C++ Utilities  4.14.0
Useful C++ classes and routines such as argument parser, IO and conversion utilities
README.md
Go to the documentation of this file.
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  - supports nested arguments
9  - supports operations (no `--` or `-` prefix, eg. `git status`)
10  - can check for invalid or uncombinable arguments
11  - can print help automatically
12  - provides automatic Bash completion for argument names
13  - allows customizing Bash completion for argument values
14 * dealing with dates and times
15 * conversion of primitive data types to byte-buffers and vice versa (litte-endian and big-endian)
16 * common string conversions/operations, eg.
17  - character set conversions via iconv
18  - split, join, find and replace
19  - conversion from number to string and vice verca
20  - encoding/decoding base-64
21  - building string without multiple heap allocations ("string builder")
22 * IO
23  - reading/writing primitive data types of various sizes (little-endian and big-endian)
24  - reading/writing terminated strings and size-prefixed strings
25  - reading/writing INI files
26  - reading bitwise
27  - writing formatted output using ANSI escape sequences
28 * using SFINAE by providing additional traits, eg. for checking whether a type is iteratable
29 * testing with *CppUnit*
30  - finding testfiles and make working copies of testfiles
31  - assert standard output
32  - various helper
33 * building with CMake by providing some modules and templates
34 
35 Besides, the library provides a few useful algorithms and data structures:
36 
37 * min(), max() for any number of arguments
38 * digitsum(), factorial(), powerModulo(), inverseModulo(), orderModulo()
39 * Damerau–Levenshtein distance
40 * *N*-dimensional array
41 
42 ## Build instructions
43 ### Requirements
44 #### Build-only dependencies
45 * C++ compiler supporting C++14, tested with
46  - clang++ to compile for GNU/Linux and MacOS X
47  - g++ to compile for GNU/Linux and Windows
48 * CMake (at least 3.3.0)
49 * cppunit for unit tests (optional)
50 * Doxygen for API documentation (optional)
51 * Graphviz for diagrams in the API documentation (optional)
52 * clang-format for tidying (optional)
53 * llvm-profdata, llvm-cov and cppunit for source-based code coverage analysis (optional)
54 
55 #### Runtime dependencies
56 * The c++utilities library itself only needs
57  * C++ standard library supporting C++14, tested with
58  - libstdc++ under GNU/Linux, Windows and MacOS X
59  - libc++ under GNU/Linux
60  * iconv (might be part of glibc or provided as extra library)
61 * For dependencies of my other projects check the README.md of these projects.
62 
63 ### How to build
64 Just run:
65 ```
66 cd "path/to/build/directory"
67 cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
68  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="/final/install/location" \
69  "path/to/projectdirectory"
70 make tidy # format source files (optional, must be enabled via CLANG_FORMAT_ENABLED)
71 make
72 make check # build and run tests (optional)
73 make coverage # build and run tests measuring test coverage (optional, must be enabled via CLANG_SOURCE_BASED_COVERAGE_ENABLED)
74 make apidoc # build API documentation (optional)
75 make DESTDIR="/temporary/install/location" install
76 ```
77 
78 #### General notes
79 * The make option ```-j``` can be used for concurrent compilation.
80 * ```LIB_SUFFIX```, ```LIB_SUFFIX_32``` and ```LIB_SUFFIX_64``` can be set to
81  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.
82 * By default the build system will *build* shared libs. To *build* also static libraries, set `ENABLE_STATIC_LIBS=ON`. To disable building shared libs
83  set `DISABLE_SHARED_LIBS=ON`.
84 * By default the build system will prefer *linking against* shared libraries. To force *linking against* static libraries set `STATIC_LINKAGE=ON`.
85  However, this will only affect applications. To force linking statically when building shared libraries set `STATIC_LIBRARY_LINKAGE=ON`.
86 * For more detailed documentation, see the documentation about build variables (in
87  [directory doc](https://github.com/Martchus/cpp-utilities/blob/master/doc/buildvariables.md) and
88  in Doxygen version accessible via "Related Pages").
89 * The repository [PKGBUILDs](https://github.com/Martchus/PKGBUILDs) contains build scripts for GNU/Linux, Windows and MacOS X in form
90  of Arch Linux packages. These scripts can be used as an example also when building under another platform.
91 
92 #### Building for Windows
93 * Building for Windows with GCC as cross compiler and mingw-w64 can be simplified by using a small
94  [Cmake wrapper and a custom toolchain file](https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/mingw-cmake.sh?h=mingw-w64-cmake):
95  ```
96  ${_arch}-cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="/final/install/location" "path/to/source/directory"
97  make DESTDIR="/temporary/install/location" install-mingw-w64-strip
98  ```
99 
100 * To create the \*.ico file for the application icon ffmpeg/avconv is required.
101 * The target ```install-mingw-w64-strip``` can be used as in the example above to only install files
102  suitable for creating a cross-compiler package and additionally strip the binaries.
103 
104 #### Building for MacOS X
105 * Building for MacOS X is possible using [osxcross](https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross).
106 * Here is a Homebrew formula to build Tag Editor (without GUI): https://gist.github.com/rakkesh/0b13b8fca5dd1d57d98537ef1dd2e0dd
107 
108 #### Development builds
109 During development I find it useful to build all required projects (for instace c++utilities, qtutilities, tagparser and tageditor) as one big project.
110 
111 This can be easily achieved by using CMake's ```add_subdirectory()``` function. For project files
112 see the repository [subdirs](https://github.com/Martchus/subdirs). For an example, see
113 [build instructions for Syncthing Tray](https://github.com/Martchus/syncthingtray#building-this-straight).
114 
115 For a debug build, just use ```-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug```.
116 
117 #### Arch Linux package
118 The repository [PKGBUILDs](https://github.com/Martchus/PKGBUILDs) contains files
119 for building Arch Linux packages.
120 
121 PKGBUILD files to cross compile for Windows using mingw-w64 and for MacOS X using osxcross are also included.
122 
123 #### RPM packages for openSUSE
124 RPM \*.spec files can be found at [openSUSE Build Servide](https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/home:mkittler).
125 Packages are available for x86_64, aarch64 and armv7l. Since GCC provided by Leap is too old, only Tumbleweed packages
126 are up-to-date.
127 
128 #### Gentoo
129 Packages are provided by perfect7gentleman; checkout his [repository](https://github.com/perfect7gentleman/pg_overlay).
130 
131 #### Cygwin
132 Scripts to build with Cygwin are provided by svnpenn. Checkout his
133 [repository](https://github.com/svnpenn/glade).
134 
135 ### General notes
136 * There is a workaround for [GCC Bug 66145](https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=66145) provided
137  in io/catchiofailure.h.