL". Everything else (SDL, SDL_TTF, SDL_Mixer...) works fine.
You should inform gcc of the path where libsvl.a is installed, for example:
gcc -lsvl -L/my/path/
Also, pay attention to the case if you work under Linux ("SVL" is different from "svl").
There are two parts to adding an external library; you need to tell the compiler[1] where to find the description of the API (i.e., the header files) and you need to tell the linker where to find the implementation of the API (i.e., the library file(s)).
The list of possible locations of the headers is given by the include path, which with a traditional compiler is added to with the -I option. It takes a directory name to add; the directory is one extra place the compiler will look for header files.
The list of possible locations of the library is given by the link path. It's just like the include path, but is added to with -L. Note that you can also (at least normally) give the full path to the library directly on the command line, but this isn't particularly recommended because it tends to embed more information in the executable than is really needed.
The syntax for MSVC is recognizably similar IIRC.
If you're using an IDE, you'll probably have to set these things in the project options, but as long as you remember that you need to set both include and library paths, you'll be able to find your way through.
[1]Strictly, you're telling the preprocessor, but the preprocessor's output is virtually always directed straight into the compiler proper.
Related
I use a code with different libraries, which use names like defines.h. This does not only cause conflicts for identical filenames, but also creates confusion. From which library is the defines.h include?
Including as #include <library/defines.h> would be a clean solution, but then the include path would need to be the parent directory of the library, which is rather unclean again.
Is there some way to alias the include path, so that -I/path/to/library makes the headers available under library/headername.h?
Is there some way to alias the include path, so that -I/path/to/library makes the headers available under library/headername.h?
There seems to be no need to in this case. You can simply use -I/path/to which makes /path/to/library/headername.h available under library/headername.h.
That said, while there is no such compilation option (that I know of), you can create such "aliases" to file paths in most file systems. These aliases are called symbolic links. In this case, you could make a link /path/to/library/mylibrary that points to . which would make /path/to/library/headername.h available under mylibrary/headername.h assuming you've used -I/path/to/library.
At least on unixy systems, when you compile and install a library, headers are installed for example to
/usr/lib/libraryname/*.h
Or maybe something like
/opt/libraryname-1.2/include/libraryname/*.h
And then if necesssry (not installing to compiler's default include search path), right dir is added with compiler option, for gcc for example option
-I/opt/libraryname-1.2/include
Then just always do this in source code, trusting build system to have included the right search paths:
#include <libraryname/includefile.h>
There are already many options listed of how to add a path to a C++ compiler so that the #include <...> command works on these paths. However, assume that I have a single file (not an entire project) and I want to add an include path just for this file alone. I'd like to do this via a line of code within the cpp-file (say, as very first line). How is this possible? Why? Because I need to include some header file from another directory which in turn depends also on other header files within that same directory (and I get error messages that these other files could not be found due to the fact that this path was not added to the include-list).
For example:
Let's assume I want to include file_a.h in directory
.../include/extra,
I can do that via
#include <extra/file_a.h>
However, if, e.g., I do not have the extra-directory directly as a sub-directory of include, or the file_a wants to include some other file from somewhere else (maybe even /extra, but it's not a sub directory of include e.g.), then I run into trouble, because then the tracking of directories/dependencies gets hard.
I thought it would be a bad habit to change those directories via compiler, so I thought better solution would be to integrate it into the program, so no matter which compiler I use, it would work anyway without even having to think about afterwards, once specified, which directories I have to add.
Per my understanding you did:
#include <absolute/path/to/header/header.h
or
#include <relative/path/to/header/header.h
But into the header.h some other include are included.
#include <header_1.h>
#include <header_2.h>
[...]
#include <header_n.h>
Those other headers haven't relative/absolute path, so compiler doesn't know how to find them.
To solve this you can use (using gcc) the -I compiler option:
-I dir
Add the directory dir to the list of directories to be searched for header files during preprocessing. [...]
Emphasis mine
So you can use
#include <header.h>
In your file and compile it using
gcc ... -I/path/to/headers ...
When you have to specify one or more include paths in the compile command, you can do it as follows:
g++ -I/path1/to/headers -I/path2/to/headers YourProgram.cpp
Include paths tell the compiler where it finds the files it actually shall include into other files. This is (usually) controlled via compiler options as LPs explained in this answer.
C++ standard does not provide any facilities to do this from within a C++ source file and I am not aware either of any compiler extension of any vendor that would allow doing so, so bad luck...
Now depending on the IDE you are using (hopefully you are using one...), though, you most likely can add include paths for files individually there (would be a strange IDE if it didn't allow...), e. g. with eclipse + GCC, right click the file, select "Properties" -> C/C++ Build -> Tool Settings -> GCC C++ Compiler -> Includes.
Alternatively you could use a make file instead (actually, eclipse in standard settings generates one for you automatically...), which again allows you to set compiler options for each file individually - either written directly by yourself or generated by some other tools facilitating this such as cmake.
I am trying to include the UIAutomation.h library in my Code::Blocks client but I think I am doing something wrong. I just typed:
#include <UIAutomation.h>
at top of my program where all my other headers are and I get this error message right away when I compile:
fatal error: UIAutomation.h: No such file or directory
I am a bit of a newb with these things, and I saw some people talk online about a "linker". If a linker has anything to do with me being able to use the UI Automation library, please let me know what is a linker and how do I use it? Otherwise, please let me know what you think I could be doing wrong.
ohh ok so I can do like #include "c:\programfiles\...\UIAutomation.h"??.. do I have to include the <>? like: #include <"c:\blah\blah"> or #include "c:\blah\blah"??
Yes you can do that, but that's very probably a bad idea!
You should better use the -I option of the actual compiler to specify where to search for additional (besides standard) include files:
-I"c:\programfiles\UIAutomation\include"
Also you'll need to set the -L option for the linker to specify where to find the corresponding libraries for UIAutomation:
-L"c:\programfiles\UIAutomation\lib"
and the library itself with the -l<lib> option:
-lUIAutomation
The latter name depends which library files are actually present in the directory specifed with the -L option. The above sample expects to find a file named libUIAutomation.a or libUIAutomation.lib there.
I'm not really experienced with the codeblocks IDE, but from what I remember it allows you to set these options in the project settings.
NOTE:
All the specific option references given above, refer to the actual toolchain used for your codeblocks project. These will apply for the most commonly used toolchains (e.g. like GCC), but may vary for different ones. Though, there- will be certainly equivalent options for the compiler and linker tool used.
I find #include "../app/thing.h" very ugly and I would like to be able to import from the main root of my project, like this:
#include <project/app/submodule/thing.h>
(I know <> is generally used for external but I find it very cleaner)
How can I do that, from anywhere in my project?
You simply need to ensure that your build process sets an option to specify the starting point of the search.
For example, if your header is in:
/work/username/src/project/app/submodule/thing.h
then you need to include (assuming a POSIX-compliant compiler; AFAICR, even MSVC uses /I as the analogue of -I):
-I/work/username/src
as one of the compiler options. You can use that path from anywhere in your project since it is absolute. You just need a defined way for your build system to know what the setting should be, so that when it is moved to /home/someone/src/, you have only one setting to change.
See this answer for a more complete explanation about how the differences between the two formats work. Honestly, though, I think you might want to consider restructuring your folder hierarchy if you need to jump up a folder then jump into another folder to get something. Generally speaking, it's pretty common practice to keep all files local to your program local to each other in the folder structure (i.e. in the same folder), and all files that aren't local, but may be needed (such as header files for libraries used) in a sub-folder within the main program folder, or to include them at compile time.
It is important to note that in the answer I linked above, it explains that "<>" includes are IMPLEMENTATION DEPENDENT, so we'd really need to know what compiler you're using to tell you if you could or couldn't do that.
You can simply use the include directories option of your current compiler (-I usually) to achieve this.
Also note using the "" double quotes will just add to fallback for the compiler standard headers. Files included using the <>, are only guaranteed to search files from the compiler standard headers.
I have access to a large C++ project, full of files and with a very complicated makefile courtesy of automake & friends
Here is an idea of the directory structure.
otherproject/
folder1/
some_headers.h
some_files.cpp
...
folderN/
more_headers.h
more_files.cpp
build/
lots_of things here
objs/
lots_of_stuff.o
an_executable_I_dont_need.exe
my_stuff/
my_program.cpp
I want to use a class from the big project, declared in say, "some_header.h"
/* my_program.cpp */
#include "some_header.h"
int main()
{
ThatClass x;
x.frobnicate();
}
I managed to compile my file by painstakingly passing lots of "-I" options to gcc so that it could find all the header files
g++ my_program.cpp -c -o myprog.o -I../other/folder1 ... -I../other/folderN
When it comes to compiling I have to manually include all his ".o"s, which is probably overkill
g++ -o my_executable myprog.o ../other/build/objs/*.o
However, not only do I have to do things like manually removing his "main.o" from the list, but this isn't even enough since I forgot to also link against all the libraries that he happened to use.
otherproject/build/objs/StreamBuffer.h:50: undefined reference to `gzread'
At this point I am starting to feel I am probably doing something very wrong. How should I proceed? What is the usual and what is the best approach this kind of issue?
I need this to work on Linux in case something platform-specific needs to be done.
Generally the project's .o files should come grouped together into a library (on Linux, .a file if it's a static library, or .so if it's a dynamic library), and you link to the library using the -L option to specify the location and the -l option to specify the library name.
For example, if the library file is at /path/to/big_project/libbig_project.a, you would add the options -L /path/to/big_project -l big_project to your gcc command line.
If the project doesn't have a library file that you can link to (e.g. it's not a library but an executable program and you just want some of the code used by the executable program), you might want to try asking the project's author to create such a library file (if he/she is familiar with "automake and friends" it shouldn't be too much trouble for him), or try doing so yourself.
EDIT Another suggestion: you said the project comes with a makefile. Try makeing it with the makefile, and see what its compiler command line looks like. Does it have many includes and individual object files as well?
Treating an application which was not developed as a library as if it was a library isn't likely to work. As an offhand example, omitting the main might wind up cutting out initialization code that the class you want depends upon.
The responsible thing to do here is to read the code, understand it, and turn the functionality you want into a proper library. Build the "exe you don't need" with debug symbols and set breakpoints in the constructors and methods of the class. Step into them so you get a grasp on the functionality and what parts of the program are relevant and irrelevant to your needs.
Hopefully the code is under some kind of version control system that supports branching (such as Git). If not, make your own repository that does. Edit the files until you've organized them into a library and code that uses the library. Make sure it works properly within the context of the original program. Then turn around and use this library in your own program.
If you've done a good job, you might be able to convince the original authors to accept the separation back into their original codebase. If not, at least version control has your back so you can manage integration of future changes.