How to include external library (boost) into CLion C++ project with CMake?
Solution 1
After spending the whole afternoon on the issue, I solved it myself. It was a rather stupid mistake and all the hints in @Waxo's answer were really helpful.
The reason why it wasn't working for me that I wrote #include <boost>
within my test.cpp-file, which apparently is just wrong. Instead, you need to refer directly to the header files that you actually want to include, so you should rather write e.g. #include <boost/thread.hpp>
.
After all, a short sequence of statements should be enough to successfully (and platform-independently) include boost
into a CMake
project:
find_package(Boost 1.57.0 COMPONENTS system filesystem REQUIRED)
include_directories(${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS})
add_executable(BoostTest main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(BoostTest ${Boost_LIBRARIES})
These lines are doing the magic here. For reference, here is a complete CMakeLists.txt file that I used for debugging in a separate command line project:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.4)
project(BoostTest)
message(STATUS "start running cmake...")
find_package(Boost 1.57.0 COMPONENTS system filesystem REQUIRED)
if(Boost_FOUND)
message(STATUS "Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS: ${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS}")
message(STATUS "Boost_LIBRARIES: ${Boost_LIBRARIES}")
message(STATUS "Boost_VERSION: ${Boost_VERSION}")
include_directories(${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS})
endif()
add_executable(BoostTest main.cpp)
if(Boost_FOUND)
target_link_libraries(BoostTest ${Boost_LIBRARIES})
endif()
Solution 2
Try using CMake find_package(Boost)
src : http://www.cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.0/module/FindBoost.html
It works better and CMake is made for cross compilation and giving an absolute path is not good in a CMake project.
Edit:
Look at this one too : How to link C++ program with Boost using CMake
Because you don't link actually the boost library to your executable.
CMake with boost usually looks like that :
set(Boost_USE_STATIC_LIBS ON) # only find static libs
set(Boost_USE_MULTITHREADED ON)
set(Boost_USE_STATIC_RUNTIME OFF)
find_package(Boost 1.57.0 COMPONENTS date_time filesystem system ...)
if(Boost_FOUND)
include_directories(${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS})
add_executable(foo foo.cc)
target_link_libraries(foo ${Boost_LIBRARIES})
endif()
nburk
learning & teaching @ prisma.io https://twitter.com/nikolasburk/status/1093913218676940805
Updated on July 09, 2022Comments
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nburk almost 2 years
I have the following setup for C++ development:
OS X Yosemite
CLion 140.2310.6
(a cross-plattform C/C++-IDE by JetBrains usingCMake
as build system)- installed
boost
viabrew install boost
into/usr/local/Cellar/boost/
Now, my goal is to setup a simple project and include the
boost
library. I defined just one test.cpp file that looks like this:#include <iostream> #include <boost> using namespace std; int test() { cout << "Hello, World!" << endl; return 0; }
My CMakeLists.txt file looks like this:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.4) project(MyProject) set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11") include_directories("/usr/local/Cellar/boost/1.57.0/include/boost") set(SOURCE_FILES main.cpp ./test.cpp) add_executable(MyProject ${SOURCE_FILES})
When I build the project, I get the following error:
/Users/nburk/Documents/uni/master/master_thesis/MyProject/test.cpp:2:10: fatal error: 'boost' file not found
make[3]: *** [CMakeFiles/MyProject.dir/test.cpp.o] Error 1 make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/MyProject.dir/all] Error 2 make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/MyProject.dir/rule] Error 2 make: *** [MyProject] Error 2
I played around with adjusting paths here and there and also using
add_library
andtarget_link_libraries
, none of which made the project build successfully.Can someone point into the right direction how to make sure I can include
boost
s functionality into my CLion C++ project?Update: Thanks to @Waxo's answer I used the following code in my CMakeLists.txt file which:
set(Boost_INCLUDE_DIR /usr/local/Cellar/boost/1.57.0) set(Boost_LIBRARY_DIR /usr/local/Cellar/boost/1.57.0/lib) find_package(Boost COMPONENTS system filesystem REQUIRED) include_directories(${Boost_INCLUDE_DIR})
I now got past the file not found-error, but instead I get the following:
CMake Error at /Applications/CLion EAP.app/Contents/bin/cmake/share/cmake-3.1/Modules/FindBoost.cmake:685 (file):
file STRINGS file "/usr/local/Cellar/boost/1.57.0/boost/version.hpp" cannot be read.
Call Stack (most recent call first): CMakeLists.txt:11 (find_package)
Any ideas what I am still missing? The referred line (685) in FindBoost.cmake is:
file(STRINGS "${Boost_INCLUDE_DIR}/boost/version.hpp" _boost_VERSION_HPP_CONTENTS REGEX "#define BOOST_(LIB_)?VERSION ")
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nburk over 9 yearsI stumbled upon this question too and it actually worked so that I didn't get the file not found-error anymore... however, I now get a new error:
file STRINGS file /usr/local/Cellar/boost/1.57.0/boost/version.hpp" cannot be read.
... I updated my question, any ideas? -
Waxo over 9 yearsTheorically you don't have to set Boost_INCLUDE_DIR and Boost_LIBRARY_DIR, it's the work of the find_package(Boost) line. And don't forget the linking line. If the error still persists maybe have a look at the rights on the file.
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Waxo over 9 yearsThank you. It was a pleasure to help, i have hard times when i started CMake, good luck
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bmeulmeester over 8 yearsAmazing answer, thanks! For OS X users: this will also work when you've installed Boost using Homebrew.
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irudyak over 8 yearsI've installed
boost
with MacPorts and it seems that CLion (version 1.2.4
) managed to find it automatically (without any changes inCMakeLists.txt
). -
Nguyễn Đức Tâm over 4 yearsIs it the same in Window??