Boost 1_44 includes don't work - visual-studio-2010

Sorry for what seems like a silly question: But I've never, ever worked with boost, until tonight, and I'm finding that getting it configured seems to be harder to use than it should be.
I wanted experiment with it tonight. So I downloaded the zip file, and unzipped it to a directory here:
F:/boost_1_44_0
Then I created an empty c++ project in visual studio 2010 (not using pch either). So all I wanted to do was to include a header file. But not even a silly thing like that seems to work. Now I've been using visual studio for years, though at work we are still stuck on vs 2008 (That is another story). So usually what you do is set an include directory, and then you can include files in at will right?
So I set the global include directory to include the boost root. i.e. Property Manager -> My configuration (debug|win32) -> Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.user -> Common Properties -> C++ Directories -> Include Directories. There I added my path to f:/boost_1_44_0.
I also went to the project properties and set the C++ include directory for the project to point to the boost root like in vs 2008.
I then added a silly include declaration like so:
#include <boost/lambda/lambda.hpp>
But, amazingly it fails to compile!!! with the following error:
Error 1 error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'boost/type_traits/transform_traits.hpp': No such file or directory f:\boost_1_44_0\boost\lambda\core.hpp 25 1 test_boost
Which when I double click it, it opens up in f:\boost_1_44_0\boost\lambda\core.hpp, and takes me to this line:
#include "boost/type_traits/transform_traits.hpp"
So I have no idea what's happening. Is visual studio just not delivering up my global include paths that I set? It seems also that the include directive in core.hpp should be using angle brackets and not quotes.
If I'm doing something wrong what?
EDIT:
!! SOLVED !!
Before I didn't have all the files unzipped. I don't know what happened. So I re-downloaded the zip file, and unzipped it again. This time the zip file took much longer to unzip, and it extracted much more files: Including the missing files.
Problem solved, my hello world app compiles just fine now.

The behaviour of compilers in locating header files is implementation defined for both the <> and "" variants.
However, based on this page for VC2010, it appears the quoted form searches a superset of the angle bracket form so I'm not sure that's the problem.
I suppose it would be a silly question to ask if the following file actually existed?
f:\boost_1_44_0\boost\type_traits\transform_traits.hpp
So, a couple of investigative jobs:
Make sure that f:\boost_1_44_0\boost\type_traits\transform_traits.hpp exists.
Try changing your top-level include to use quotes.
Try changing the include in f:\boost_1_44_0\boost\lambda\core.hpp to use angle brackets.
Make sure you try all four possibilities for those last two.
Is f: a network-mounted drive? What happens if you put it all on c:?
That last one is just in case Windows is doing some shenanigans under the covers :-)

While it's a bit overkill for this, learning to use SysInternals' Process Monitor will pay off over time. It will show you what files are actually opened, and which attempts failed. Look where Visual Studio tries to read transform_traits.hpp from, and you'll probably have the answer.

Related

Visual Studio 2010 C++ Intellisense error

I am getting a strange Intellisense error in VS 2010. I searched the Internet with no luck. It seem that no one else got this error before.
IntelliSense: PCH warning: header stop needs to be at global scope.
An intellisense PCH file was not generated.
Following this many other errors as it stops indexing. This happens to the recent files that I have added. I have many files in my project (278) and this happens to the most recent 5-6 of them. May be I did something it doesn't like or may be there is a limitation.
Since I couldn't found this error even in the documentation, I would like to learn the reason as well as a possible solution. Note that, I have tried to delete ipch folder and sdf file to get them generated a new. The error is given to the last line of a file. My code heavily uses templates.
EDIT:
I noticed my ipch folder is mostly empty. This probably means that entire precompiled header generation fails, rather for those files. Still, intellisense partially works, but not for those files.
This error is generated when you forget a ";" after a class declaration, for example:
#ifndef _MYCLASS_H
class MyClass {
...
public:
...
}
#endif <--- VS2010 report here the error PCH: warning...
If you put a ";" after the closing "}" the error go away. I'm not saying this is the only cause, I'm just saying that I found that error with the missing ";" in the mentioned place.
PCH stand for "pre-compiled header" - you'll need to make sure you have these configured correctly.
The error message seems to be saying that the header configured as the 'stop' for precompiled headers is being included in a nested fashion (ie., some other header is including it). By default, a solution will use stdafx.h as the 'stop' header and the idiom is that stdafx.h will be the first header included in any .cpp or .c file. Don't include stdafx.h in any other header.
The best information about how Intellisense works and how to troubleshoot it come from the Visual C++ Team Blog.
A few articles that might be helpful:
Troubleshooting Tips for IntelliSense Slowness
Precompiled Header Files in Visual Studio 2010
IntelliSense History, Part 1
IntelliSense, Part 2 (The Future)
My initial feeling is that it could be a file encoding problem, but anyway here's how I would approach figuring it out...
Create a brand new solution, does the intellisense work? If not then a VS reinstall might be in order.
If intellisense works in a different solution then there are 2 possibilities: something in your solution is screwy, or something in your folder hierarchy is screwy (permissions maybe?)
I'd delete the entire solution folder and get the latest from source control.
If it still occurs after that and you really want to find the cause, then you could remove a load of files from the project, see if the intellisense now works, remove some more... until a) you run out of files or b) you find the file that causes the error.
If a) then make a brand new solution and add your files and projects to it. If that works then compare your new solution/project files with the old ones to see what's different.
If b) then add the files back in and start pruning until you find the offending line.

Visual Studio does not honor include directories

I have been in this situation quite a few times where visual studio does not honor the Additional Include Directories when it comes to lib and header source files. For example, I just downloaded MyGUI source code and made sure the include directories were correct. I even put them to absolute paths, Visual Studio still complained that it could not find specific header files.
Does anybody experience the same thing with projects, and if so, is there a solution to this problem?Blockquote
EDIT: My apologies for not being able to explain fully. I know that the library and source files have different include directories. The project that I received had correct directory paths for the Additional Include Directories and Additional Library Directories but Visual Studio still failed to recognize them properly. I can right click and open the header file within Visual Studio but when compiling it still complains it cannot find the required header files. I regularly make projects relying on a framework I myself programmed, so I am quite familiar with how to set up dependencies. This is however the second time this seems to be happening. I don't recall which 3rd party project I was trying to compile last time, but Visual Studio simply refused to believe that the Additional Include Directories paths is where it should look for the header files. I am not sure how to give the complete details of this particular library (MyGUI) but I can point you to the website where you can download it to try and see if it is able to find the header files that are included in the project (if it doesn't compile, that is fine, and it is probably because of additional dependencies, but it should at least be able to find files in the common folder, especially when I put absolute paths in Additional Include Directories)
This happened to me once. It turned out the inconsistency of the Debug vs Release builds. When I modified one build, the other build was being compiled. Please set both builds with same include folders and see if it works. Good luck.
I've just spent some hours battling with failing #include paths in the compiler, inconsistencies between the compiler and intellisense.
What I finally discovered was that in the properties of the *.cpp file -- not the project, but the individual *.cpp file -- the "Additional Include Directories" property was blank. I had to explicitly set it to "inherit from from parent or project defaults" -- there's a checkbox near the lower-left corner of the dialog for editing the directory path.
I had copied this file from another project and used "Add > Existing Item..." to add it to the current project. My hypothesis was that maybe the "Existing Item" procedure skipped a property initialization step that "New Item" would normally perform. But I just tested that hypothesis by Adding another Existing and a New. Both of these files had their property set to inherit from the project, so I don't have an explanation for why my problem file was not initially set to inherit.
Anyway ... after much frustration, found and fixed that one.
I have found (stumbled) on the solution (I think). It has something to do with the character limit imposed by the OS. Although the limit should be 260, for me it falls in the below 150, see this discussion and links to it. I downloaded and unzipped the file to C:\Users\MyUserName\My Documents\Downloads\Downloads From Chrome\MyGui3.0...[and so on]. I learned quite some time ago not to try to compile projects under such long paths, but this time it completely slipped my mind as VS did not give me a warning at all and pointed me in the wrong direction. Anyway, cutting and pasting the project to D:\ fixed the issue. I am not going to checkmark the answer however until someone confirms this.
I have the same problem : Can't find .lib file even though I've added the additional include directory.
From an answer of Additional include directory in Visual studio 2015 doesn't work, I tried:
delete the .suo file and restart VS
Then it works for me.
I had this issue too. Just like sam said - this string value containing path to your framework includes has to be the same for the Debug and Release configurations. So the best way is to choose "Configuration:All Configurations" and "Platform:All Platforms" from the two context checklists on the top of the project properties window before typing it in, or copying from windows explorer adress bar.
Can you elaborate on this? If I recall, there are at least two places in Visual Studio where you can configure this:
Per-installation: Tools/Options/Projects and Solutions/VC++ Directories)
Per-project: Project/Properties/Configuration Properties/"C/C++"/General/Additional Include Directories
If you're adding the include directories per-project (#1), which I think you are, and then trying to include from another project, this will obviously not work. Try adding them at the per-installation level and see if it works.
Also, this may sound stupid/simplistic, but make sure the path is right (i.e. copy-paste into Explorer's path bar and see if the header files are in that folder).
If by lib files you mean library (.lib) files, the directory location is not specified through C/C++/General/Additional Include Directories but rather through Linker/General/Additional Library Directories.
It's logical if you think about it. C/C++ options are all compilation options, settings involved with compiling .cpp and .h files. Linker options are all linking options, settings involved with linking up .obj and .lib files.
I had the same symptoms in my c++ project. Navigating from header to header went fine, but after toggling to the source file of a header (let's say foo.cpp), then the navigation to an #include <bar.cpp> in that source file failed. I got the following error:
File 'bar.cpp' not found in the current source file's directory or in build system paths.
After research I noticed that the system build path given in the error where not extended with the include paths of the project. In other words: IntelliSense didn't know that the source file (foo.cpp) was part of the project, and therefore it didn't use the include paths of the project to search for the #include <bar.cpp>.
The fix for me was creating a file intelliSense.cpp (file name doesn't matter) that is part of the project, but excluded from the build. This file contains an include for each source file. ex:
#include <foo.cpp>
#include <bar.cpp>
...
This way IntelliSense knows that these source files are part of the project, and will therefore use the include paths of the project to resolve the #includes in those source files.
For me the issue was that .vcxproj Project file was read-only and after I added my directory to "Additional directories", the project file did not actually change. I was surprised that VS did not complain about this file being read-only.
So after I made that file write-able I could compile my project.
Here is another 'I had the same...' in vs2015.
For me it turned out that the active setting is also depending on the 'solution configuration' and 'solution platform'. That makes 4 settings which all should be identical.
That solved the problem in my case.
I realize this question is over 10 years old at this point, but I also just ran into this issue and none of the answers fit my scenario. After some playing with my IDE (VS 2019) for a few minutes I realized that the cpp file I was using had it's platform set to Win32, but the libs I was trying to use were built for x64.
As others have stated, make sure your project's configuration is set to
-"All Configurations" when you add the necessary paths to your project as that can also be an issue. I imagine my issue will not be as common, but I figured it was worth sharing. I hope this helps someone else in the future.
One more possible reason not mentioned earlier: make sure you are configuring properties of the correct project in a multi-project solution.
My problem was that I had a solution of two projects each using the same file with includes. Turns out that I correctly configured 'Additional Include Directories' only for one of two projects and totally forgot about another one. Of course error message was stating that only the second project and not the first one had problems.

Changing the default Source File Directory in Visual Studio

This is not a work-stopper in any way, but I thought I should ask anyway because it is a little annoying. Let's say I create a new project and start putting source files in a directory other than the default that shows up the first time. Afterwords, whenever I open the project, I have to navigate to the source directory once during that session. Like I said, not a big deal (but if solvable, then it's icing on the cake). Quite a few times I absentmindedly put the source file in the default directory and end up committing that file to the SVN and if I am lucky, going through all the files, removing them, then adding them again.
So my question is, is there any way to specify the default source directory on a per project basis?
I have run into the same nuisance. I like to put the public interface header files for a library in a separate directory, but end up with file directory typos because I forget to navigate to the correct directory when saving a new file. Unfortunately, Visual Studio does not offer a setting to change the default directory for new C++ source files.
I had the same problem when I started using build systems (CMake, Premake) which requires me to keep my project files separate from my source files, which hampered my workflow.
Although changing the default source directory seems impossible, if you aren't afraid to spend money, the workaround I found was to use the Visual Assist extension.
You can bind a shortcut of your choise to the Create File command which creates
a new file relative to the directory or your open file.
I'd also recommend to base one's workflow around the wonderful
Create from Usage command (which I think greatly boosts
productivity) which almost eliminates the need to manually create files.
The extension is great, albeit a bit costly. I would love to see Microsoft incorporate these features directly in the IDE eventually as they are found vanilla in a lot of other IDEs e.g. Eclipse, Intellij.
There might be some free extensions available that does the same thing, but I haven't found any.
Changing the Default Project Folder may help. This page demonstrates how to change the default for Visual Studio 2005, and it should be the same for later versions.

VS2008 files and "start debugging"

This may sound like a newbie question - and it is. I'm relatively new to vs, we started using it a few months ago, and I still haven't "mentally" made the change from the command line. So, if you could help me with 2 things:
I create a new project (not a solution). He puts the files in some directory. After putting my code inside it, I click on the little green triangle (Debug, it says), and he compiles it, builds it and runs it. It works ok. Now, sometimes, I have to change only a tiny bit of code and I don't feel like getting the whole VS up just for that. How can I do that Debug thing from the command line, with the assumption I didn't change anything else.
Where do I tell him not to create a "Debug" subdirectory, not to create a HTML Build log, an object file ... and so on, generally, where can I find the settings which will help me to get as little files ... apart from my original source, and the .exe resultant one ?
I have to change only a tiny bit of code and I don't feel like getting the whole VS up just for that. How can I do that Debug thing from the command line, with the assumption I didn't change anything else.
I think what you want here is not debugging but a rebuild of your project.
Where do I tell him not to create a "Debug" subdirectory, not to create a HTML Build log, an object file ... and so on, generally, where can I find the settings which will help me to get as little files ... apart from my original source, and the .exe resultant one ?
The answer to both these questions is to use the command line! You can make VS emit a make file from the loaded project. Use NMAKE to build this make file after you have made your desired modifications. The ".obj" files are created as an intermediate step between compilation and linking phase this is how the C++ compilation model works. Why do insist on not generating them?
You can't really start debugging without starting up Visual Studio, since Visual Studio is the debugger. You can tell VS to rebuild a solution from the command line without firing up the UI if you want to just build it: See MSDN for details.
You can control the creation of the DEBUG and RELEASE directories via the 'intermediate files' option in the project settings. Though you need to create the obj file somewhere in order for the compile to work.

Regenerate missing AssemblyInfo.cs in VS 2005

I'm trying to build a small VS 2005 solution I've just checked out of source control, and I'm getting this easy to understand error:
...\AssemblyInfo.cs' could not be
opened ('The system cannot find the
file specified. ') (The file is fairly
obviously missing)
Because this file's automatically generated, I've never paid it much heed before, and in VS 2003 (which I still work with day to day - pity me) it never seems to matter if it's missing.
So 2 questions:
1. How can I get VS 2005 to regenerate the file.
2. Could anyone explain to me in a couple of sentences what the assembly info file is all about, why it's generated, why it's a good idea to have an automatically generated file critical to my solution building etc etc.
Thanks - Andrew.
Edit: OK, I've googling some more, and it's probably significant that this is in an Nunit Test Project.
Update: Deleting the reference in solution explorer an Alex suggested did the trick, and the project now builds, but I'm not entirely happy with that as a solution. If the file is so unimportant, why is it generated in the first place? And if the file does perform a vital task, what am I missing out on by just deleting it?
Also, is it even possible to get it back? Either by getting VS to regenerate it, or by manually hacking one up (possibly using another as a template)?
This file contains assembly-wide settings like assembly version, name, etc. It is automatically generated when you change those settings using properties pages of the project. You should have this file in the project with sort of transparent icon (I think it is in resource folder or something like this by default). Locate it in the project tree and delete it. Visual studio will stop looking for it during build.
PS: assuming the path starts with .. and not ... then this file should be located one folder up from the project in the source control. So you can try looking there.

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