Reputation: 2971

CMake does not find Visual C++ compiler

After installing Visual Studio 2015 and running CMake on a previous project, CMake errors stating that it could not find the C compiler.

The C compiler identification is unknown
The CXX compiler identification is unknown
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:4 (PROJECT):
  No CMAKE_C_COMPILER could be found.

CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:4 (PROJECT):
  No CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER could be found.

I went searching for cl.exe in the Visual Studio folder,C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0, and could not find it.

How do I set up CMake to work on Windows with Visual Studio 2015?

Upvotes: 147

Answers (30)

TrophyGeek

Reputation: 6099

If none of the above solutions worked, then stop and do a sanity check.

I got burned using the wrong -G <config> string and it gave me this misleading error.

First, run from the VS Command Prompt not the regular command prompt. You can find it in Start Menu -> Visual Studio 2015 -> MSBuild Command Prompt for VS2015 This sets up all the correct paths to VS tools, etc.

Now see what generators are available from cmake...

cmake -help

...<snip>...
The following generators are available on this platform:
  Visual Studio 15 [arch]      = Generates Visual Studio 15 project files.
                                 Optional [arch] can be "Win64" or "ARM".
  Visual Studio 14 2015 [arch] = Generates Visual Studio 2015 project files.
                                 Optional [arch] can be "Win64" or "ARM".
  Visual Studio 12 2013 [arch] = Generates Visual Studio 2013 project files.
                                 Optional [arch] can be "Win64" or "ARM".
  Visual Studio 11 2012 [arch] = Generates Visual Studio 2012 project files.
                                 Optional [arch] can be "Win64" or "ARM".
  Visual Studio 10 2010 [arch] = Generates Visual Studio 2010 project files.
                                 Optional [arch] can be "Win64" or "IA64".
...

Then chose the appropriate string with the [arch] added.

mkdir _build
cd _build
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 15 Win64"

Running cmake in a subdirectory makes it easier to do a 'clean' since you can just delete everything in that directory.

I upgraded to Visual Studio 15 but wasn't paying attention and was trying to generate for 2012.

Upvotes: 10

Wade Wang

Reputation: 690

I met the same issue in VSCode Cmake extension, i solve it by check following two options:

In the end, click [Scan for kits]

Upvotes: 0

CroCo

Reputation: 5741

I was running old cmake version (i.e. 3.8) and I'm using visual studio 16 - 2019. After updating my cmake version, it did detect the compiler.

Upvotes: 1

RomanPort

Reputation: 91

This question is old, but none of the solutions here were working for me. I'm using Visual Studio 2019, and in my case, C++ compilation was working but just broke one day.

However, I noticed that there was an update ready to be installed in the Visual Studio Installer.

After installing that update, rebooting my computer, and relaunching Visual Studio, all of the C++ CMake problems disappeared. I'm not quite sure why this fixed it, and I can only speculate, but I can only assume that one of two things occurred. Either installing that update fixed a broken installation, or the update was quietly downloaded and prepared in the background, breaking things in the process.

Upvotes: 0

Erfan

Reputation: 9

cmake --no-warn-unused-cli -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS:BOOL=TRUE -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Debug "-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER:FILEPATH=C:\Program Files\mingw-w64\x86_64-8.1.0-posix-seh-rt_v6-rev0\mingw64\bin\gcc.exe" "-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER:FILEPATH=C:\Program Files\mingw-w64\x86_64-8.1.0-posix-seh-rt_v6-rev0\mingw64\bin\g++.exe" -Hc:/code -Bc:/code/build -G "MinGW Makefiles"

Upvotes: -2

user1633912

Reputation: 1

Check name folder too long or not.

Upvotes: 0

Fortune

Reputation: 1605

Here is the solution that worked for me:

Open Visual Studio command prompt tool (as an administrator). On windows 10 it might be called 'Developer command prompt'.
Navigate to where you have the CMake executable
Run Cmake.exe
Proceed as usual to select build and source folder
Select the appropriate Visual Studio compiler and hit the configure button

Hopefully it should run without problems.

Upvotes: 36

Mike Pelton

Reputation: 61

I had this issue with CMake GUI and the VS 21019 Community Edition. I think I may have installed CMake before Visual Studio - certainly after I updated CMake 3.15.2 to 3.15.3 the problem went away.

Upvotes: 0

Nathan Moinvaziri

Reputation: 5638

Checking CMakeErrors.log in CMakeFiles returned:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\Platforms\x64\PlatformToolsets\v140_xp\Toolset.targets(36,5): warning MSB8003: Could not find WindowsSdkDir_71A variable from the registry. TargetFrameworkVersion or PlatformToolset may be set to an invalid version number.

The error means that the build tools for XP (v140_xp) are not installed. To fix it I installed the proper feature in Visual Studio 2019 installer under Individual Components tab:

Upvotes: 1

stgatilov

Reputation: 5533

I had a related problem: the Visual C++ generators were not even on the list when running cmake --help.

I ran where cmake in console and found that cygwin also provides its own cmake.exe file, which was being used. Changing the order of directories in PATH fixed the problem.

Upvotes: 0

ABDULRAHMAN ALKHAMEES

Reputation: 19

Resolved by adding the missing component Modify->continue add as follow Fix

Upvotes: 0

Dealazer

Reputation: 69

Look in the Cmakelists.txt if you find ARM you need to install C++ for ARM and as well vcvarsall.bat use for ARM bin folder.

It's these packages:

C++ Universal Windows Platform for ARM64 "Not Required"

Visual C++ Compilers and libraries for ARM "Not Required"

Visual C++ Compilers and libraries for ARM64 "Very Likely Required"

Required for finding Threads on ARM 
enable_language(C) 
enable_language(CXX)

Then the problems might disappear:

No CMAKE_C_COMPILER could be found.

No CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER could be found.

If above does not resolve your problem?

Optionally you can remove the options C and CXX in cmakelists.txt by setting # infront of where the enable_language(C) is. And avoid Android ARM processor compilation.

Upvotes: 0

clever tiger

Reputation: 33

i found this sollution at stackoverflow and i work for me although not working other sollutions if you have a windows 10 OS, doing the following steps will fix the problem:

1) go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1A\Bin

2) then copy RC.exe and RcDll from this file

3) go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\bin and paste the two files you have copied into it.

thats all i hope it is helpful...

Upvotes: 0

vinodsaluja

Reputation: 694

I had a similar problem with the Visual Studio 2017 project generated through CMake. Some of the packages were missing while installing Visual Studio in Desktop development with C++. See snapshot:

Visual Studio 2017 Packages:

Also, upgrade CMake to the latest version.

Upvotes: 1

jpo38

Reputation: 21514

I had this issue under Windows 10 when using Visual Studio 2015 Professional, while Visual Studio 2015 Express worked! Under Windows 7, both Visual Studio versions used to work.

New projects created from the Visual Studio 2015 Professional IDE successfully compile, but CMake would fail to find the compiler reporting:

The C compiler identification is unknown
The CXX compiler identification is unknown

I upgraded CMake from 3.4.1 to 3.11.4, and now the problem is gone.

Upvotes: 2

Gamaliel

Reputation: 11

None of the previous solutions worked for me. However I noticed that although I installed Visual Studio version 15 (not to be confused with Visual Studio 2015) the directory created on my computer was for Visual Studio 14.

When I specified Visual Studio 14 when I pressed the configuration button it worked.

Upvotes: 0

Alen Wesker

Reputation: 245

Menu → Visual Studio 2015 → MSBuild Command Prompt for Visual Studio 2015. Then CMake can find cl.exe.

set PATH="c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\10.0.16299.0\x64\";%PATH%

Change the upper path to where your Windows SDK is installed.

CMake can find rc.exe.

cd to the path of CMakeLists.txt and do:

md .build
cd .build
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build .

The param after -G should be fetched by CMake. Use --help; you may or may not have the generator.

Upvotes: 5

Alan

Reputation: 1832

This might be another solution for those with the latest Windows 10 creator version:

Stack Overflow post Fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'gdi32.lib'

Upvotes: 0

mojovski

Reputation: 601

In my case the issue was that the parent project, which is including googletest via

add_subdirectory(gtest_dir)

was defined as

PROJECT( projname CXX )

Somehow, CMake does not recognize

PROJECT(sub_project_name CXX C)

since the C compiler is not set in the parent.

I solved the issue by using

PROJECT( projname CXX C)

in my main CMakeLists.txt file.

Upvotes: 0

chowey

Reputation: 9836

For me, I checked the CMakeError.log file and found:

[...] error MSB8036: The Windows SDK version 8.1 was not found. Install the required version of Windows SDK or change the SDK version in the project property pages or by right-clicking the solution and selecting "Retarget solution".

This is despite using Visual Studio 2017 on Windows 7. So it appears that CMake is trying to build its detection project with the Windows 8.1 SDK.

I used the Visual Studio installer to add that component and now CMake is happy as a clam.

Upvotes: 8

Rarach

Reputation: 1

A couple of tips:

Try to set the path manually by checking 'advanced' and modifying CMAKE_LINKER and CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM
Delete the cache - in the CMake with GUI go to: File → Delete Cache.

My problem was a combination of previously stated: I have set the compiler version to 15 instead of 14 and when corrected, I had to delete the cache.

I also started the Visual Studio command prompt as an administrator and from there I ran the cmake-gui.exe

Then everything worked as it was supposed to.

Upvotes: 0

Kushal

Reputation: 1

Because CMake is not able to find your Visual Studio compiler. Start any project which will download the required compilers and CMake must be able to find it then.

Upvotes: -3

Zitrax

Reputation: 20255

In my case I could see in the CMakeError.log that CMake could not find the Windows SDK (MSB8003: Could not find WindowsSDKDir variable from the registry).

The version can be specified on the commandline on the first CMake run using:

-DCMAKE_VS_WINDOWS_TARGET_PLATFORM_VERSION=

I got further after setting that, but I hit more issues later (so I assume my environment is messed up somehow), but maybe it will help someone with this issue.

Upvotes: 0

Asher

Reputation: 2971

I have found the solution. While the Visual Studio IDE installed successfully it did not install any build tools and therefore did not install the C++ compiler.

By attempting to manually create a C++ project in the Visual Studio 2015 GUI I was able to prompt it to download the C++ packages. CMake was then able to find the compiler without any difficulty.

Upvotes: 134

0xF

Reputation: 3708

I got this problem with CMake 3.12.1, after an update of Visual Studio 2017. I simply re-ran CMake and it worked.

Upvotes: 0

Carl Walsh

Reputation: 6949

I looked in CMakeError.log file and found an error about cannot run 'rc.exe'

I searched and found this answer to copy RC.Exe and RcDll.Dll from the Microsoft SDKs bin to the VC bin, and then CMake worked.

Edit: The top answer to another question suggests that it's a PATH issue, so it could be enough to ensure the Microsoft SDK bin is in your PATH.

Upvotes: 32

Lars Bilke

Reputation: 5229

If you are on Visual Studio 2017 you need at least CMake 3.8!

Upvotes: 1

Vadim Berman

Reputation: 2032

Those stumbling with this on Visual Studio 2017: there is a feature related to CMake that needs to be selected and installed together with the relevant compiler toolsets. See the screenshot below.

Upvotes: 17

Starger

Reputation: 31

In my case there was an environment variable set which was the reason for this error. The problem was solved after deleting cxx_flags from the environment variables.

Upvotes: 0

Hrushikesh Kulkarni

Reputation: 301

Make sure you are using the correct version of Visual Studio in the generator. I had incorrectly selected Visual Studio 15 when Visual Studio 14 installed.

Upvotes: 16

CMake does not find Visual C++ compiler

Answers (30)

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