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 24.0, 22.04, 20.04, 18.04, Fedora, ArchLinux), and macOS (13, 12, 11, 10.15). setup-cpp
is backed by unit tests for each tool and integration tests for compiling cpp projects.
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 | ccache, sccache |
documentation | doxygen, graphviz |
coverage | gcovr, opencppcoverage, kcov |
other | python, powershell, sevenzip |
setup-cpp
automatically handles the dependencies of the selected tool (e.g., python
is required for conan
).
Run setup-cpp
with the available options.
# Windows example (open PowerShell as admin)
npx setup-cpp --compiler llvm --cmake true --ninja true --ccache true --vcpkg true
RefreshEnv.cmd # activate the environment
# Linux/Macos example
sudo npx 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
.
NOTE: setup-cpp requires Nodejs 12 or higher. If Nodejs shipped with your distribution is older than 12, install the latest Node (e.g. for Ubuntu 20.04), or alternatively you can use the executables that are self-contained (see the next section).
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/v0.39.0/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/v0.39.0/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/v0.39.0/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
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-24.04
- 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.
# ...
To provide fast development environments, setup-cpp
provides several prebuilt docker images that have the tools you need (e.g. llvm, cmake, ninja, task, vcpkg, python, make, cppcheck, gcovr, doxygen, ccache
).
You can use these images as a base image for your project.
FROM aminya/setup-cpp-ubuntu-llvm:22.04-0.39.0 AS builder
FROM aminya/setup-cpp-ubuntu-mingw:22.04-0.39.0 AS builder
FROM aminya/setup-cpp-fedora-llvm:40-0.39.0 AS builder
FROM aminya/setup-cpp-arch-llvm:base-0.39.0 AS builder
The names are in the format aminya/setup-cpp-<platform>-<compiler>:<platform_version>-<setup_cpp_version>
.
If you need to install the tools selectively, see the next section.
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 setup-cpp-ubuntu
RUN apt-get update -qq && \
# install nodejs
apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends nodejs npm && \
# install setup-cpp
npm install -g [email protected] && \
# install the compiler and tools
setup-cpp \
--nala true \
--compiler llvm \
--cmake true \
--ninja true \
--task true \
--vcpkg true \
--python true \
--make true \
--cppcheck true \
--gcovr true \
--doxygen true \
--ccache true && \
# cleanup
nala autoremove -y && \
nala autopurge -y && \
apt-get clean && \
nala clean --lists && \
rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* && \
rm -rf /tmp/*
ENTRYPOINT ["/bin/bash"]
#### Building (example)
FROM setup-cpp-ubuntu AS builder
COPY ./dev/cpp_vcpkg_project /home/app
WORKDIR /home/app
RUN bash -c 'source ~/.cpprc \
&& task build'
#### Running environment
# use a fresh image as the runner
FROM ubuntu:22.04 as runner
# 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/setup-cpp/setup-cpp-ubuntu.dockerfile -t setup-cpp-ubuntu-llvm:22.04-17 ./
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-ubuntu-llvm:22.04-17
You can use the docker file discussed in the previous section inside GitHub Actions like the following:
jobs:
Docker:
runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
strategy:
matrix:
os:
- ubuntu-24.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: Build
id: docker_build
run: |
docker build -f ./dev/docker/ubuntu.dockerfile -t setup-cpp .
The following gives an example for setting up a C++ environment inside GitLab pipelines.
.gitlab-ci.yaml
image: ubuntu:22.04
stages:
- test
.setup_linux: &setup_linux |
DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
# set time-zone
TZ=Canada/Pacific
ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$TZ /etc/localtime && echo $TZ > /etc/timezone
# for downloading
apt-get update -qq
apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends curl gnupg ca-certificates
.setup-cpp: &setup-cpp |
# install nodejs
apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends nodejs npm
# install setup-cpp
npm install -g [email protected]
# install the compiler and tools
./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
- 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.