setup-cpp

Install all the tools required for building and testing C++/C projects.

Setting up a cross-platform environment for building and testing C++/C projects is a bit tricky. Each platform has its own compilers, and each of them requires a different installation procedure. This package aims to fix this issue.

setup-cpp can be used locally from terminal, from CI services like GitHub Actions and GitLab Pipelines, and inside containers like Docker.

setup-cpp is supported on many platforms. It is continuously tested on several configurations including Windows (11, 10, 2022, 2019), Linux (Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Fedora, ArchLinux), and macOS (12, 11, 10.15). setup-cpp is backed by unit tests for each tool and integration tests for compiling cpp projects.

Features

setup-cpp is modular and you can choose to install any of these tools:

category	tools
compiler and analyzer	llvm, gcc, msvc, vcvarsall, cppcheck, clangtidy, clangformat
build system	cmake, ninja, meson, make, task, bazel
package manager	vcpkg, conan, choco, brew, nala
cache	cppcache, sccache
documentation	doxygen, graphviz
coverage	gcovr, opencppcoverage, kcov
other	python, powershell, sevenzip

setup-cpp automatically installs the dependencies above tools if needed for the selected tool (e.g., python is required for conan).

Usage

From Terminal

With npm and Nodejs

Install setup-cpp with npm:

npm install -g setup-cpp

Then run setup-cpp with the available options.

# windows example (open PowerShell as admin)
setup-cpp --compiler llvm --cmake true --ninja true --ccache true --vcpkg true

RefreshEnv.cmd # activate the environment

# linux/macos example
sudo setup-cpp --compiler llvm --cmake true --ninja true --ccache true --vcpkg true

source ~/.cpprc

NOTE: In the compiler entry, you can specify the version after - like llvm-11.0.0. For the tools, you can pass a specific version instead of true that chooses the default version

NOTE: On Unix systems, when setup-cpp is used locally or in other CI services like GitLab, the environment variables are added to ~/.cpprc. You should run source ~/.cpprc to immediately activate the environment variables. This file is automatically sourced in the next shell restart from ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile if SOURCE_CPPRC is not set to 0. To deactivate .cpprc in the next shell restart, rename/remove ~/.cpprc.

NOTE: On Unix systems, if you are already a root user (e.g., in a GitLab runner or Docker), you will not need to use sudo.

With executable

Download the executable for your platform from here, and run it with the available options. You can also automate downloading using wget, curl, or other similar tools.

An example that installs llvm, cmake, ninja, ccache, and vcpkg:

# windows example (open PowerShell as admin)
curl -LJO "https://github.com/aminya/setup-cpp/releases/download/v0.26.2/setup-cpp-x64-windows.exe"
./setup-cpp-x64-windows --compiler llvm --cmake true --ninja true --ccache true --vcpkg true

RefreshEnv.cmd # activate cpp environment variables

# linux example
wget "https://github.com/aminya/setup-cpp/releases/download/v0.26.2/setup-cpp-x64-linux"
chmod +x ./setup-cpp-x64-linux
sudo ./setup-cpp-x64-linux --compiler llvm --cmake true --ninja true --ccache true --vcpkg true

source ~/.cpprc # activate cpp environment variables

# macos example
wget "https://github.com/aminya/setup-cpp/releases/download/v0.26.2/setup-cpp-x64-macos"
chmod +x ./setup-cpp-x64-macos
sudo ./setup-cpp-x64-macos --compiler llvm --cmake true --ninja true --ccache true --vcpkg true

source ~/.cpprc # activate cpp environment variables

Inside GitHub Actions

Here is a complete cross-platform example that tests llvm, gcc, and msvc. It also uses cmake, ninja, vcpkg, and cppcheck.

.github/workflows/ci.yml:

name: ci
on:
  pull_request:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - master

jobs:
  Test:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        os:
          - windows-2022
          - ubuntu-22.04
          - macos-12
        compiler:
          - llvm
          - gcc
          # you can specify the version after `-` like `llvm-13.0.0`.
        include:
          - os: "windows-2022"
            compiler: "msvc"
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Cache
        uses: actions/cache@v3
        with:
          path: |
            ~/vcpkg
            ./build/vcpkg_installed
            ${{ env.HOME }}/.cache/vcpkg/archives
            ${{ env.XDG_CACHE_HOME }}/vcpkg/archives
            ${{ env.LOCALAPPDATA }}\vcpkg\archives
            ${{ env.APPDATA }}\vcpkg\archives            
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-${{ matrix.compiler }}-${{ env.BUILD_TYPE }}-${{ hashFiles('**/CMakeLists.txt') }}-${{ hashFiles('./vcpkg.json')}}
          restore-keys: |
            ${{ runner.os }}-${{ env.BUILD_TYPE }}-            

      - name: Setup Cpp
        uses: aminya/setup-cpp@v1
        with:
          compiler: ${{ matrix.compiler }}
          vcvarsall: ${{ contains(matrix.os, 'windows') }}
          cmake: true
          ninja: true
          vcpkg: true
          cppcheck: true
          clangtidy: true # instead of `true`, which chooses the default version, you can pass a specific version.
          # ...

Inside Docker

Here is an example for using setup-cpp to make a builder image that has the Cpp tools you need.

#### Base Image
FROM ubuntu:22.04 AS base

# add setup-cpp
RUN apt-get update -qq
RUN apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends npm
RUN npm install -g setup-cpp

# install llvm, cmake, ninja, and ccache
RUN setup-cpp --compiler llvm --cmake true --ninja true --ccache true --vcpkg true --make true

CMD source ~/.cpprc
ENTRYPOINT [ "/bin/bash" ]

#### Building
FROM base AS builder
ADD ./dev/cpp_vcpkg_project /home/app
WORKDIR /home/app
RUN bash -c 'source ~/.cpprc \
    && make build'

### Running environment
# use a distroless image or ubuntu:22.04 if you wish
FROM gcr.io/distroless/cc
# copy the built binaries and their runtime dependencies
COPY --from=builder /home/app/build/my_exe/Release/ /home/app/
WORKDIR /home/app/
ENTRYPOINT ["./my_exe"]

See this folder, for some dockerfile examples.

If you want to build the ones included, then run:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/aminya/setup-cpp
cd ./setup-cpp
docker build -f ./dev/docker/ubuntu.dockerfile -t setup-cpp .

Where you should use the path to the dockerfile after -f.

After build, run the following to start an interactive shell in your container

docker run -it setup-cpp

Inside Docker inside GitHub Actions

You can use the docker file discussed in the previous section inside GitHub Actions like the following:

jobs:
  Docker:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os:
          - ubuntu-22.04
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Build
        id: docker_build
        run: |
          docker build -f ./dev/docker/debian.dockerfile -t setup-cpp .          

Inside GitLab pipelines

The following gives an example for setting up a C++ environment inside GitLab pipelines.

.gitlab-ci.yaml

image: ubuntu:22.04

stages:
  - test

.setup_linux: &setup_linux |
  DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive

  # set time-zone
  TZ=Canada/Pacific
  ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$TZ /etc/localtime && echo $TZ > /etc/timezone

  # for downloading
  apt-get update -qq
  apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends curl gnupg ca-certificates

  # keys used by apt
  apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 3B4FE6ACC0B21F32
  apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 40976EAF437D05B5
  apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 1E9377A2BA9EF27F  

.setup-cpp: &setup-cpp |
  curl -LJO "https://github.com/aminya/setup-cpp/releases/download/v0.26.2/setup-cpp-x64-linux"
  chmod +x setup-cpp-x64-linux
  ./setup-cpp-x64-linux --compiler $compiler --cmake true --ninja true --ccache true --vcpkg true
  source ~/.cpprc  

.test: &test |
  # Build and Test
  # ...  

test_linux_llvm:
  stage: test
  variables:
    compiler: llvm
  script:
    - *setup_linux
    - *setup-cpp
    - *test

test_linux_gcc:
  stage: test
  variables:
    compiler: gcc
  script:
    - *setup_linux
    - *setup-cpp
    - *test

Articles

Setup-Cpp on Dev.to

Usage Examples

• cpp_vcpkg_project project
• project_options
• cpp-best-practices starter project
• ftxui
• inja
• teslamotors/fixed-containers
• zeromq.js
• json2cpp
• lefticus/tools
• watcher
• pinpoint-c-agent
• dpp
• DSpellCheck
• simdjson-rust
• CXXIter
• git-tui
• supercell
• libclang
• d-tree-sitter
• atom-community/papm
• ecs_benchmark
• smk

See all of the usage examples on GitHub here.