I am not a Windows user, but I was under the impression VS Code and Visual Studio could open CMakeLists.txt and directly understand CMake projects. This doesn’t work when you try it in the IDE?
From the command line, what I do on *nix is:
# setup for compiling in build/ and then installing to /foo/bar/
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/foo/bar -B build -S .
# compile
cmake --build build
# install
cmake --install build
As I’m sure you have read, CMake is a “meta build system” which is both a true statement and also completely unhelpful in understanding CMake. What this means is that CMake generates files for another actual build system (the cmake … -B build … line above generates a bunch of *nix Makefiles). On Windows I think the default build system is MSBuild. So if you just run the first line above, perhaps you get a bunch of .vcxproj files that VS Code and Visual Studio can understand?
Wish I had any answers here, but I only build under Linux - rather tedious, but even I can do it.
So let me ask the higher-level question:
Why do you need to build your own?
Maybe we can help find a way to use the existing Windows executable.
I would dearly love to not have to build it However, I have another post where I am reporting a crash, and I haven’t had any bites, so it looks like I’m going to have to take the bull by the horns and step into the offending code in debug mode.
Perhaps you are using the portable source tarball? It’s meant for building with Autotools and doesn’t include CMakeLists.txts. You should clone the Git repository from git@gitlab.com:graphviz/graphviz.git or graphviz / graphviz · GitLab instead. Also, you should start building from the top directory. Not from cmd.
The only reason I’m trying to compile the source is that I’ve got Graphviz linked into my app; sometimes it works (I can actually get a graph), and sometimes Graphviz is crashing. Since no one replied to my post, I figure I had to step into the code myself.
I downloaded ver. 12.0.0, the last one with a Visual Studio .SLN solution file. I can compile it, but it’s missing header files, and now I realize I have to download GTK and Cairo. I already have Qt. Talk about a rabbit hole
This is a classic “Yak shaving” situation. I just want to use the binaries and not have to recompile it.
Can I just pay someone to figure out why it’s crashing?
BTW I downloaded the source as you recommended. I can see the CMakeLists.txt files. What argument(s) do I pass to cmake?
(Assuming you have downloaded CMake or used the version shipped with Visual Studio, etc.etc.) start with
cmake --help
Trust me, I’m not insulting your intelligence here. What we want to see is the last page or so of CMake’s help text where it lists the ‘generators’ it knows about, specifically if it can find your version of Visual Studio. You should see whichever version/year of VS you have installed with a * indicating it’s been detected.
Next up is the general CMake build command. In the root of the source directory you should find CMakeLists.txt - this is the starting point of the entire build process, From the root of the graphviz source directory, run
cmake -S . -B build
This will use the current directory as the source tree and create the build files under build. If all goes well, you’ll get a .sln file and all the bits that VS expects to see. From there’s it’s mainly Visual Studio’s show - CMake is a meta-build system and it leverages native build tools like VS to do the actual compilation, linking, etc.
Having said all that, you will probably hit problems with missing dependencies. This is about where my knowledge ends with graphviz and others will have to step up and walk you through finding and installing the prerequisites. Hopefully CMake is set to look for all the expected dependencies and give you some helpful warning that it’s not finding what it’s expecting rather than a cryptic linker error after 20 minutes of compilation.
CMake is a pretty useful tool but yeah, I completely understand the frustration of trying to sort out a pile of unrelated infrastructure. I don’t think I’ve touched the CMake sources in 5 years but I saw you were struggling - hopefully this gives you a little movement forward and others can help with the details.
Generators
The following generators are available on this platform (* marks default):
* Visual Studio 17 2022 = Generates Visual Studio 2022 project files.
Use -A option to specify architecture.
(... lots more)
Then I run cmake -S . -B build:
-- Building for: Visual Studio 17 2022
-- Selecting Windows SDK version 10.0.26100.0 to target Windows 10.0.19045.
-- The C compiler identification is MSVC 19.42.34435.0
-- The CXX compiler identification is MSVC 19.42.34435.0
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working C compiler: C:/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio/2022/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.42.34433/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe - skipped
-- Detecting C compile features
-- Detecting C compile features - done
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: C:/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio/2022/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.42.34433/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe - skipped
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
CMake Error at F:/Program Files/CMake/share/cmake-3.28/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:230 (message):
Could NOT find BISON (missing: BISON_EXECUTABLE) (Required is at least
version "3.0")
Call Stack (most recent call first):
F:/Program Files/CMake/share/cmake-3.28/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:600 (_FPHSA_FAILURE_MESSAGE)
F:/Program Files/CMake/share/cmake-3.28/Modules/FindBISON.cmake:306 (FIND_PACKAGE_HANDLE_STANDARD_ARGS)
CMakeLists.txt:88 (find_package)
-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
I tried Bison for Windows but it’s 2.4.1, which does not satisfy the requirements.
I tried Kohsuke Bison but he calls it “bison++.exe”. I added its directory to path, but I still get an error. How do I tell cmake where to find it? Am I going to have to build Bison from scratch?
Wouldn’t if be easier to build a Visual Studio or Qt project, and drag the .C source files one by one? Why did they give up on a VS .SLN solution after 12.0?
All the necessary dependencies are available in git submodules and all the steps to set them up and to build are available in the CI config that I linked above.
I’ve made some progress: I can get a stub program to work under Visual Studio, but fails when compiled with Qt 5.13. (See 'gvLayout' crashing - #2 by sprezzatura). I can escape having to compile Graphviz for the time being.
However, I have another 