1### Generic Build Instructions 2 3#### Setup 4 5To build GoogleTest and your tests that use it, you need to tell your build 6system where to find its headers and source files. The exact way to do it 7depends on which build system you use, and is usually straightforward. 8 9### Build with CMake 10 11GoogleTest comes with a CMake build script 12([CMakeLists.txt](https://github.com/google/googletest/blob/master/CMakeLists.txt)) 13that can be used on a wide range of platforms ("C" stands for cross-platform.). 14If you don't have CMake installed already, you can download it for free from 15<http://www.cmake.org/>. 16 17CMake works by generating native makefiles or build projects that can be used in 18the compiler environment of your choice. You can either build GoogleTest as a 19standalone project or it can be incorporated into an existing CMake build for 20another project. 21 22#### Standalone CMake Project 23 24When building GoogleTest as a standalone project, the typical workflow starts 25with 26 27``` 28git clone https://github.com/google/googletest.git -b release-1.10.0 29cd googletest # Main directory of the cloned repository. 30mkdir build # Create a directory to hold the build output. 31cd build 32cmake .. # Generate native build scripts for GoogleTest. 33``` 34 35The above command also includes GoogleMock by default. And so, if you want to 36build only GoogleTest, you should replace the last command with 37 38``` 39cmake .. -DBUILD_GMOCK=OFF 40``` 41 42If you are on a \*nix system, you should now see a Makefile in the current 43directory. Just type `make` to build GoogleTest. And then you can simply install 44GoogleTest if you are a system administrator. 45 46``` 47make 48sudo make install # Install in /usr/local/ by default 49``` 50 51If you use Windows and have Visual Studio installed, a `gtest.sln` file and 52several `.vcproj` files will be created. You can then build them using Visual 53Studio. 54 55On Mac OS X with Xcode installed, a `.xcodeproj` file will be generated. 56 57#### Incorporating Into An Existing CMake Project 58 59If you want to use GoogleTest in a project which already uses CMake, the easiest 60way is to get installed libraries and headers. 61 62* Import GoogleTest by using `find_package` (or `pkg_check_modules`). For 63 example, if `find_package(GTest CONFIG REQUIRED)` is succeed, you can use 64 the libraries as `GTest::gtest`, `GTest::gmock`. 65 66And a more robust and flexible approach is to build GoogleTest as part of that 67project directly. This is done by making the GoogleTest source code available to 68the main build and adding it using CMake's `add_subdirectory()` command. This 69has the significant advantage that the same compiler and linker settings are 70used between GoogleTest and the rest of your project, so issues associated with 71using incompatible libraries (eg debug/release), etc. are avoided. This is 72particularly useful on Windows. Making GoogleTest's source code available to the 73main build can be done a few different ways: 74 75* Download the GoogleTest source code manually and place it at a known 76 location. This is the least flexible approach and can make it more difficult 77 to use with continuous integration systems, etc. 78* Embed the GoogleTest source code as a direct copy in the main project's 79 source tree. This is often the simplest approach, but is also the hardest to 80 keep up to date. Some organizations may not permit this method. 81* Add GoogleTest as a git submodule or equivalent. This may not always be 82 possible or appropriate. Git submodules, for example, have their own set of 83 advantages and drawbacks. 84* Use CMake to download GoogleTest as part of the build's configure step. This 85 is just a little more complex, but doesn't have the limitations of the other 86 methods. 87 88The last of the above methods is implemented with a small piece of CMake code in 89a separate file (e.g. `CMakeLists.txt.in`) which is copied to the build area and 90then invoked as a sub-build _during the CMake stage_. That directory is then 91pulled into the main build with `add_subdirectory()`. For example: 92 93New file `CMakeLists.txt.in`: 94 95```cmake 96cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.12) 97 98project(googletest-download NONE) 99 100include(ExternalProject) 101ExternalProject_Add(googletest 102 GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/google/googletest.git 103 GIT_TAG master 104 SOURCE_DIR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/googletest-src" 105 BINARY_DIR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/googletest-build" 106 CONFIGURE_COMMAND "" 107 BUILD_COMMAND "" 108 INSTALL_COMMAND "" 109 TEST_COMMAND "" 110) 111``` 112 113Existing build's `CMakeLists.txt`: 114 115```cmake 116# Download and unpack googletest at configure time 117configure_file(CMakeLists.txt.in googletest-download/CMakeLists.txt) 118execute_process(COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -G "${CMAKE_GENERATOR}" . 119 RESULT_VARIABLE result 120 WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/googletest-download ) 121if(result) 122 message(FATAL_ERROR "CMake step for googletest failed: ${result}") 123endif() 124execute_process(COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} --build . 125 RESULT_VARIABLE result 126 WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/googletest-download ) 127if(result) 128 message(FATAL_ERROR "Build step for googletest failed: ${result}") 129endif() 130 131# Prevent overriding the parent project's compiler/linker 132# settings on Windows 133set(gtest_force_shared_crt ON CACHE BOOL "" FORCE) 134 135# Add googletest directly to our build. This defines 136# the gtest and gtest_main targets. 137add_subdirectory(${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/googletest-src 138 ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/googletest-build 139 EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL) 140 141# The gtest/gtest_main targets carry header search path 142# dependencies automatically when using CMake 2.8.11 or 143# later. Otherwise we have to add them here ourselves. 144if (CMAKE_VERSION VERSION_LESS 2.8.11) 145 include_directories("${gtest_SOURCE_DIR}/include") 146endif() 147 148# Now simply link against gtest or gtest_main as needed. Eg 149add_executable(example example.cpp) 150target_link_libraries(example gtest_main) 151add_test(NAME example_test COMMAND example) 152``` 153 154Note that this approach requires CMake 2.8.2 or later due to its use of the 155`ExternalProject_Add()` command. The above technique is discussed in more detail 156in [this separate article](http://crascit.com/2015/07/25/cmake-gtest/) which 157also contains a link to a fully generalized implementation of the technique. 158 159##### Visual Studio Dynamic vs Static Runtimes 160 161By default, new Visual Studio projects link the C runtimes dynamically but 162GoogleTest links them statically. This will generate an error that looks 163something like the following: gtest.lib(gtest-all.obj) : error LNK2038: mismatch 164detected for 'RuntimeLibrary': value 'MTd_StaticDebug' doesn't match value 165'MDd_DynamicDebug' in main.obj 166 167GoogleTest already has a CMake option for this: `gtest_force_shared_crt` 168 169Enabling this option will make gtest link the runtimes dynamically too, and 170match the project in which it is included. 171 172#### C++ Standard Version 173 174An environment that supports C++11 is required in order to successfully build 175GoogleTest. One way to ensure this is to specify the standard in the top-level 176project, for example by using the `set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)` command. If this 177is not feasible, for example in a C project using GoogleTest for validation, 178then it can be specified by adding it to the options for cmake via the 179`DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS` option. 180 181### Tweaking GoogleTest 182 183GoogleTest can be used in diverse environments. The default configuration may 184not work (or may not work well) out of the box in some environments. However, 185you can easily tweak GoogleTest by defining control macros on the compiler 186command line. Generally, these macros are named like `GTEST_XYZ` and you define 187them to either 1 or 0 to enable or disable a certain feature. 188 189We list the most frequently used macros below. For a complete list, see file 190[include/gtest/internal/gtest-port.h](https://github.com/google/googletest/blob/master/googletest/include/gtest/internal/gtest-port.h). 191 192### Multi-threaded Tests 193 194GoogleTest is thread-safe where the pthread library is available. After 195`#include "gtest/gtest.h"`, you can check the 196`GTEST_IS_THREADSAFE` macro to see whether this is the case (yes if the macro is 197`#defined` to 1, no if it's undefined.). 198 199If GoogleTest doesn't correctly detect whether pthread is available in your 200environment, you can force it with 201 202 -DGTEST_HAS_PTHREAD=1 203 204or 205 206 -DGTEST_HAS_PTHREAD=0 207 208When GoogleTest uses pthread, you may need to add flags to your compiler and/or 209linker to select the pthread library, or you'll get link errors. If you use the 210CMake script, this is taken care of for you. If you use your own build script, 211you'll need to read your compiler and linker's manual to figure out what flags 212to add. 213 214### As a Shared Library (DLL) 215 216GoogleTest is compact, so most users can build and link it as a static library 217for the simplicity. You can choose to use GoogleTest as a shared library (known 218as a DLL on Windows) if you prefer. 219 220To compile *gtest* as a shared library, add 221 222 -DGTEST_CREATE_SHARED_LIBRARY=1 223 224to the compiler flags. You'll also need to tell the linker to produce a shared 225library instead - consult your linker's manual for how to do it. 226 227To compile your *tests* that use the gtest shared library, add 228 229 -DGTEST_LINKED_AS_SHARED_LIBRARY=1 230 231to the compiler flags. 232 233Note: while the above steps aren't technically necessary today when using some 234compilers (e.g. GCC), they may become necessary in the future, if we decide to 235improve the speed of loading the library (see 236<http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/Visibility> for details). Therefore you are recommended 237to always add the above flags when using GoogleTest as a shared library. 238Otherwise a future release of GoogleTest may break your build script. 239 240### Avoiding Macro Name Clashes 241 242In C++, macros don't obey namespaces. Therefore two libraries that both define a 243macro of the same name will clash if you `#include` both definitions. In case a 244GoogleTest macro clashes with another library, you can force GoogleTest to 245rename its macro to avoid the conflict. 246 247Specifically, if both GoogleTest and some other code define macro FOO, you can 248add 249 250 -DGTEST_DONT_DEFINE_FOO=1 251 252to the compiler flags to tell GoogleTest to change the macro's name from `FOO` 253to `GTEST_FOO`. Currently `FOO` can be `FAIL`, `SUCCEED`, or `TEST`. For 254example, with `-DGTEST_DONT_DEFINE_TEST=1`, you'll need to write 255 256 GTEST_TEST(SomeTest, DoesThis) { ... } 257 258instead of 259 260 TEST(SomeTest, DoesThis) { ... } 261 262in order to define a test. 263