[QUESTION] using xtd in a pre-written CMake project

[ethindp]

Your question

I'm trying to incorporate xtd into a project via the cpm.cmake package manager. However, this doesn't work because I have to first execute find_package and then when I try to do target_xxx CMake either: (1) claims that target_link_libraries(...) has already been used, or (2) the library tries to generate assembly information, but it does it in a weird way (it does something like ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/{generated_code_here}). Obviously, this doesn't work. What am I doing wrong?

[gammasoft71]

Hi,

First of all, thank you for your interest in xtd.

xtd does not yet have package management, see #221. This may explain your problem.
I don't know cpm.cmake. Maybe adding find_package can be a solution. But I think the best way to do this is to start with a minimal project and for example not to use the xtd.cmake specific commands but the standard cmake commands.

Creates a project too simple like this and try it with cpm.cmake.

• my_app.cpp

#include <xtd/xtd>

auto main()->int {
  xtd::forms::application::run(xtd::forms::form::create("My app"));
}

• CMakeLists.txt :

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.20)

project(my_app)
find_package(xtd REQUIRED)
add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} WIN32 MACOSX_BUNDLE my_app.cpp)
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} xtd)

After that, if it works, add specific commands to xtd.cmake like add_sources, add_resources, target_type...
and see what happens.

I hope this helps.

[ethindp]

@gammasoft71 cpm.cmake is pretty neat. I'll give your suggestion a try though - thanks!

[ethindp]

@gammasoft71 Update: I tried it and it didn't work. It still complained about CMake trying to override my project (saying that, e.g., target_xxx_xxx() (like target_link_libraries) was already called on my CMake project). Essentially what I'm trying to do is download and build xtd alongside my project instead of forcing people to install it separately.

[gammasoft71]

Sorry this is not working. I don't have enough information to help you.
I think the problem may be that xtd doesn't have package management #221 yet.

Apart from that, I really don't see how xtd's cmake management could be blocking.
The cmake commands added by xtd only set variables to prepare the work of the target_type command.
And it's only when target_type is called that it has specific processing for xtd (such as managing resources, languages and settings).
And if you use standard cmake commands, xtd does nothing...

Stupid question: have you ever tried the same operation with a library as complex as xtd, such as fltk, wxwidgets, or other ?

[ethindp]

@gammasoft71 Sorry for getting back to you on this after so long, but yes, I have and it worked fine, if I remember right. I will try to whip up a project again to see if the latest tag still causes this issue.

[ethindp]

Okay, so I just tried again, and I still get weird CMake configure errors from xtd (v 0.1.2-beta):

-- CPM: Adding package xtd@0.1.2-beta (v0.1.2-beta)
CMake Error at build/_deps/xtd-src/src/xtd.drawing.native.wxwidgets/CMakeLists.txt:19 (include):
  include called with wrong number of arguments.  include() only takes one
  file.


CMake Error at build/_deps/xtd-src/src/xtd.forms.native.wxwidgets/CMakeLists.txt:19 (include):
  include called with wrong number of arguments.  include() only takes one
  file.


CMake Error at build/_deps/xtd-src/scripts/cmake/xtd_commands.cmake:1521 (string):
  string no output variable specified
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  build/_deps/xtd-src/scripts/cmake/xtd_commands.cmake:1120 (write_windows_target_informations_file)
  build/_deps/xtd-src/scripts/cmake/xtd_commands.cmake:304 (write_target_informations_file)
  CMakeLists.txt:104 (target_type)


CMake Error at build/_deps/xtd-src/scripts/cmake/xtd_commands.cmake:1164 (file):
  file failed to open for writing (Invalid argument):

    C:/Users/Ethin/source/cppmudclient/#pragma region xtd generated code

Call Stack (most recent call first):
  build/_deps/xtd-src/scripts/cmake/xtd_commands.cmake:305 (write_assembly_informations)
  CMakeLists.txt:104 (target_type)


CMake Error at build/_deps/xtd-src/scripts/cmake/xtd_commands.cmake:329 (add_executable):
  The target name "C:/Users/Ethin/source/cppmudclient/build/resources/.rc" is
  reserved or not valid for certain CMake features, such as generator
  expressions, and may result in undefined behavior.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:104 (target_type)


CMake Error at build/_deps/xtd-src/scripts/cmake/xtd_commands.cmake:381 (target_compile_options):
  Cannot specify compile options for target "PRIVATE" which is not built by
  this project.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:104 (target_type)


CMake Error at build/_deps/xtd-src/scripts/cmake/xtd_commands.cmake:382 (target_compile_options):
  Cannot specify compile options for target "PRIVATE" which is not built by
  this project.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:104 (target_type)


CMake Error at build/_deps/xtd-src/scripts/cmake/xtd_commands.cmake:393 (string):
  string sub-command SUBSTRING requires four arguments.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:104 (target_type)


-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

I pull in xtd like so:

CPMAddPackage(
    NAME xtd
    VERSION 0.1.2-beta
    GITHUB_REPOSITORY "gammasoft71/xtd"
    GIT_TAG v0.1.2-beta
    OPTIONS
        "XTD_BUILD_SHARED_LIBRARIES ON"
        "XTD_BUILD_TESTS OFF"
        "XTD_BUILD_TOOLS OFF"
        "XTD_BUILD_WITH_CONTINUOUS_INTEGRATION_SYSTEM OFF"
        "XTD_ENABLE_RUN_ASTYLE OFF"
        "XTD_ENABLE_RUN_CPPCHECK OFF"
        "XTD_ENABLE_RUN_DEVELOPPER_REFERENCE_GUIDE OFF"
        "XTD_ENABLE_RUN_REFERENCE_GUIDE OFF"
        "XTD_INSTALL_EXAMPLES OFF"
        "XTD_INSTALL_RESOURCES OFF"
        "XTD_KEEP_CLONED_CONTROLS OFF"
)
file(GLOB_RECURSE headers CONFIGURE_DEPENDS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/*.h")
file(GLOB_RECURSE sources CONFIGURE_DEPENDS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/source/*.cpp")
if (WIN32)
    add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} WIN32 ${headers} ${sources})
else()
    add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} ${headers} ${sources})
endif()
set_target_properties(${PROJECT_NAME} PROPERTIES CXX_STANDARD 17)
target_compile_options(${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC "$<$<COMPILE_LANG_AND_ID:CXX,MSVC>:/permissive->")
target_type(GUI_APPLICATION)
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE CAF::core CAF::net)
target_include_directories(
  ${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/include>
                         $<INSTALL_INTERFACE:include/${PROJECT_NAME}-${PROJECT_VERSION}>
)

I know that this is a WIP but usually projects don't always need to be specially designed for this kind of use. So I'm uncertain what xtd is doing that's causing these problems. For all I know it could be on my end of things.

[gammasoft71]

What can I do to reproduce the problem? What's the procedure?

[ethindp]

For me it was as simple as:

CPMAddPackage(
    NAME xtd
    VERSION 0.1.2-beta
    GITHUB_REPOSITORY "gammasoft71/xtd"
    GIT_TAG v0.1.2-beta
    OPTIONS
        "XTD_BUILD_SHARED_LIBRARIES ON"
        "XTD_BUILD_TESTS OFF"
        "XTD_BUILD_TOOLS OFF"
        "XTD_DOWNLOAD_ASTYLE ON"
        "XTD_DOWNLOAD_CPPCHECK ON"
        "XTD_DOWNLOAD_DOXYGEN ON"
        "XTD_INSTALL_EXAMPLES OFF"
)
file(GLOB_RECURSE headers CONFIGURE_DEPENDS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/*.h")
file(GLOB_RECURSE sources CONFIGURE_DEPENDS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/source/*.cpp")
if (WIN32)
add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} WIN32 ${headers} ${sources})
target_type(GUI_APPLICATION)
else()
add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} ${headers} ${sources})
target_type(GUI_APPLICATION)
endif()

At least, this is the relevant part. You'll need to include/build WXwidgets though. I can try to create a full project you can play with if you like.

I managed to solve the first error by moving target_type to the very end of my CMakeLists.txt file. The problem I think is that I'm using add_executable and target_xxx to affect only the specific project I'm creating, and not the older commands (i.e. include_directories), which I believe affect all targets (but I may be wrong here), whereas xtd appears to be not doing the same thing. Looking at the demos, the second line after project() is add_sources(), s all of these errors may honestly come down to me just using the entire project setup for xtd incorrectly. I'll keep playing with it and see if I can get it working. If it is indeed that I'm just failing to use it properly it'll take a bit of a mental shift for me :D I'm so used to doing it the add_executable/target_include_directories/target_link_libraries way that it was just automatic for me even when opening this issue to assume that xtd would work the same way.

[ethindp]

Okay, so here is my current CMake project (which is broken). Sorry if the formatting is weird (cmake-format doesn't want to work on my system for some reason):

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.14...3.22)

# ---- Project ----

project(
    test
    VERSION 0.1.0
    LANGUAGES CXX
)

if(PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR STREQUAL PROJECT_BINARY_DIR)
    message(
    FATAL_ERROR
      "In-source builds not allowed. Please make a new directory (called a build directory) and run CMake from there."
  )
endif()

include(cmake/CPM.cmake)

CPMAddPackage(
    name wxWidgets
    VERSION 3.2.5
    GITHUB_REPOSITORY "wxWidgets/wxWidgets"
    GIT_TAG v3.2.5
    OPTIONS
        "wxBUILD_MONOLITHIC ON"
        "wxBUILD_SAMPLES OFF"
        "wxBUILD_TESTS OFF"
        "wxBUILD_DEMOS OFF"
        "wxBUILD_BENCHMARKS OFF"
        "wxBUILD_PRECOMP ON"
        "wxBUILD_INSTALL OFF"
        "wxBUILD_USE_STATIC_RUNTIME ON"
        "wxBUILD_MSVC_MULTIPROC ON"
        "wxBUILD_LARGEFILE_SUPPORT ON"
        "wxBUILD_OPTIMISE ON"
        "wxBUILD_STRIPPED_RELEASE ON"
        "wxBUILD_PIC ON"
        "wxUSE_NO_RTTI ON"
        "wxUSE_STD_IOSTREAM ON"
        "wxUSE_STD_CONTAINERS ON"
        "wxUSE_UNICODE_UTF8 ON"
        "wxUSE_UTF8_LOCALE_ONLY ON"
        "wxUSE_STD_STRING_CONV_IN_WXSTRING ON"
        "wxUSE_REPRODUCIBLE_BUILD ON"
        "wxUSE_REGEX builtin"
        "wxUSE_ZLIB builtin"
        "wxUSE_EXPAT builtin"
        "wxUSE_LIBJPEG builtin"
        "wxUSE_LIBPNG builtin"
        "wxUSE_LIBTIFF builtin"
        "wxUSE_NANOSVG builtin"
        "wxUSE_OPENGL ON"
        "wxUSE_STL ON"
        "wxUSE_INTL ON"
        "wxUSE_XLOCALE ON"
        "wxUSE_CONFIG ON"
        "wxUSE_SOCKETS ON"
        "wxUSE_IPV6 ON"
        "wxUSE_OLE ON"
        "wxUSE_DATAOBJ ON"
        "wxUSE_IPC ON"
        "wxUSE_CONSOLE_EVENTLOOP OFF"
        "wxUSE_ANY ON"
        "wxUSE_APPLE_IEEE ON"
        "wxUSE_ARCHIVE_STREAMS ON"
        "wxUSE_BASE64 ON"
        "wxUSE_STACKWALKER ON"
        "wxUSE_ON_FATAL_EXCEPTION ON"
        "wxUSE_CMDLINE_PARSER ON"
        "wxUSE_DATETIME ON"
        "wxUSE_DEBUGREPORT ON"
        "wxUSE_DIALUP_MANAGER OFF"
        "wxUSE_DYNLIB_CLASS ON"
        "wxUSE_DYNAMIC_LOADER ON"
        "wxUSE_EXCEPTIONS ON"
        "wxUSE_EXTENDED_RTTI OFF"
        "wxUSE_FFILE ON"
        "wxUSE_FILE ON"
        "wxUSE_FILE_HISTORY ON"
        "wxUSE_FILESYSTEM ON"
        "wxUSE_FONTENUM ON"
        "wxUSE_FONTMAP ON"
        "wxUSE_FS_ARCHIVE ON"
        "wxUSE_FS_INET ON"
        "wxUSE_FSVOLUME ON"
        "wxUSE_FSWATCHER ON"
        "wxUSE_GEOMETRY ON"
        "wxUSE_LOG ON"
        "wxUSE_LONGLONG ON"
        "wxUSE_MIMETYPE ON"
        "wxUSE_PRINTF_POS_PARAMS ON"
        "wxUSE_SECRETSTORE ON"
        "wxUSE_SNGLINST_CHECKER ON"
        "wxUSE_SOUND OFF"
        "wxUSE_SPELLCHECK ON"
        "wxUSE_STDPATHS ON"
        "wxUSE_STOPWATCH ON"
        "wxUSE_STREAMS ON"
        "wxUSE_SYSTEM_OPTIONS ON"
        "wxUSE_TARSTREAM ON"
        "wxUSE_TEXTBUFFER ON"
        "wxUSE_TEXTFILE ON"
        "wxUSE_TIMER ON"
        "wxUSE_VARIANT ON"
        "wxUSE_WEBREQUEST ON"
        "wxUSE_ZIPSTREAM ON"
        "wxUSE_URL ON"
        "wxUSE_PROTOCOL ON"
        "wxUSE_PROTOCOL_HTTP ON"
        "wxUSE_PROTOCOL_FTP ON"
        "wxUSE_PROTOCOL_FILE ON"
        "wxUSE_THREADS ON"
        "wxUSE_DOC_VIEW_ARCHITECTURE ON"
        "wxUSE_HELP ON"
        "wxUSE_HTML ON"
        "wxUSE_WXHTML_HELP ON"
        "wxUSE_XML ON"
        "wxUSE_AUI ON"
        "wxUSE_PROPGRID ON"
        "wxUSE_RIBBON ON"
        "wxUSE_STC ON"
        "wxUSE_CONSTRAINTS ON"
        "wxUSE_LOGGUI ON"
        "wxUSE_LOGWINDOW ON"
        "wxUSE_LOG_DIALOG ON"
        "wxUSE_MDI ON"
        "wxUSE_MDI_ARCHITECTURE ON"
        "wxUSE_MEDIACTRL ON"
        "wxUSE_RICHTEXT ON"
        "wxUSE_PRINTING_ARCHITECTURE ON"
        "wxUSE_SVG ON"
        "wxUSE_WEBVIEW ON"
        "wxUSE_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT ON"
        "wxUSE_GRAPHICS_DIRECT2D ON"
        "wxUSE_CLIPBOARD ON"
        "wxUSE_DRAG_AND_DROP ON"
        "wxUSE_CONTROLS ON"
        "wxUSE_MARKUP ON"
        "wxUSE_COMMON_DIALOGS ON"
        "wxUSE_MENUS ON"
        "wxUSE_MENUBAR ON"
        "wxUSE_MINIFRAME ON"
        "wxUSE_TOOLTIPS ON"
        "wxUSE_SPLINES ON"
        "wxUSE_MOUSEWHEEL ON"
        "wxUSE_VALIDATORS ON"
        "wxUSE_BUSYINFO ON"
        "wxUSE_HOTKEY ON"
        "wxUSE_METAFILE ON"
        "wxUSE_DRAGIMAGE ON"
        "wxUSE_UIACTIONSIMULATOR ON"
        "wxUSE_DC_TRANSFORM_MATRIX ON"
        "wxUSE_PALETTE ON"
        "wxUSE_IMAGE ON"
        "wxUSE_GIF ON"
        "wxUSE_PCX ON"
        "wxUSE_TGA ON"
        "wxUSE_IFF ON"
        "wxUSE_PNM ON"
        "wxUSE_XPM ON"
        "wxUSE_ICO_CUR ON"
        "wxUSE_ACCESSIBILITY ON"
        "wxUSE_AUTOID_MANAGEMENT ON"
)
CPMAddPackage(
    NAME openssl-cmake
    URL https://github.com/jimmy-park/openssl-cmake/archive/main.tar.gz
    OPTIONS
    "OPENSSL_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS no-tests"
)
CPMAddPackage(
    name caf
    VERSION 1.0.0
    GITHUB_REPOSITORY "actor-framework/actor-framework"
    GIT_TAG 1.0.0
    OPTIONS
        "CAF_ENABLE_RUNTIME_CHECKS $<IF:$<CONFIG:Debug>,ON,$<IF:$<CONFIG:Release>,OFF,OFF>>"
        "CAF_ENABLE_EXAMPLES OFF"
        "CAF_ENABLE_EXCEPTIONS ON"
        "CAF_ENABLE_TESTING OFF"
        "CAF_CXX_VERSION 20"
        "CAF_ENABLE_IO_MODULE OFF"
        "CAF_USE_STD_FORMAT ON"
)
CPMAddPackage(
    NAME xtd
    VERSION 0.1.2-beta
    GITHUB_REPOSITORY "gammasoft71/xtd"
    GIT_TAG v0.1.2-beta
    OPTIONS
        "XTD_BUILD_SHARED_LIBRARIES ON"
        "XTD_BUILD_TESTS OFF"
        "XTD_BUILD_TOOLS OFF"
        "XTD_DOWNLOAD_ASTYLE ON"
        "XTD_DOWNLOAD_CPPCHECK ON"
        "XTD_DOWNLOAD_DOXYGEN ON"
        "XTD_INSTALL_EXAMPLES OFF"
)
file(GLOB_RECURSE headers CONFIGURE_DEPENDS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/*.h")
file(GLOB_RECURSE sources CONFIGURE_DEPENDS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/source/*.cpp")
add_sources(${headers} ${sources})
target_name(${PROJECT_NAME})
set_target_properties(${PROJECT_NAME} PROPERTIES CXX_STANDARD 17)
target_compile_options(${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC "$<$<COMPILE_LANG_AND_ID:CXX,MSVC>:/permissive->")
CPMAddPackage(
NAME botan
VERSION 3.4.0
    GITHUB_REPOSITORY randombit/botan
    GIT_TAG 3.4.0
DOWNLOAD_ONLY YES
)
if (botan_ADDED)
    find_package(Python3 REQUIRED COMPONENTS Interpreter)
    message(STATUS "Generating botan amalgamation")
    execute_process(
        COMMAND ${Python3_EXECUTABLE} ${botan_SOURCE_DIR}/configure.py --amalgamation --link-method=copy --no-install-python-module --without-documentation --without-sqlite3 --disable-shared
        WORKING_DIRECTORY ${botan_SOURCE_DIR}
    )
target_include_directories(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE ${botan_SOURCE_DIR})
target_compile_options(${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC "$<$<COMPILE_LANG_AND_ID:CXX,MSVC>:/bigobj>")
target_sources(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE ${botan_SOURCE_DIR}/botan_all.cpp)
else()
message(FATAL_ERROR "Botan could not be acquired!")
endif()
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} CAF::core CAF::net)
target_include_directories(
  ${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/include>
                         $<INSTALL_INTERFACE:include/${PROJECT_NAME}-${PROJECT_VERSION}>
)
target_type(GUI_APPLICATION)

I'm messing up somewhere (or missing something), just unsure what exactly I'm doing wrong.