Build Instructions

How to build Option++ and integrate it with your project

Single-header Version

To use the single-header version of the library, just download the optionpp.hpp header file and place it inside an optionpp directory somewhere within your project directory (a subdirectory called 'third_party' or something similar is a typical location).

Make sure your compiler, IDE, or build system is configured to search for includes in the subdirectory containing the optionpp directory. Then #include <optionpp/optionpp.hpp> where needed.

There is one more thing to do: in order to avoid multiple definitions, the single-header version looks for a macro called OPTIONPP_MAIN in order to conditionally compile class method definitions. This means that in exactly one of your source files where you #include <optionpp/optionpp.hpp>, you need to add #define OPTIONPP_MAIN before the #include statement.

Build Requirements

To build the library, you will need a compiler supporting C++11, along with CMake version 3.10 or higher. To easily clone the repository, a git installation is also recommended.

Unix-like Environments

First clone the repository with git clone https://github.com/gkikola/optionpp.git. Then, from the root of the main project directory, run

mkdir build
cmake ..
make

This will create several files:

• liboptionpp.so - The actual library
• test - Unit test executable
• example_* - Example programs from docs/examples/

To compile the library only, you can use make optionpp.

Windows

Visual Studio 2019

Use git to clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/gkikola/optionpp.git.

Create a build directory within the root project directory. Open a command prompt, navigate to the build directory, and run cmake .. to create the Visual C++ project files.

Open the solution file OPTIONPP.sln in Visual Studio. In the menu, select Build > Build Solution. This will build several projects:

• optionpp.dll - The actual library
• test.exe - Unit test execution
• example_*.exe - Example programs from docs\examples\

Under the default Debug configuration, the resulting library and executable files will be located in the build\Debug directory.

Troubleshooting

If Visual Studio gives you the error message "Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component" try this:

1. Close Visual Studio.
2. Delete the hidden .vs directory from the build directory.
3. Reopen the solution or one of the project files.
4. Try building the solution again.