Building c++ project on Windows with CMake, Clang and Ninja

15
votes

I currently have cmake, clang and ninja installed on windows. I am trying to use CMake to generate a ninja build file to compile a very simple hello world program.

My CMakeLists.txt looks like this:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
project(test_project)
add_executable(main main.cpp)

main.cpp is a simple hello world program.

On the command line I run this: cmake -G Ninja .. and I get the following errors:

-- The C compiler identification is Clang 3.5.0
clang.exe: error: no such file or directory: '/nologo'
clang.exe: error: no such file or directory: '/showIncludes'
-- The CXX compiler identification is Clang 3.5.0
clang.exe: error: no such file or directory: '/nologo'
clang.exe: error: no such file or directory: '/showIncludes'
-- Check for working C compiler using: Ninja
-- Check for working C compiler using: Ninja -- broken
CMake Error at C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeTestCCompiler.cmake:61 (message):
  The C compiler "C:/llvm_build/RelWithDebInfo/bin/clang.exe" is
  not able to compile a simple test program.

  It fails with the following output:

   Change Dir: C:/test_proj/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp



  Run Build Command:C:/ninja/ninja.exe cmTryCompileExec375034429

  [1/2] Building C object
  CMakeFiles\cmTryCompileExec375034429.dir\testCCompiler.c.obj


  [2/2] Linking C executable cmTryCompileExec375034429.exe


  FAILED: cmd.exe /c cd .  &&
  C:\llvm_build\RelWithDebInfo\bin\clang.exe
  CMakeFiles\cmTryCompileExec375034429.dir\testCCompiler.c.obj -o
  cmTryCompileExec375034429.exe && cd .


  clang.exe: error: unable to execute command: program not executable



  clang.exe: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see
  invocation)



  ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.






  CMake will not be able to correctly generate this project.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:2 (project)


-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "C:/test_proj/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".
See also "C:/test_proj/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log".

The CMakeError.log file looks like this:

Compiling the C compiler identification source file "CMakeCCompilerId.c" failed.
Compiler: C:/llvm_build/RelWithDebInfo/bin/clang.exe 
Build flags: 
Id flags: 

The output was:
1
clang.exe: error: unable to execute command: program not executable
clang.exe: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)


Compiling the CXX compiler identification source file "CMakeCXXCompilerId.cpp" failed.
Compiler: C:/llvm_build/RelWithDebInfo/bin/clang++.exe 
Build flags: 
Id flags: 

The output was:
1
clang++.exe: error: unable to execute command: program not executable
clang++.exe: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)


Determining if the C compiler works failed with the following output:
Change Dir: C:/test_proj/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp

Run Build Command:C:/ninja/ninja.exe cmTryCompileExec2120850158
[1/2] Building C object CMakeFiles\cmTryCompileExec2120850158.dir\testCCompiler.c.obj

[2/2] Linking C executable cmTryCompileExec2120850158.exe

FAILED: cmd.exe /c cd . && C:\llvm_build\RelWithDebInfo\bin\clang.exe     CMakeFiles\cmTryCompileExec2120850158.dir\testCCompiler.c.obj  -o cmTryCompileExec2120850158.exe   && cd .

clang.exe: error: unable to execute command: program not executable


clang.exe: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)


ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.

It appears that cmake is trying to test clang with windows options /nologo and /showIncludes. I cannot figure out how to tell cmake to pass the proper arguments.

FWIW I'm running 64bit Windows 7

EDIT:

So I looked through the built in cmake files and I found that the CMakeClDeps.cmake file was the culprit for adding the /nologo /showIncludes options. It appears that if I set Clang as the compiler then cmake thinks that visual studio is the compiler (it sets MSVC_C_ARCHITECTURE_ID to x86).

I removed the line in CMakeDetermineCompilerId.cmake that sets MSVC_C_ARCHITECTURE_ID and after trying again I get the following errors:

-- The C compiler identification is Clang 3.5.0
-- The CXX compiler identification is Clang 3.5.0
-- Check for working C compiler using: Ninja
-- Check for working C compiler using: Ninja -- broken
CMake Error at C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeTestCCompiler.cmake:61 (message):
  The C compiler "C:/llvm_build/RelWithDebInfo/bin/clang.exe" is
  not able to compile a simple test program.

  It fails with the following output:

   Change Dir: C:/test_proj/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp



  Run Build Command:C:/ninja/ninja.exe cmTryCompileExec2815594422

  [1/2] Building C object
  CMakeFiles\cmTryCompileExec2815594422.dir\testCCompiler.c.obj


  [2/2] Linking C executable cmTryCompileExec2815594422.exe


  FAILED: cmd.exe /c cd .  &&
  C:\llvm_build\RelWithDebInfo\bin\clang.exe
  CMakeFiles\cmTryCompileExec2815594422.dir\testCCompiler.c.obj -o
  cmTryCompileExec2815594422.exe && cd .


  clang.exe: error: unable to execute command: program not executable



  clang.exe: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see
  invocation)



  ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.






  CMake will not be able to correctly generate this project.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:2 (project)


-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "C:/test_proj/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".
See also "C:/test_proj/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log".
2
c++windowsbuildclangninja
Can you try, near the beginning of your cmake file, to write: remove_definitions( /nologo ) and remove_definitions( /showIncludes )? It might work, but in case it does, it's a nice little workaround. – user1241335
Otherwise, you can look through CMakeCCompilerId.c and CMakeCXXCompilerId.cpp and see if something's wrong. – user1241335
@Shingetsu Removing the definitions did not change anything and I didn't find anything by looking through those files. But, I did find where the /nologo /showIncludes options were coming from and edited my question. – reynman
Check if that same file sets any other MSVC options, and replace them with clang. Do note that CMake does not natively support clang (yet). You can try manually overriding 90% of the required options as shown in this post: stackoverflow.com/questions/7031126/… – user1241335

2 Answers

7
votes

Don't know if it can be helpful but I had the same error. Now I can compile with clang(3.7.1)/ninja(1.6)/cmake(3.4.1) on Windows performing the following actions in a build directory:

  1. load the relevant vcvarsXX.bat file (e.g. "<Your Visual Studio location>\VC\vcvarsall.bat" x86)
  2. set both CC and CXX to clang-cl (instead of clang and clang++)
  3. run cmake -G Ninja <project>
  4. run cmake --build .
3
votes

Turns out the second set of errors I received were because clang could not find the linker. I had built clang using visual studio but at the time it couldn't find the visual studio linker. All I had to do was run it in the visual studio development console.

CMake still thinks that clang is a visual studio compiler so in the CMakeDetermineCompilerId.cmake file there is a line that looks like this:

set(MSVC_${lang}_ARCHITECTURE_ID "${ARCHITECTURE_ID}")

and I changed it to look like this

if (COMPILER_ID MATCHES "MSVC")
  set(MSVC_${lang}_ARCHITECTURE_ID "${ARCHITECTURE_ID}")
endif()

Hopefully this doesn't break any other CMake functionality.