After installing Visual Studio 2015 and running CMake on a previous project, CMake errors stating that it could not find the C compiler.
The C compiler identification is unknown
The CXX compiler identification is unknown
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:4 (PROJECT):
No CMAKE_C_COMPILER could be found.
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:4 (PROJECT):
No CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER could be found.
I went searching for cl.exe in the Visual Studio folder,C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0, and could not find it.
How do I set up CMake to work on Windows with Visual Studio 2015?
I have found the solution. While the Visual Studio IDE installed successfully it did not install any build tools and therefore did not install the C++ compiler.
By attempting to manually create a C++ project in the Visual Studio 2015 GUI I was able to prompt it to download the C++ packages. CMake was then able to find the compiler without any difficulty.
Here is the solution that worked for me:
Open Visual Studio command prompt tool (as an administrator). On windows 10 it might be called 'Developer command prompt'.
Navigate to where you have the CMake executable
Run Cmake.exe
Proceed as usual to select build and source folder
Select the appropriate Visual Studio compiler and hit the configure button
Hopefully it should run without problems.
I looked in CMakeError.log file and found an error about cannot run 'rc.exe'
I searched and found this answer to copy RC.Exe and RcDll.Dll from the Microsoft SDKs bin to the VC bin, and then CMake worked.
Edit: The top answer to another question suggests that it's a PATH issue, so it could be enough to ensure the Microsoft SDK bin is in your PATH.
Those stumbling with this on Visual Studio 2017: there is a feature related to CMake that needs to be selected and installed together with the relevant compiler toolsets. See the screenshot below.
Make sure you are using the correct version of Visual Studio in the generator. I had incorrectly selected Visual Studio 15 when Visual Studio 14 installed.
If none of the above solutions worked, then stop and do a sanity check.
I got burned using the wrong -G <config> string and it gave me this misleading error.
First, run from the VS Command Prompt not the regular command prompt. You can find it in
Start Menu -> Visual Studio 2015 -> MSBuild Command Prompt for VS2015 This sets up all the correct paths to VS tools, etc.
Now see what generators are available from cmake...
cmake -help
...<snip>...
The following generators are available on this platform:
Visual Studio 15 [arch] = Generates Visual Studio 15 project files.
Optional [arch] can be "Win64" or "ARM".
Visual Studio 14 2015 [arch] = Generates Visual Studio 2015 project files.
Optional [arch] can be "Win64" or "ARM".
Visual Studio 12 2013 [arch] = Generates Visual Studio 2013 project files.
Optional [arch] can be "Win64" or "ARM".
Visual Studio 11 2012 [arch] = Generates Visual Studio 2012 project files.
Optional [arch] can be "Win64" or "ARM".
Visual Studio 10 2010 [arch] = Generates Visual Studio 2010 project files.
Optional [arch] can be "Win64" or "IA64".
...
Then chose the appropriate string with the [arch] added.
mkdir _build
cd _build
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 15 Win64"
Running cmake in a subdirectory makes it easier to do a 'clean' since you can just delete everything in that directory.
I upgraded to Visual Studio 15 but wasn't paying attention and was trying to generate for 2012.
For me, I checked the CMakeError.log file and found:
[...] error MSB8036: The Windows SDK version 8.1 was not found. Install the required version of Windows SDK or change the SDK version in the project property pages or by right-clicking the solution and selecting "Retarget solution".
This is despite using Visual Studio 2017 on Windows 7. So it appears that CMake is trying to build its detection project with the Windows 8.1 SDK.
I used the Visual Studio installer to add that component and now CMake is happy as a clam.
Menu → Visual Studio 2015 → MSBuild Command Prompt for Visual Studio 2015. Then CMake can find cl.exe.
set PATH="c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\10.0.16299.0\x64\";%PATH%
Change the upper path to where your Windows SDK is installed.
CMake can find rc.exe.
cd to the path of CMakeLists.txt and do:
md .build
cd .build
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build .
The param after -G should be fetched by CMake. Use --help; you may or may not have the generator.
I ran into the same issue and fixed it by relaunching the Visual Studio Install and checking the following option:
Windows and Web Development / Universal Windows App Development Tools / Windows 10 SDK
It contains the standard C++ headers used in most applications and therefore it is often necessary to install it as well.
I had this issue under Windows 10 when using Visual Studio 2015 Professional, while Visual Studio 2015 Express worked! Under Windows 7, both Visual Studio versions used to work.
New projects created from the Visual Studio 2015 Professional IDE successfully compile, but CMake would fail to find the compiler reporting:
The C compiler identification is unknown
The CXX compiler identification is unknown
I upgraded CMake from 3.4.1 to 3.11.4, and now the problem is gone.
If you are on Visual Studio 2017 you need at least CMake 3.8!
I had a similar problem with the Visual Studio 2017 project generated through CMake. Some of the packages were missing while installing Visual Studio in Desktop development with C++. See snapshot:
Visual Studio 2017 Packages:
Also, upgrade CMake to the latest version.
Checking CMakeErrors.log in CMakeFiles returned:
C:\Program Files
(x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\Platforms\x64\PlatformToolsets\v140_xp\Toolset.targets(36,5): warning MSB8003: Could not find WindowsSdkDir_71A variable from the
registry. TargetFrameworkVersion or PlatformToolset may be set to an
invalid version number.
The error means that the build tools for XP (v140_xp) are not installed. To fix it I installed the proper feature in Visual Studio 2019 installer under Individual Components tab:
I was running old cmake version (i.e. 3.8) and I'm using visual studio 16 - 2019. After updating my cmake version, it did detect the compiler.
In my case there was an environment variable set which was the reason for this error.
The problem was solved after deleting cxx_flags from the environment variables.
I got this problem with CMake 3.12.1, after an update of Visual Studio 2017. I simply re-ran CMake and it worked.
In my case I could see in the CMakeError.log that CMake could not find the Windows SDK (MSB8003: Could not find WindowsSDKDir variable from the registry).
The version can be specified on the commandline on the first CMake run using:
-DCMAKE_VS_WINDOWS_TARGET_PLATFORM_VERSION=
I got further after setting that, but I hit more issues later (so I assume my environment is messed up somehow), but maybe it will help someone with this issue.
A couple of tips:
Try to set the path manually by checking 'advanced' and modifying CMAKE_LINKER and CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM
Delete the cache - in the CMake with GUI go to:
File → Delete Cache.
My problem was a combination of previously stated: I have set the compiler version to 15 instead of 14 and when corrected, I had to delete the cache.
I also started the Visual Studio command prompt as an administrator and from there I ran the cmake-gui.exe
Then everything worked as it was supposed to.
In my case the issue was that the parent project, which is including googletest via
add_subdirectory(gtest_dir)
was defined as
PROJECT( projname CXX )
Somehow, CMake does not recognize
PROJECT(sub_project_name CXX C)
since the C compiler is not set in the parent.
I solved the issue by using
PROJECT( projname CXX C)
in my main CMakeLists.txt file.
This might be another solution for those with the latest Windows 10 creator version:
Stack Overflow post Fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'gdi32.lib'
None of the previous solutions worked for me. However I noticed that although I installed Visual Studio version 15 (not to be confused with Visual Studio 2015) the directory created on my computer was for Visual Studio 14.
When I specified Visual Studio 14 when I pressed the configuration button it worked.
i found this sollution at stackoverflow and i work for me although not working other sollutions
if you have a windows 10 OS, doing the following steps will fix the problem:
1) go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1A\Bin
2) then copy RC.exe and RcDll from this file
3) go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\bin and paste the two files you have copied into it.
thats all i hope it is helpful...
Look in the Cmakelists.txt if you find ARM you need to install C++ for ARM and as well vcvarsall.bat use for ARM bin folder.
It's these packages:
C++ Universal Windows Platform for ARM64 "Not Required"
Visual C++ Compilers and libraries for ARM "Not Required"
Visual C++ Compilers and libraries for ARM64 "Very Likely Required"
Required for finding Threads on ARM
enable_language(C)
enable_language(CXX)
Then the problems might disappear:
No CMAKE_C_COMPILER could be found.
No CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER could be found.
If above does not resolve your problem?
Optionally you can remove the options C and CXX in cmakelists.txt by setting # infront of where the enable_language(C) is. And avoid Android ARM processor compilation.
Resolved by adding the missing component
Modify->continue add as follow
I had a related problem: the Visual C++ generators were not even on the list when running cmake --help.
I ran where cmake in console and found that cygwin also provides its own cmake.exe file, which was being used. Changing the order of directories in PATH fixed the problem.
I had this issue with CMake GUI and the VS 21019 Community Edition. I think I may have installed CMake before Visual Studio - certainly after I updated CMake 3.15.2 to 3.15.3 the problem went away.
Check name folder too long or not.
This question is old, but none of the solutions here were working for me. I'm using Visual Studio 2019, and in my case, C++ compilation was working but just broke one day.
However, I noticed that there was an update ready to be installed in the Visual Studio Installer.
After installing that update, rebooting my computer, and relaunching Visual Studio, all of the C++ CMake problems disappeared. I'm not quite sure why this fixed it, and I can only speculate, but I can only assume that one of two things occurred. Either installing that update fixed a broken installation, or the update was quietly downloaded and prepared in the background, breaking things in the process.
I met the same issue in VSCode Cmake extension, i solve it by check following two options:
In the end, click [Scan for kits]
cmake --no-warn-unused-cli -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS:BOOL=TRUE -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Debug "-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER:FILEPATH=C:\Program Files\mingw-w64\x86_64-8.1.0-posix-seh-rt_v6-rev0\mingw64\bin\gcc.exe" "-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER:FILEPATH=C:\Program Files\mingw-w64\x86_64-8.1.0-posix-seh-rt_v6-rev0\mingw64\bin\g++.exe" -Hc:/code -Bc:/code/build -G "MinGW Makefiles"
tcl8.6.0 doesn't compile in VS11 with the makefile.vc provided by tcl.
I just had to deinstall VS11 and reinstall VC10 (visual studio 2010).
The README file in the "win" folder notes that Visual Studio 6.0 or newer should work,
but it seems the readme file is not up to date.
It seems that MS breaks the needed functionality with every release.
For python the situation seems to be the same:
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2012-July/121122.html
Any solution without the makefile doesn't make sense, as the tcl extensions wouldn't compile.
Can someone confirm that it is impossible to compile tcl8.6 with VS11? (using the provided makefile.vc?)
--
(I would strongly advice against using VC11 at the moment, it's just a huge waste of time.)
not sure what problems you have compiling, as you did not mention it.
But just using:
cd win
nmake -f makefile.vc
just worked for me, in the usual VC 2012 (Express for Desktop) command prompt on Windows 8 Pro.
The tests mostly run, just some link, http and timing relevant tests fail.
I've just begun a small project in CUDA.
I need to know the following:
Is it possible to compile CUDA code without using/buying Microsoft Visual Studio?
Using Nvcc.exe I get the error "Cannot find compiler cl.exe in path".
I've tried to install a CUDA plugin for NetBeans, but it doesn't work. (with current version of NetBeans)
Platform: Windows 7
Thanks in advance.
Update
As noted in the comments, versions of the SDK after Windows 7's do not include the build tools. If you want to use Microsoft's most recent tools you have to install Visual Studio. Once installed, you can use the tools from the command-line.
At the moment the free versions are the "Community" versions, e.g. Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2015.
You can continue to develop apps for Windows 7 and earlier (and they will run on later versions of Windows) using the old SDK tools as I described before:
Original Answer
If you desperately want to avoid Visual Studio, download and install the Windows SDK. This contains (more or less) the same build tools as Visual Studio.
Then run the Windows SDK Command Prompt (which you'll find on the start menu under Microsoft Windows SDK) to set the path to point to the tools, and you are set.
Or just use Visual C++ Express.
Following the previous comments I've installed Studio Express & VS2010.
This did not solve the "cl.exe not in path" problem.
I solved the problem with the error Cannot find compiler cl.exe in path, by including
c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\bin\amd64 in PATH,
before installing Windows SDK.
This question also contains valuable information.
For some reason VS2010 & Studio Express failed to set the proper variables in path even after the execution of vsvars32.bat.
Thank you all for your valuable help.
add this options to nvcc
nvcc x.cu <other options> -ccbin "D:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\bin"
i use VS2012 and my cl.exe dir is here.
You have to figure out where NVIDIA GPU Computing Toolkit is installed.
In my system it's in "C:\Program Files\NVIDIA GPU Computing Toolkit\CUDA\v4.0\bin\nvcc.exe" Then
"Edit Environment Variables" on Windows.
Click on New...
Variable name: NVCC
Variable Value: C:\Program Files\NVIDIA GPU Computing Toolkit\CUDA\v4.0\bin\nvcc.exe
Click on OK.
Use windows subsystem for linux and install ubuntu and nvcc along with gcc and g++ using the ubuntu terminal in windows (gui does not works for linux subsystem for windows). Then configure .bashrc using bash and vim/nano with a 'cd' command to your desired location as it is done in usual linux terminal (makes it easy as bash opens in system32 folder everytime). And then you can compile .cu files using nvcc over bash. As nvcc supports gcc and g++ under linux so it solves the problem. No need to sacrifice peace for switching over to linux or dealing with crappy visual studio. It worked for me.
We have an automated build system, which builds a variety of Visual Studio 2005 solution files. These solutions contain various Visual C++ and Intel Fortran projects.
We are in the process of upgrading our Intel Fortran compiler, and Visual Studio is currently setup to be integrated with the old Intel compiler (ver 9.1).
I'm looking for a way to tell Visual Studio to use the new Intel Fortran compiler (ver 11). I need to be able to tell Studio to do this just for our compiler upgrade project, with it's default remaining as is (using ver 9.1) so that our standard builds can continue without being affected by the upgrade project.
Does anybody know if this is possible? I.e., can I tell Visual Studio which Intel compiler to use via the command line?
At the moment, I can use the batch scripts that Intel supply to setup the LIB=, INCLUDE= and PATH= environment variables. However, when Visual Studio compiles the Fortran projects, it's using ver 9.1.
What about the "/useenv" command line to devenv.exe?
C:\>devenv /?
Microsoft (R) Visual Studio Version 8.0.50727.867.
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1984-2005. All rights reserved.
Use:
devenv [solutionfile | projectfile | anyfile.ext] [switches]
...
/useenv Use PATH, INCLUDE, LIBPATH, and LIB environment variables
instead of IDE paths for VC++ builds.