Problem adding std::filesystem to CMake Project

Question

I am new to CMake projects and I want to use the file system library in my project. I am running Ubuntu 18.04 with GCC 8.2 and CMake 3.13. In order to achieve this I tried two options:

Option 1

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.13)  
project(TheFsProject)  
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)  
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-std=c++17 -lstdc++fs")  

This does not help as the compiler still cannot find the file system library during compile time.

Option 2 (copied from: https://www.scivision.co/cmake-cpp-17-filesystem/)

make_minimum_required(VERSION 3.13)
project(TheFsProject)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)

set(CMAKE_REQUIRED_FLAGS -std=c++17)
include(CheckCXXSymbolExists)
CHECK_CXX_SYMBOL_EXISTS(std::filesystem::path::preferred_separator cxx17fs)

if(cxx17fs)
  add_executable(TheFsProject main.cpp)
  set_property(TARGET TheFsProject PROPERTY CXX_STANDARD 17)
endif()

This does not help either as I get a CMake error which I don't understand.

(CHECK_CXX_SYMBOL_EXISTS):  
 CHECK_CXX_SYMBOL_EXISTS Macro invoked with incorrect arguments for macro named: CHECK_CXX_SYMBOL_EXISTS

I feel out of my depth on this topic which is why I came here. I don't mind putting extra work into finding out more but I don't know anymore where to look. Any help would be appreciated!

EDIT 1

Thanks for the replies so far! I made Option 3 based on your feedback:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.13)
project(TheFsProject)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)

add_executable(TheFsProject main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(TheFsProject stdc++fs)

Sadly it doesn't fix my problem. It still issues an error during compilation that it can't find the compilation header.

EDIT 2

Thanks for all the replies so far. All of these help. I tried Ashkan his answer last (because it seemed intimidating). This one returns

Compiler is missing file system capabilities.

so I'm guessing something is wrong on that end. This is useful in the sense that I now know it's probably not due to my CMake file. I now have to find out why the compiler does support the file system header though...

EDIT 3

Strictly speaking this question is answered because my question is about the CMake file. I am going to mark Ashkan his answer as the solution simply because it produced the next step in my troubleshooting search. If I could I would also mark lubgr his answer because I think that's a really good answer as well. Thanks everyone!

Answer 1

CHECK_CXX_SYMBOL_EXISTS takes three arguments, not two:

include(CheckCXXSymbolExists)
check_cxx_symbol_exists(std::filesystem::path::preferred_separator filesystem cxx17fs)

You forgot to tell CMake where to look for the symbols (the header that declares them).

Answer 2

Besides from @lubgr's answer. I think a more complete way is to also do try_compile to see that you can actually use the filesystem header. This in my opinion is better because some compilers are not supporting std::filesystem yet. Also in gcc 7.x you have the filesystem under experimental namespace. This way you can have a separate try_compile in the else clause and detect that.

Here is the related cmake for it

# set everything up for c++ 17 features
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
# Don't add this line if you will try_compile with boost.
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
# test that filesystem header actually is there and works
try_compile(HAS_FS "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/temp" 
"${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/tests/has_filesystem.cc" 
            CMAKE_FLAGS -DCMAKE_CXX_STANDARD=17 -DCMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED=ON
            LINK_LIBRARIES stdc++fs)
if(HAS_FS)
    message(STATUS "Compiler has filesystem support")
else()
#   .... You could also try searching for boost::filesystem here.
    message(FATAL_ERROR "Compiler is missing filesystem capabilities")
endif(HAS_FS)

The file tests/has_filesystem.cc is very simple

#include <filesystem>

namespace fs = std::filesystem;

int main()
{
    fs::path aPath {"../"};

    return 0;
}

You could in your else clause try_compile for boost::filesystem and pass a directive that can be used in your source file where you decide if you want to use c++17 filesystem or boost.