C++ Utilities  4.12.0
Useful C++ classes and routines such as argument parser, IO and conversion utilities
README.md
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1 # C++ utilities
2 Useful C++ classes and routines such as argument parser, IO and conversion utilities.
3 
4 ## Features
5 The library utilizes:
6 
7 * parsing command-line arguments and providing Bash completion
8 * dealing with dates and times
9 * conversion of primitive data types to byte-buffers and vice versa (litte-endian and big-endian)
10 * common string conversions/operations, eg.
11  - character set conversions via iconv
12  - split, join, find and replace
13  - conversion from number to string and vice verca
14  - encoding/decoding base-64
15  - building string without multiple heap allocations ("string builder")
16 * IO
17  - reading/writing primitive data types of various sizes (little-endian and big-endian)
18  - reading/writing terminated strings and size-prefixed strings
19  - reading/writing INI files
20  - reading bitwise
21  - writing formatted output using ANSI escape sequences
22 * using SFINAE by providing additional traits, eg. for checking whether a type is iteratable
23 * testing with *CppUnit*
24  - finding testfiles and make working copies of testfiles
25  - assert standard output
26  - various helper
27 * building with CMake by providing some modules and templates
28 
29 ## Build instructions
30 ### Requirements
31 #### Build-only dependencies
32 * C++ compiler supporting C++14, tested with
33  - clang++ to compile for GNU/Linux and MacOS X
34  - g++ to compile for GNU/Linux and Windows
35 * CMake (at least 3.3.0)
36 * cppunit for unit tests (optional)
37 * Doxygen for API documentation (optional)
38 * Graphviz for diagrams in the API documentation (optional)
39 * clang-format for tidying (optional)
40 * llvm-profdata, llvm-cov and cppunit for source-based code coverage analysis (optional)
41 
42 #### Runtime dependencies
43 * The c++utilities library itself only needs
44  * C++ standard library supporting C++14, tested with
45  - libstdc++ under GNU/Linux, Windows and MacOS X
46  - libc++ under GNU/Linux
47  * iconv (might be part of glibc or provided as extra library)
48 * For dependencies of my other projects check the README.md of these projects.
49 
50 ### How to build
51 Just run:
52 ```
53 cd "path/to/build/directory"
54 cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
55  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="/final/install/location" \
56  "path/to/projectdirectory"
57 make tidy # format source files (optional, must be enabled via CLANG_FORMAT_ENABLED)
58 make
59 make check # build and run tests (optional)
60 make coverage # build and run tests measuring test coverage (optional, must be enabled via CLANG_SOURCE_BASED_COVERAGE_ENABLED)
61 make apidoc # build API documentation (optional)
62 make DESTDIR="/temporary/install/location" install
63 ```
64 
65 #### General notes
66 * The make option ```-j``` can be used for concurrent compilation.
67 * ```LIB_SUFFIX```, ```LIB_SUFFIX_32``` and ```LIB_SUFFIX_64``` can be set to
68  specify a suffix for the library directory, eg. lib*64* or lib*32*. The 32/64 variants are only used when building for 32/64-bit architecture.
69 * By default the build system will *build* shared libs. To *build* also static libraries, set `ENABLE_STATIC_LIBS=ON`. To disable building shared libs
70  set `DISABLE_SHARED_LIBS=ON`.
71 * By default the build system will prefer *linking against* shared libraries. To force *linking against* static libraries set `STATIC_LINKAGE=ON`.
72  However, this will only affect applications. To force linking statically when building shared libraries set `STATIC_LIBRARY_LINKAGE=ON`.
73 * For more detailed documentation, see the documentation about build variables (in
74  [directory doc](https://github.com/Martchus/cpp-utilities/blob/master/doc/buildvariables.md) and
75  in Doxygen version accessible via "Related Pages").
76 * The repository [PKGBUILDs](https://github.com/Martchus/PKGBUILDs) contains build scripts for GNU/Linux, Windows and MacOS X in form
77  of Arch Linux packages. These scripts can be used as an example also when building under another platform.
78 
79 #### Building for Windows
80 * Building for Windows with GCC as cross compiler and mingw-w64 can be simplified by using a small
81  [Cmake wrapper and a custom toolchain file](https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/mingw-cmake.sh?h=mingw-w64-cmake):
82  ```
83  ${_arch}-cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="/final/install/location" "path/to/source/directory"
84  make DESTDIR="/temporary/install/location" install-mingw-w64-strip
85  ```
86 
87 * To create the \*.ico file for the application icon ffmpeg/avconv is required.
88 * The target ```install-mingw-w64-strip``` can be used as in the example above to only install files
89  suitable for creating a cross-compiler package and additionally strip the binaries.
90 
91 #### Building for MacOS X
92 * Building for MacOS X is possible using [osxcross](https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross).
93 * Here is a Homebrew formula to build Tag Editor (without GUI): https://gist.github.com/rakkesh/0b13b8fca5dd1d57d98537ef1dd2e0dd
94 
95 #### Development builds
96 During development I find it useful to build all required projects (for instace c++utilities, qtutilities, tagparser and tageditor) as one big project.
97 
98 This can be easily achieved by using CMake's ```add_subdirectory()``` function. For project files
99 see the repository [subdirs](https://github.com/Martchus/subdirs). For an example, see
100 [build instructions for Syncthing Tray](https://github.com/Martchus/syncthingtray#building-this-straight).
101 
102 For a debug build, just use ```-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug```.
103 
104 #### Arch Linux package
105 The repository [PKGBUILDs](https://github.com/Martchus/PKGBUILDs) contains files
106 for building Arch Linux packages.
107 
108 PKGBUILD files to cross compile for Windows using mingw-w64 and for MacOS X using osxcross are also included.
109 
110 #### RPM packages for openSUSE
111 RPM \*.spec files can be found at [openSUSE Build Servide](https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/home:mkittler).
112 Packages are available for x86_64, aarch64 and armv7l. Since GCC provided by Leap is too old, only Tumbleweed packages
113 are up-to-date.
114 
115 #### Gentoo
116 Packages are provided by perfect7gentleman; checkout his [repository](https://github.com/perfect7gentleman/pg_overlay).
117 
118 #### Cygwin
119 Scripts to build with Cygwin are provided by svnpenn. Checkout his
120 [repository](https://github.com/svnpenn/glade).
121 
122 ### General notes
123 * There is a workaround for [GCC Bug 66145](https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=66145) provided
124  in io/catchiofailure.h.