Let cmake with clang use c++11 (c++14) - c++11

My cmake project shall compile c++14 code. It also uses the CMakeLists.txts included from its external libraries (which are git submodules in my project). The build fails on macOS Sierra (cmake 3.6.2) because the default STL of clang is old and doesn't handle c++11. As far as I understand, there are two STLs shipped with clang: libstdc++ (from gcc) (default) or libc++. So if I add the -stdlib=libc++ option to cmake, the source compiles:
add_compile_options( "$<$<COMPILE_LANGUAGE:CXX>:-std=c++14>" )
add_compile_options( "$<$<COMPILE_LANGUAGE:CXX>:-stdlib=libc++>" )
But then it fails at link time because it tries to use libstdc++ for linking. How do I specify in cmake that the new STL libc++ shall be used for the whole build process?
PS: What is the rationale behind clang using the gcc STL by default if it is too old? Could I permanently specify which STL it shall use? Or am I doing something completely wrong (could some of my subprojects silently force gcc?)?

You should rely on CMake to handle compile options. Just specify the wanted standard version:
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 14)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
target_compile_features can also be used to require particular features of the standard (and implicitly ask CMake to set the adequate configuration). More information here.
EDIT
You figured out the solution, you also had to remove the following line in the CMakeLists of Ogred3D:
set(CMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET 10.7)
Removing it prevented CMake to add the flag mmacosx-version-min=10.7 causing the error.

I suppose, you also need to pass that flang to the linker in the clang case:
link_libraries("-stdlib=libc++")

Related

Different compiler flags for different compilers?

I have a cc_library (tbb) that requires the compiler flag -mwaitpkg on some compilers (Clang) to compile successfully. At the same time, there are older versions of GCC (4.9) that do not know this flag, and therefore the compilation via GCC 4.9 leads to an error:
gcc: error: unrecognized command line option '-mwaitpkg'
In a more advanced Bazel setup, I guess one would work around this using hermetic toolchains. This way every toolchain could provide its own set of compiler flags. Nevertheless, I do not want to enforce any specific toolchain and I am not sure if this is the right way to go (move copts to toolchain?).
Also introducing a config would be a way to solve this problem. E.g. bazel build --config=waitpkg //.... But this would require that a user is aware of this config and also knows the details of using waitpkg.
What is a proper "Bazel-way" to handle different compiler flags for different compilers?
The flag '-mwaitpkg' is supported by GCC version 9.3, Clang* 12, and newer versions of those tools.
If you build Bazel with earlier versions of GCC, you should remove the flag otherwise it gives compilation errors.

How to configure clang to use arm-none-eabi linker

I am trying to configure the last version of clang (6.0) to use the arm-none-eabi linker instead of the ld.lld but clang is always ignoring everything and keep asking for the ld.lld one. I am trying to build for cortex-m3 (lpx1769 board). How do I force clang to use the linker I want.
-fuse-ld=ld is also not working, so does clang no longer allow the use of any other linker?
So the answer was to use the flag:
-fuse-ld=path/to/linker-to-be-used
Remember that if you passing this flag to clang it will cause a warning that clang will not use this flag (only the linker stage will do). Thus if you compiling with -Werror, the warning will be turned into an error.
Moreover, because you are cross-compiling probably you will need to let the linker know where to find the target-specific libraries needed using the -L option. See this for more info:
https://clang.llvm.org/docs/CrossCompilation.html

arm gcc by default compiling its libc

I am trying to compile an SDK with the an embedded arm gcc compiler in cygwin. It is a makefile based SDK. My target is a cortex m3 device. My problem is, the SDK has a custom libc implementation for the target, and when I compile with the arm compiler (arm-none-eabi-gcc) it looks to pick up the gnu arm libc, not the SDK libc. This is resulting in a compilation error. I am positive the makefiles are correct (I copy and pasted the entire SDK from a computer where this was working). I no longer have access to that computer to try and verify / compare settings. I don't know how to prevent the arm gcc compiler from looking for its own implementation of the libc and instead point it to the correct implementation. Any help is greatly appreciated.
There are perhaps two solutions:
Create an environment specific to your tool - the GNU toolchain uses a number of environment variables to define default behaviour. For a custom toolchain, you will need to set all necessary variables to override the system defaults.
Use the -nostdlib linker option and explicitly link your desired library and C Runtime start-up code, so your linker command line might include the following:
-nostdlib -L/usr/myarmtools/gcc/lib -lc crt0.o
Note that -nostdlib suppresses the default linking of libc libstdc++ and crt0.o, so you must provide search path (-L) to the libraries, or explicitly link them by their full path and file name and link the C runtime object code for your target.
I use option 2 for preference as it will work in any environment. However if you wish to use common makefiles for building for multiple targets, option 1 may be useful.

Force CMake to use static libraries

[Shamelessly cross-posted from the CMake help list]
I'm trying to create binaries as statically as possible. The fortran code I've got has got X11 and quadmath as dependencies, and I've come across a number of issues (maybe each of these issues should be in a different question?):
My variables are currently
set(CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/X11/lib /usr/X11/include/X11 ${CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH})
find_package(X11 REQUIRED)
find_library(X11 NAMES X11.a PATHS /usr/X11/include/X11/ /usr/X11/lib)
find_library(X11_Xaw_LIB NAMES Xaw Xaw /usr/X11/include/X11/ /usr/X11/lib ${X11_LIB_SEARCH_PATH})
find_library(Xaw Xaw7 PATHS ${X11_LIB_SEARCH_PATH})
set(CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.7 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.7/x32 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.7/32 ${CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH})
find_library(quadmath NAMES quadmath.a)
set(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS ON)
set(CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_SUFFIXES .a ${CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_SUFFIXES})
set(LINK_SEARCH_START_STATIC TRUE)
set(LINK_SEARCH_END_STATIC TRUE)
set(SHARED_LIBS OFF)
set(STATIC_LIBS ON)
set(CMAKE_INSTALL_RPATH_USE_LINK_PATH TRUE)
set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "${CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS} -static")
Using these, CMake attempts to build every program statically (as expected) - however, it fails because I don't have Xaw.a - I can't find out whether this actually should exist. I have installed the latest libxaw7-dev which I was expecting to fix it. One option would be to compile the X11 libraries myself, but I don't really want to do that...
if I comment out only set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "${CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS} -static"), then CMake compiles everything, but uses shared libraries for every program, even though I specify the location of .a X11 libraries in my find_library() calls. I was expecting CMake to use the .a files where it could and then only use shared libraries - is there a way to force this behaviour?
does anyone know yet of a fix for the bug described here: http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=46539; whereby gfortran seemingly can't statically link libquadmath? I tried the fix using gcc but I can't get CMake to recognise the libgfortran flag:
cmake -DCMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER=gcc -DCMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS=-gfortran
results in
-- The Fortran compiler identification is unknown
-- Check for working Fortran compiler: /usr/bin/gcc
-- Check for working Fortran compiler: /usr/bin/gcc -- broken
CMake Error at /usr/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeTestFortranCompiler.cmake:54 (message):
The Fortran compiler "/usr/bin/gcc" is not able to compile a simple test program.
However, as you might have noticed, I set the location of the libquadmath.a; when I build a program which doesn't use X11 but does use quadmath when I use
set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "${CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS} -static")
then the program does compile successfully (running ldd reports 'not a dynamic executable') - does this mean that the bug has been fixed, or does it only work because I set the location in CMake?
I was having a similar problem. Turns out that cmake was implicitly linking against libgfortran and libquadmath. To fix this I put the following in my top level CMakeLists.txt:
unset(CMAKE_Fortran_IMPLICIT_LINK_LIBRARIES)
I could then explicitly link again the libraries using:
SET_TARGET_PROPERTIES(main_f PROPERTIES LINKER_LANGUAGE "C"
LINK_FLAGS
"/usr/local/Cellar/gcc/7.1.0/lib/gcc/7/libgfortran.a
/usr/local/Cellar/gcc/7.1.0/lib/gcc/7/libquadmath.a -lm -lgcc"
)
The static version of libgfortran is necessary because the shared library also depends on libquadmath. The added "-lm" and "-lgcc" bring in the system dynamic versions of these libraries. On a mac system, you would want to use the full path to your libm.a as well.
I guess your questions are not that much related, I don't know the answer for all of them.
For your static linking problems, since you're using GCC, you can pass multiple -static and -dynamic flags to it:
set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "-static ${STATIC_LIBS} -dynamic ${EVERYTHING ELSE} -static ${MORE_STATIC_LIBS}")
I don't know why Xaw.a isn't available on your system, probably because the package maintainer of your Linux distribution didn't really make them available.
Also, compiling everything static might make things not compatible between all distros out there and you cripple the ability for others to use improved, up-to-date libraries with your program, it might not be what you want.
If you intend to make a self-contained package of your program, it might be better just to include the shared libraries you used together, like Dropbox and many other proprietary applications do (Humble Bundle games are other example).

How do I activate C++ 11 in CMake?

When I try to run a CMake generated makefile to compile my program, I get the error that
range based for loops are not supported in C++ 98 mode.
I tried adding add_definitions(-std=c++0x) to my CMakeLists.txt, but it did not help.
I tried this too:
if(CMAKE_COMPILER_IS_GNUCXX)
add_definitions(-std=gnu++0x)
endif()
When I do g++ --version, I get:
g++ (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.1-9ubuntu3) 4.6.1
I have also tried SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-std=c++0x"), which also does not work.
I do not understand how I can activate C++ 11 features using CMake.
CMake 3.1 introduced the CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD variable that you can use. If you know that you will always have CMake 3.1 or later available, you can just write this in your top-level CMakeLists.txt file, or put it right before any new target is defined:
set (CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
If you need to support older versions of CMake (quite unlikely these days), here is a macro I came up with that you can use:
macro(use_cxx11)
if (CMAKE_VERSION VERSION_LESS "3.1")
if (CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL "GNU")
set (CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=gnu++11")
endif ()
else ()
set (CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
endif ()
endmacro(use_cxx11)
The macro only supports GCC right now, but it should be straight-forward to expand it to other compilers.
Then you could write use_cxx11() at the top of any CMakeLists.txt file that defines a target that uses C++11.
CMake issue #15943 for clang users targeting macOS
If you are using CMake and clang to target macOS there is a bug that can cause the CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD feature to simply not work (not add any compiler flags). Make sure that you do one of the following things:
Use cmake_minimum_required to require CMake 3.0 or later, or
Set policy CMP0025 to NEW with the following code at the top of your CMakeLists.txt file before the project command:
# Fix behavior of CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD when targeting macOS.
if (POLICY CMP0025)
cmake_policy(SET CMP0025 NEW)
endif ()
The CMake command target_compile_features() is used to specify the required C++ feature cxx_range_for. CMake will then induce the C++ standard to be used.
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.1.0 FATAL_ERROR)
project(foobar CXX)
add_executable(foobar main.cc)
target_compile_features(foobar PRIVATE cxx_range_for)
There is no need to use add_definitions(-std=c++11) or to modify the CMake variable CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS, because CMake will make sure the C++ compiler is invoked with the appropriate command line flags.
Maybe your C++ program uses other C++ features than cxx_range_for. The CMake global property CMAKE_CXX_KNOWN_FEATURES lists the C++ features you can choose from.
Instead of using target_compile_features() you can also specify the C++ standard explicitly by setting the CMake properties
CXX_STANDARD
and
CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED for your CMake target.
See also my more detailed answer.
I am using
include(CheckCXXCompilerFlag)
CHECK_CXX_COMPILER_FLAG("-std=c++11" COMPILER_SUPPORTS_CXX11)
CHECK_CXX_COMPILER_FLAG("-std=c++0x" COMPILER_SUPPORTS_CXX0X)
if(COMPILER_SUPPORTS_CXX11)
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")
elseif(COMPILER_SUPPORTS_CXX0X)
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++0x")
else()
message(STATUS "The compiler ${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER} has no C++11 support. Please use a different C++ compiler.")
endif()
But if you want to play with C++11, g++ 4.6.1 is pretty old.
Try to get a newer g++ version.
The easiest way to set the Cxx standard is:
set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY CXX_STANDARD 11)
See the CMake documentation for more details.
On modern CMake (>= 3.1) the best way to set global requirements is:
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
set(CMAKE_CXX_EXTENSIONS OFF)
It translates to "I want C++11 for all targets, it's not optional, I don’t want to use any GNU or Microsoft extensions."
As of C++17, this still is IMHO the best way.
Source: Enabling C++11 And Later In CMake
As it turns out, SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-std=c++0x") does activate many C++11 features. The reason it did not work was that the statement looked like this:
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-std=c++0x ${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -g -ftest-coverage -fprofile-arcs")
Following this approach, somehow the -std=c++0x flag was overwritten and it did not work. Setting the flags one by one or using a list method is working.
list( APPEND CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-std=c++0x ${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -g -ftest-coverage -fprofile-arcs")
For CMake 3.8 and newer you can use
target_compile_features(target PUBLIC cxx_std_11)
If you want the generation step to fail if the toolchain cannot adhere to this standard, you can make this required.
set_target_properties(target PROPERTIES CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
If you want strict adherence to standard C++ i.e. avoid C++ extensions offered by your compiler (like GCC's -std=gnu++17), additionally set
set_target_properties(target PROPERTIES CXX_EXTENSIONS OFF)
This is documented in detail at An Introduction to Modern CMake -> Adding Features -> C++11 and Beyond. It also offers advice on how to achieve this on older versions of CMake if you're constrained to those.
The easiest way:
add_compile_options(-std=c++11)
This is another way of enabling C++11 support,
ADD_DEFINITIONS(
-std=c++11 # Or -std=c++0x
# Other flags
)
I have encountered instances where only this method works and other methods fail. Maybe it has something to do with the latest version of CMake.
Modern cmake offers simpler ways to configure compilers to use a specific version of C++. The only thing anyone needs to do is set the relevant target properties. Among the properties supported by cmake, the ones that are used to determine how to configure compilers to support a specific version of C++ are the following:
CXX_STANDARD sets the C++ standard whose features are requested to build the target. Set this as 11 to target C++11.
CXX_EXTENSIONS, a boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested. Setting this as Off disables support for any compiler-specific extension.
To demonstrate, here is a minimal working example of a CMakeLists.txt.
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.1)
project(testproject LANGUAGES CXX )
set(testproject_SOURCES
main.c++
)
add_executable(testproject ${testproject_SOURCES})
set_target_properties(testproject
PROPERTIES
CXX_STANDARD 11
CXX_EXTENSIONS off
)
In case you want to always activate the latest C++ standard, here's my extension of David Grayson's answer, in light of the recent (CMake 3.8 and CMake 3.11) additions of values of 17 and 20 for CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD):
IF (CMAKE_VERSION VERSION_LESS "3.8")
SET(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 14)
ELSEIF (CMAKE_VERSION VERSION_LESS "3.11")
SET(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
ELSE()
SET(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 20)
ENDIF()
# Typically, you'll also want to turn off compiler-specific extensions:
SET(CMAKE_CXX_EXTENSIONS OFF)
(Use that code in the place of set (CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11) in the linked answer.)
What works for me is to set the following line in your CMakeLists.txt:
set (CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")
Setting this command activates the C++11 features for the compiler and after executing the cmake .. command, you should be able to use range based for loops in your code and compile it without any errors.
I think just these two lines are enough.
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")
The modern way is to specify the minimum required standard to C++11 with:
target_compile_features(foo PUBLIC cxx_std_11)
This way:
CMake can honor default C++ standard of the compiler if it's greater than C++11
You can clearly specify whether C++ standard is required at build time, consume time, or both. This is nice for libraries.
Public compile features are propagated to downstream targets, so it comes for free in those targets even if they don't directly use this feature.
Users can externally set another C++ standard (more recent basically), with CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD, either from command line or CMake presets. If you hardcode CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD in a CMakeLists, nobody can override the C++ standard without editing your CMakeLists, which is not very pleasant.
It requires CMake >= 3.8
You can use the following. This automatically modifies the feature based on your environment.
target_compile_features(your_target INTERFACE cxx_std_20)
For example,
on Gnu/Linux the following adds -std=gnu++20
on Windows with Clang/Ninja it becomes -std=c++20
on Windows with MSVC it becomes /std=c++20
So you support as many as environments possible.
In case you stumble on that same error using cmake as i did.
You need to set
set (CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
to activate threading because it is only supported from c++11 ++
hope that helps
OS X and Homebrew LLVM related:
Don't forget to call cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.3) and project() after it!
Or CMake will insert project() implicitly before line 1, causing trouble with Clang version detection and possibly other sorts of troubles. Here is a related issue.

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