How to start working with GTest and CMake

Question

The solution involved putting the gtest source directory as a subdirectory of your project. I've included the working CMakeLists.txt below if it is helpful to anyone.

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.6)
project(basic_test)

################################
# GTest
################################
ADD_SUBDIRECTORY (gtest-1.6.0)
enable_testing()
include_directories(${gtest_SOURCE_DIR}/include ${gtest_SOURCE_DIR})

################################
# Unit Tests
################################
# Add test cpp file
add_executable( runUnitTests testgtest.cpp )
# Link test executable against gtest & gtest_main
target_link_libraries(runUnitTests gtest gtest_main)
add_test( runUnitTests runUnitTests )

Here is a complete working example that I just tested. It downloads directly from the web, either a fixed tarball, or the latest subversion directory.

cmake_minimum_required (VERSION 3.1)

project (registerer)

##################################
# Download and install GoogleTest

include(ExternalProject)
ExternalProject_Add(gtest
  URL https://github.com/google/googletest/archive/release-1.8.0.zip
  # Comment above line, and uncomment line below to use subversion.
  # SVN_REPOSITORY http://googletest.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ 
  # Uncomment line below to freeze a revision (here the one for 1.7.0)
  # SVN_REVISION -r700
  
  PREFIX ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gtest
  INSTALL_COMMAND ""
)
ExternalProject_Get_Property(gtest source_dir binary_dir)

################
# Define a test
add_executable(registerer_test registerer_test.cc)

######################################
# Configure the test to use GoogleTest
#
# If used often, could be made a macro.

add_dependencies(registerer_test gtest)
include_directories(${source_dir}/include)
target_link_libraries(registerer_test ${binary_dir}/libgtest.a)
target_link_libraries(registerer_test ${binary_dir}/libgtest_main.a)

##################################
# Just make the test runnable with
#   $ make test
    
enable_testing()
add_test(NAME    registerer_test 
         COMMAND registerer_test)

You can get the best of both worlds. It is possible to use ExternalProject to download the gtest source and then use add_subdirectory() to add it to your build. This has the following advantages:

• gtest is built as part of your main build, so it uses the same compiler flags, etc. and hence avoids problems like the ones described in the question.
• There's no need to add the gtest sources to your own source tree.

Used in the normal way, ExternalProject won't do the download and unpacking at configure time (i.e. when CMake is run), but you can get it to do so with just a little bit of work. I've written a blog post on how to do this which also includes a generalised implementation which works for any external project which uses CMake as its build system, not just gtest. You can find them here:

• https://crascit.com/2015/07/25/cmake-gtest/
• https://github.com/Crascit/DownloadProject

Update: This approach is now also part of the googletest documentation.

Most likely, the difference in compiler options between your test binary and the Google Test library is to blame on such errors. That's why it's recommended to bring in Google Test in the source form and build it along with your tests. It's very easy to do in CMake. You just invoke ADD_SUBDIRECTORY with the path to the gtest root and then you can use public library targets (gtest and gtest_main) defined there. There is more background information in this CMake thread in the googletestframework group.

[edit] The BUILD_SHARED_LIBS option is only effective on Windows for now. It specifies the type of libraries that you want CMake to build. If you set it to ON, CMake will build them as DLLs as opposed to static libs. In that case you have to build your tests with -DGTEST_LINKED_AS_SHARED_LIBRARY=1 and copy the DLL files produced by the CMake to the directory with your test binary (CMake places them in a separate output directory by default). Unless gtest in static lib doesn't work for you, it's easier not to set that option.

The OP is using Windows, and a much easier way to use GTest today is with vcpkg+cmake.

---

Install vcpkg as per https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg , and make sure you can run vcpkg from the cmd line. Take note of the vcpkg installation folder, eg. C:\bin\programs\vcpkg.

Install gtest using vcpkg install gtest: this will download, compile, and install GTest.

Use a CmakeLists.txt as below: note we can use targets instead of including folders.

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.15)
project(sample CXX)
enable_testing()
find_package(GTest REQUIRED)
add_executable(test1 test.cpp source.cpp)
target_link_libraries(test1 GTest::GTest GTest::Main)
add_test(test-1 test1)

Run cmake with: (edit the vcpkg folder if necessary, and make sure the path to the vcpkg.cmake toolchain file is correct)

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=C:\bin\programs\vcpkg\scripts\buildsystems\vcpkg.cmake

and build using cmake --build build as usual. Note that, vcpkg will also copy the required gtest(d).dll/gtest(d)_main.dll from the install folder to the Debug/Release folders.

Test with cd build & ctest.