I have a pretty large software library using CMake to be compiled. We use Linux mostly, but now a new colleague wants to use Visual Studio.
Is there any way to create a new VS 2017 project from the existing source codes with CMake structure?
I know, it's possible to do it with CLion, but I have no idea about VS, as I have a very little experience with it.
Other questions seem to focus on creating an empty project, which will use CMake, but not on creating a project from already existing source files.
Creating a cmake project with visual studio
Creating a project with visual studio 2017
I'm not sure why you asked for details but...
Assuming you are using cmake 3.13 then you can do the following in a command shell:
cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2017" -S path_to_source -B path_to_build
This will then create a solution file. Actually it creates a solution file for every project() command that is issued in CMakeLists.txt.
You can then open the solution file in Visual Studio, and build the project as usual.
You don't even need to do this in the Visual Studio GUI. After creating the initial project you can also issue the command:
cmake --build path_to_build
Which will kick off the build at the command line.
Now if your CMakeLists.txt in path_to_source is using Linux specific libraries or gcc specific compiler settings then the CMakeLists.txt will have to get updated to the Windows equivalent.
The alternative is to start Visual Studio and then use File->Open->CMake and open the CMakeLists.txt file in path_to_source. It'll then start to generate the project. But I prefer using the command line method.
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 don't know how to do this with msvc.
I succeeded when I used mingw.
I have to use make and make install in the command line because I want to use QtXlsxWriter which is a module.
I installed visual studio 2013 and Qt 5.5.1 VS 2013 only
Visual Studio has nmake instead of make. You also need Perl. Strawberry Perl may be used here:
Start Visual Studio command prompt
Set the PATH variable to point to Perl and Qt binary folders, for example: PATH=c:\Strawberry\perl\bin;c:\Qt5.5.1\5.5\msvc2013_64\bin;%PATH%
go to QtXlsxWriter folder
qmake
nmake
nmake install
Assuming you have a .pro Qt project file.
You can generate a makefile with qmake and compile it with nmake:
qmake
nmake
You can open it in QtCreator IDE and build from there directly.
You can generate Visual Studio IDE project file (.vcxproj):
qmake -tp vc
and
either open it in Visual Studio and build from there
or
build it from command line with msbuild:
msbuild projectname.vcxproj
qmake: Creates Makefile from qtxlsx.pro
make: Builds Makefile
Bullsit, sorry. There is no make in the Windows build system.
I understand that in linux cmake, make and make install can be combined together to produce a release. For example:
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
make
make install
In windows, however, I cannot find similar commands that can do the same job. Usually, what is done is to build a .sln project first if Visual Studio is used, after that compile the .sln project and in the end run the INSTALL project. Will it be possible to make a release with several commands as it has been done in Linux. Many thanks.
You can use msbuild instead of make:
cmake -G"Visual Studio 12" ..
msbuild /P:Configuration=Release INSTALL.vcxproj
or you could use CMake's --build argument:
cmake -G"Visual Studio 12" ..
cmake --build . --target INSTALL --config Release
If you need the equivalent of the make command with no args (i.e. make all) you would build the ALL_BUILD target as well, but this is built as part of the INSTALL target anyway.
In addition to Fraser's answer, to get the first solution to work, one might need to call MSBuild in CMD as Administrator from the original path
cmake ..
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\YEAR\EDITION\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe" INSTALL.vcxproj -p:Configuration=Release
Replace YEAR and EDITION with your corresponding values e.g. 2017 and Community
You might receive the following error, which means your enviroment variable is not set.
error MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found.
Confirm that the path in the declaration is correct, and that the file exists
on disk.
The enviroment variable can be set directly in the system settings or with CMD as Administrator. (Source for reference)
for Visual Studio 2015 and below:
SET VCTargetsPath="C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\vXXX\"
Replace vXXX with your corresponding version e.g. 140
for Visual Studio 2017 and above:
SET VCTargetsPath="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\YEAR\EDITION\Common7\IDE\VC\VCTargets\"
Replace YEAR and EDITION with your corresponding values e.g. 2017 and Community
Edit:
I've also noticed that some solutions in Visual Studio 2017 wont show their contents in the Solution Explorer if the enviroment variable is set. Just remove them again if necessary.
I got vcproj file from QMake (qmake -tp vc win32.pro), and when I run it with msbuild (msbuild for VS 2010), I get the following error.
MSBUILD : error MSB4192: The project file ".\win32.vcproj" is in the ".vcproj" or ".dsp" file format
, which MSBuild cannot build directly. Please convert the project by opening it in the Visual Studio
IDE or running the conversion tool, or, for ".vcproj", use MSBuild to build the solution file conta
ining the project instead.
I'd like to run the conversion tool for getting VS2010 project file. What's the tool for it?
ADDED
Based on heavyd's answer, I got it work.
qmake -project
qmake -tp vc win32.pro
devenv /Upgrade win32.vcproj
msbuild win32.vcxproj
One can use nmake, which is simpler.
qmake -spec win32-msvc2008
nmake
The conversion tools is built into the Visual Studio IDE. You can run it by opening a Visual Studio 2010 Command Prompt (Start->Microsoft Visual Studio 2010->Visual Studio Tools) and typing:
devenv /Upgrade example.vcproj
Where example.vcproj is your VS 2005/2008 Visual C++ project file. This should upgrade you project to VS 2010 so it can be built directly with MSBuild.