I work on an open-source application that is built in VisualStudio using the v142 toolset. This toolset is choosen over the newer v143 toolset because
some external libraries provide binary distributions for v142
github actions provide a runner containing v142
New developers of course start with VisualStudio 2022 CE. They just have to install the correct toolset and the compilation succeeds as expected. However, when building the installer (using Wix) it complains that the merge module for v142 is not available:
error LGHT0103 : The system cannot find the file 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Redist\MSVC\14.29.30133\MergeModules\Microsoft_VC142_CRT_x86.msm'.
Even installing the package Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Redist.MSM via the VisualStudio installer did not bring the v142 merge modules in. They are only available for the v143 toolset.
Is there some way to get the missing merge modules?
Or would it be OK to use the v143 merge modules while everything else is v142?
Find the complete list of installed packages for VS 2022 here:
{
"version": "1.0",
"components": [
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.CoreEditor",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.CoreEditor",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.TypeScript.TSServer",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.WebToolsExtensions",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.JavaScript.TypeScript",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Roslyn.Compiler",
"Microsoft.Component.MSBuild",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Roslyn.LanguageServices",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.TextTemplating",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.NuGet",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Debugger.JustInTime",
"Component.Microsoft.VisualStudio.LiveShare.2022",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.IntelliCode",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CoreIde",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Graphics.Tools",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.DiagnosticTools",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Redist.14.Latest",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.NativeDesktop.Core",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.WebToolsExtensions.CMake",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CMake.Project",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.ATL",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.TestAdapterForBoostTest",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.TestAdapterForGoogleTest",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.ASAN",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK.18362",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.VC.Tools.142.x86.x64",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Redist.MSM",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.14.29.16.11.x86.x64"
]
}
This appears to be a bug in the Visual Studio 2022 installer: The merge modules component should be tied to which toolsets are installed, but it appears to install only the latest/current toolset's merge modules. The same is true for Visual Studio 2019; it appears that version is the only way to get the merge modules installed.
That said, merge modules are not recommended. The preferred method is to use the redistributable packages.
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"
I used to compile for x64 using VS2008 express and win SDK. Recently rebuilt my machine (upgraded to 64bit Windows 7) and got latest express installed. Followed the same procedure to allow x64 targets and my sources don't link any more.
no matter what I do I always get:
LINK : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file 'kernel32.lib'
funny enough 32bit compilation works fine.
Is this some well know problem? Google didn't give me any clues how to tackle it just a couple of mentions of the same problem but no solutions.
Is it possible to use VS 2010 with win 7 SDK to target 64bit?
thanks
Pawel
the solution was dead easy at the end. The trick is to point VS to win SDK that for some reason was incorrect in my case.
Project Properties -> VC++ Directories -> Library Directories should point to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\Lib\x64
Something else I found, also dead easy, is to go to Project Properties->General and set Platform Toolset to Windows7.1SDK. Wonder why this works...
I've had the same problem and the answers here helped me, but I had to do more things.
Something had corrupted my Windows SDK installation, so I was missing all .lib files that go into C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\Lib\ (the x64 folder inside was ok). So I followed what's been said here and reinstalled it. Than I could set Platform Toolset to Windows7.1SDK (in both VS2010 and VS2013).
This works because the Platform Toolset changes the $(WindowsSdkDir) path within Visual Studio (those paths saved are in the system registry), which were broken if Kernel32.lib isn't found.
If none of the above solutions worked. 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.
FWIW, I had the same problem with Visual Studio 2013 when the entire v8.1 SDK install (files + reg keys) went AWOL, probably caused by the installation of Emborlandero RAD Studio.
Setting the WindowsSdkDir environment variable had no effect since both Studio itself (devenv.exe, environment inspected via Process Explorer) and a batch file called from a batch file called from vcvarsall.bat effectively erased that variable because they couldn't find the v8.1 SDK.
Visual Studio doesn't allow machine-specific directories to be configured in a machine-wide way (the suggestion to put this machine dependency into each and every project file is ludicrous beyond belief) and re-installing the v8.1 SDK was not possible in a timely fashion. A quick fix to get Studio working again in the meantime was to add the string value InstallationFolder under
Software/Microsoft/Microsoft SDKs/Windows/v8.1/
with the same contents as its v8.0 cousin. This was under HKLM/Wow6432Node but plain HKLM or HKCU should work as well.
That got Studio working again immediately, without even a restart.