Install zlib library on Windows for MSVC

Question

I'd like to compile (using MSVC 2022) some third party project (fteqw) that depends on zlib library. First to generate a solution to open in MSVC i'm using the cmake from the Visual Studio 2022 Developer Command Prompt. I'm getting an error:

The following variables are used in this project, but they are set to NOTFOUND.
Please set them or make sure they are set and tested correctly in the CMake files:
ZLIB_LIBRARY
    linked by target "qtv" in directory D:/Pobrane/fteqw-master

I guess the zlib library is just missing. The question is there a way to install zlib package from Visual Studio 2022 Developer Command Prompt like on Linux system using apt-get, yum, etc.?

Answer 1

Another method (lower level and also more complicated) would be to:

• Download ZLib from [GitHub]: CristiFati/Prebuilt-Binaries - (master) Prebuilt-Binaries/ZLib /v1

• Unpack the .zip file locally (in "C:\Program Files")

• When invoking CMake, pass e.g.: -DZLIB_ROOT=C:\Program Files\ZLib\ZLib\1.3.1 (besides all other flags that you might have). It should pick it up from there

  • If you want to include it in a VStudio project directly, check [SO]: building DLL based on libzip-static.lib (@CristiFati's answer)

Answer 2

Make sure vcpkg is installed in Visual Studio Installer. Use command vcpkg install zlib.

Install In classic mode, run the following vcpkg command:
vcpkg install zlib

In manifest mode, run the following vcpkg command in your project directory:

vcpkg add port zlib

Reference: vcpkg in CMake projects

Use vcpkg