- 1 year ago
Building C++ with Cmake using Ninja as generator and cl-clang as compiler
To build a C++ project with CMake using Ninja as the generator and the Clang compiler (cl-clang
) on Windows, you can follow these steps:
Install Clang: Download and install the LLVM/Clang compiler for Windows from the official LLVM website (https://llvm.org/builds/). Make sure to select the version that matches your system architecture (e.g., x64).
Set up environment variables: Add the Clang installation directory to the system's PATH environment variable. This ensures that CMake and Ninja can find the Clang compiler. Restart your command prompt or IDE after making this change.
Install Ninja: Download the Ninja build system executable from the official Ninja GitHub repository (https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja/releases). Place the
ninja
executable in a directory that is included in the system's PATH environment variable.Create a CMakeLists.txt file: Create a CMakeLists.txt file in the root directory of your C++ project. This file describes the project and its build configuration. Here's a minimal example:
cmakecmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.21)
project(MyProject)
set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER "cl-clang")
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
add_executable(MyExecutable main.cpp)
- Generate build files: Open a command prompt and navigate to the directory where you want to generate the build files. Run the following command to generate the build files using CMake and Ninja:
shellcmake -G Ninja path/to/source
Replace path/to/source
with the actual path to your CMakeLists.txt file.
- Build the project: Once the build files are generated, run the following command to build the project using Ninja:
shellninja
This will invoke the Ninja build system, which will use Clang (cl-clang
) as the compiler to build the project according to the specified CMake configuration.
After successfully building the project, you will find the executable file in the output directory specified in the CMake configuration.
Note: Ensure that the Clang version you installed is compatible with the version of CMake you are using. Some versions of CMake may require specific Clang versions.