How to Allow Compilers to Find Libraries Installed via Brew

Question

I am working on macOS Catalina and I want to compile some c++ code using CMake.

This code needs the library boost that I installed via Brew (brew install boost). In my code I added #include <boost/functional/hash.hpp> to use it.

When I compile I got the following error:

fatal error: boost/functional/hash.hpp: No such file or directory #include <boost/functional/hash.hpp>

Obviously, the compiler does not find the library, so my question is: how can I tell him where the library is? I prefer to set some environment variable, and if it is not possible, how can I do that using CMake?

The file that calls boost:

#include "../../include/util/SubsetInt.hpp"
#include <boost/functional/hash.hpp>

namespace cats {

SubsetInt::SubsetInt(const SubsetInt& p) {
  field = std::vector<uint64_t>();
  for (uint64_t e : p.field) {
    field.push_back(e);
  }
}
}

The CMakeLists.txt:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.1)
project(catsFramework)


find_package(Boost REQUIRED COMPONENTS system unit_test_framework)
find_package(OpenMP REQUIRED)


set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${OpenMP_CXX_FLAGS} -O3 -DNDEBUG -Wall")
# set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${OpenMP_CXX_FLAGS} -O1 -g -Wall")



################### COMBINATOR LIBS ##########################

add_library(LDSCombinator STATIC
    include/combinators/LDSCombinator.hpp
    src/combinators/LDSCombinator.cpp
)

add_library(PrefixEquivalenceCombinator STATIC
    include/combinators/PrefixEquivalenceCombinator.hpp
    src/combinators/PrefixEquivalenceCombinator.cpp
)

add_library(IterativeBroadeningCombinator STATIC
    include/combinators/IterativeBroadeningCombinator.hpp
    src/combinators/IterativeBroadeningCombinator.cpp
)

add_library(ProbingCombinator STATIC
    include/combinators/ProbingCombinator.hpp
    src/combinators/ProbingCombinator.cpp
)

add_library(SolutionPartsCombinator STATIC
    include/combinators/SolutionPartsCombinator.hpp
    src/combinators/SolutionPartsCombinator.cpp
)

add_library(WeightedCombinator STATIC
    include/combinators/WeightedCombinator.hpp
    src/combinators/WeightedCombinator.cpp
)

# all combinators defintion
set( COMBINATORS
    LDSCombinator
    IterativeBroadeningCombinator
    PrefixEquivalenceCombinator
    ProbingCombinator
    SolutionPartsCombinator
    WeightedCombinator
)


############## TREE SEARCH ALGORITHMS #################


add_library(DFS STATIC
    include/treesearch/DFS.hpp
    src/treesearch/DFS.cpp
)

add_library(BFS STATIC
    include/treesearch/BFS.hpp
    src/treesearch/BFS.cpp
)

add_library(AStar STATIC
    include/treesearch/AStar.hpp
    src/treesearch/AStar.cpp
)

add_library(MBAStar STATIC
    include/treesearch/MBAStar.hpp
    src/treesearch/MBAStar.cpp
)

add_library(BeamSearch STATIC
    include/treesearch/BeamSearch.hpp
    src/treesearch/BeamSearch.cpp
)

add_library(GreedyRandom STATIC
    include/treesearch/GreedyRandom.hpp
    src/treesearch/GreedyRandom.cpp
)

add_library(WeightedAStar STATIC
    include/treesearch/WeightedAStar.hpp
    src/treesearch/WeightedAStar.cpp
)

add_library(Greedy STATIC
    include/treesearch/Greedy.hpp
    src/treesearch/Greedy.cpp
)

add_library(IterativeMBAStar STATIC
    include/treesearch/IterativeMBAStar.hpp
    src/treesearch/IterativeMBAStar.cpp
)

add_library(IterativeBeamSearch STATIC
    include/treesearch/IterativeBeamSearch.hpp
    src/treesearch/IterativeBeamSearch.cpp
)

add_library(LDS STATIC
    include/treesearch/LDS.hpp
    src/treesearch/LDS.cpp
)

add_library(BULB STATIC
    include/treesearch/BULB.hpp
    src/treesearch/BULB.cpp
)

add_library(IterativeBroadening STATIC
    include/treesearch/IterativeBroadening.hpp
    src/treesearch/IterativeBroadening.cpp
)

add_library(BranchAndGreed STATIC
    include/treesearch/BranchAndGreed.hpp
    src/treesearch/BranchAndGreed.cpp
)

add_library(ACO STATIC
    include/treesearch/ACO.hpp
    src/treesearch/ACO.cpp
)

add_library(RouletteWheelGreedy STATIC
    include/treesearch/RouletteWheelGreedy.hpp
    src/treesearch/RouletteWheelGreedy.cpp
)

add_library(IterativeRouletteWheelGreedy STATIC
    include/treesearch/IterativeRouletteWheelGreedy.hpp
    src/treesearch/IterativeRouletteWheelGreedy.cpp
)

add_library(MCTS STATIC
    include/treesearch/RouletteWheelGreedy.hpp
    src/treesearch/RouletteWheelGreedy.cpp
    include/treesearch/MCTS.hpp
    src/treesearch/MCTS.cpp
)

add_library(AnytimeColumnSearch STATIC
    include/treesearch/AnytimeColumnSearch.hpp
    src/treesearch/AnytimeColumnSearch.cpp
)


# all tree search algorithms
set( ALGORITHMS
    DFS
    BFS
    AStar
    MBAStar
    BeamSearch
    GreedyRandom
    WeightedAStar
    Greedy
    BranchAndGreed
    IterativeBroadening
    BULB
    LDS
    IterativeBeamSearch
    IterativeMBAStar
    ACO
    RouletteWheelGreedy
    IterativeRouletteWheelGreedy
    MCTS
    AnytimeColumnSearch
)


# base code
add_library(catsBase STATIC
    include/Node.hpp
    include/SearchManager.hpp
    include/Store.hpp
    include/io.hpp
    include/numeric.hpp
    include/SolutionParts.hpp
    include/Combinator.hpp
    include/PrefixEquivalence.hpp

    src/Node.cpp
    src/SearchManager.cpp
    src/io.cpp
)


# util code
add_library(catsUtil STATIC
# set ( UTIL
    include/util/includeAlgorithms.hpp
    include/util/SubsetInt.hpp
    src/util/SubsetInt.cpp
)

set ( ALL
    ${COMBINATORS}
    ${ALGORITHMS}
    catsUtil
    catsBase
)

# UNIT TESTING
enable_testing()

add_executable( testInverseBS.exe unittest/testInverseBS.cpp unittest/InverseGuideBS.hpp)
target_link_libraries(testInverseBS.exe ${ALL})

add_executable( testSubsetInt.exe unittest/testSubsetInt.cpp)
target_link_libraries(testSubsetInt.exe ${ALL})

add_test( InverseBS testInverseBS.exe )
add_test( SubsetInt testSubsetInt.exe )

Please provide the code you have so far, and show us what you tried. There are already lots of answered questions on this site about using Boost with CMake. — Kevin, Jan 28 '20 at 17:01
You need to add options to your compilers command line to tell it where to search for includes (`-I` with GCC/clang) and where to find the runtime libraries to link with (`-L` with GCC/clang). — Jesper Juhl, Jan 28 '20 at 17:03

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 28 '20 at 17:11

Usually you would use find_package to find and configure libraries with CMake. Boost provides a CMake configuration file FindBoost.

Here is an example for one library using targets (currently the recommended way)

find_package(Boost REQUIRED COMPONENTS system unit_test_framework)

add_library(LDSCombinator STATIC
    include/combinators/LDSCombinator.hpp
    src/combinators/LDSCombinator.cpp
)
target_link_libraries(LDSCombinator Boost::system)

You have to link all executables and libraries that use Boost.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 28 '20 at 17:15

It looks like you are already using find_package() to tell CMake to look for Boost installed on your system, specifically the system and unit_test_framework components. You now simply need to link the imported Boost targets to your library or executable that is using Boost. For example, link unit_test_framework to your testSubsetInt.exe target like this:

target_link_libraries(testSubsetInt.exe PUBLIC 
    ${ALL} 
    Boost::unit_test_framework
)

This example encompasses the "modern" CMake approach. However, the Boost documentation provides more extended examples for including Boost libraries via CMake here.

How to Allow Compilers to Find Libraries Installed via Brew

2 Answers2