Running CMake on Windows

Question

I am currently trying to get CMake to run on my Windows 7 (64-bit) system. I want to compile TagLib for later use with a Qt application I am working on. I would like to compile it with MinGW (not Visual C++ as in this other question).

I download the installer (cmake-2.8.3-win32-x86.exe) and install it (I also opt to add CMake to my path). I then go to the directory why the CMakeLists.txt file is and run cmake .. It then gives me this giant error.

C:\Users\Joel\Downloads\taglib-1.6.3>cmake .
CMake Warning at CMakeLists.txt:1 (project):
  To use the NMake generator, cmake must be run from a shell that can use the
  compiler cl from the command line.  This environment does not contain
  INCLUDE, LIB, or LIBPATH, and these must be set for the cl compiler to
  work.


-- The C compiler identification is unknown
-- The CXX compiler identification is unknown
CMake Warning at C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/Platform/Windows-cl.cmake:
28 (ENABLE_LANGUAGE):
  To use the NMake generator, cmake must be run from a shell that can use the
  compiler cl from the command line.  This environment does not contain
  INCLUDE, LIB, or LIBPATH, and these must be set for the cl compiler to
  work.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeCInformation.cmake:60 (INCLUDE)
  CMakeLists.txt:1 (project)


CMake Error: your RC compiler: "CMAKE_RC_COMPILER-NOTFOUND" was not found.   Please set CMAKE_RC_COM
PILER to a valid compiler path or name.
-- Check for CL compiler version
-- Check for CL compiler version - failed
-- Check if this is a free VC compiler
-- Check if this is a free VC compiler - yes
-- Using FREE VC TOOLS, NO DEBUG available
-- Check for working C compiler: cl
CMake Warning at CMakeLists.txt:2 (PROJECT):
  To use the NMake generator, cmake must be run from a shell that can use the
  compiler cl from the command line.  This environment does not contain
  INCLUDE, LIB, or LIBPATH, and these must be set for the cl compiler to
  work.


CMake Warning at C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/Platform/Windows-cl.cmake:
28 (ENABLE_LANGUAGE):
  To use the NMake generator, cmake must be run from a shell that can use the
  compiler cl from the command line.  This environment does not contain
  INCLUDE, LIB, or LIBPATH, and these must be set for the cl compiler to
  work.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeCInformation.cmake:60 (INCLUDE)
  CMakeLists.txt:2 (PROJECT)


CMake Error at C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeRCInformation.cmake:22
(GET_FILENAME_COMPONENT):
  get_filename_component called with incorrect number of arguments
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/Platform/Windows-cl.cmake:28 (ENABLE_LANG
UAGE)
  C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeCInformation.cmake:60 (INCLUDE)
  CMakeLists.txt:2 (PROJECT)


CMake Error: CMAKE_RC_COMPILER not set, after EnableLanguage
CMake Error: your C compiler: "cl" was not found.   Please set CMAKE_C_COMPILER to a valid compiler
path or name.
CMake Error: Internal CMake error, TryCompile configure of cmake failed
-- Check for working C compiler: cl -- broken
CMake Error at C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeTestCCompiler.cmake:52
(MESSAGE):
  The C compiler "cl" is not able to compile a simple test program.

  It fails with the following output:





  CMake will not be able to correctly generate this project.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:1 (project)


CMake Error: your C compiler: "cl" was not found.   Please set CMAKE_C_COMPILER to a valid compiler
path or name.
CMake Error: your CXX compiler: "cl" was not found.   Please set CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER to a valid compi
ler path or name.
-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

C:\Users\Joel\Downloads\taglib-1.6.3>

I was kind of surprised that it failed so hard out of the box, considering it advertises itself as a cross-platform make.

I tried setting INCLUDE, LIB, and LIBPATH (Windows environment variables) all to my MinGW binaries directory (C:\MinGW\bin) but it's still giving me the same error. I also tried setting CMAKE_C_COMPILER and CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER to the location of g++ (C:\MinGW\bin\g++).

Does anyone know what's going on here?

SOLUTION:

Per tibur's suggestion, I ran the cmake GUI to create the make files. I then went into the directory taglib directory and ran mingw32-make.exe to do the actual build.

Answer 1

The default generator for Windows seems to be set to NMAKE. Try to use:

cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles"

Or use the GUI, and select MinGW Makefiles when prompted for a generator. Don't forget to cleanup the directory where you tried to run CMake, or delete the cache in the GUI. Otherwise, it will try again with NMAKE.

Answer 2

There is a vcvars32.bat in your Visual Studio installation directory. You can add call cmd.exe at the end of that batch program and launch it. From that shell you can use CMake or cmake-gui and cl.exe would be known to CMake.