C++ Utilities  4.9.2
Common C++ classes and routines used by my applications such as argument parser, IO and conversion utilities
README.md
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1 # C++ utilities
2 Common C++ classes and routines used by my applications 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 conversion 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 * building with CMake by providing some modules and templates
22 
23 ## Build instructions
24 ### Requirements
25 #### Build-only dependencies
26 * C++ compiler supporting C++14, tested with
27  - clang++ to compile for GNU/Linux and MacOS X
28  - g++ to compile for GNU/Linux and Windows
29 * CMake (at least 3.3.0)
30 * cppunit for unit tests (optional)
31 * Doxygen for API documentation (optional)
32 * Graphviz for diagrams in the API documentation (optional)
33 * clang-format for tidying (optional)
34 * llvm-profdata, llvm-cov and cppunit for source-based code coverage analysis (optional)
35 
36 #### Runtime dependencies
37 * The c++utilities library itself only needs
38  * C++ standard library supporting C++14, tested with
39  - libstdc++ under GNU/Linux, Windows and MacOS X
40  - libc++ under GNU/Linux
41  * iconv (might be part of glibc or provided as extra library)
42 * For dependencies of my other projects check the README.md of these projects.
43 
44 ### How to build
45 Just run:
46 ```
47 cd "path/to/build/directory"
48 cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
49  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="/final/install/location" \
50  "path/to/projectdirectory"
51 make tidy # format source files (optional, must be enabled via CLANG_FORMAT_ENABLED)
52 make
53 make check # build and run tests (optional)
54 make coverage # build and run tests measuring test coverage (optional, must be enabled via CLANG_SOURCE_BASED_COVERAGE_ENABLED)
55 make apidoc # build API documentation (optional)
56 make DESTDIR="/temporary/install/location" install
57 ```
58 
59 #### General notes
60 * The make option ```-j``` can be used for concurrent compilation.
61 * ```LIB_SUFFIX```, ```LIB_SUFFIX_32``` and ```LIB_SUFFIX_64``` can be set to
62  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.
63 * By default the build system will *build* shared libs. To *build* also static libraries, set `ENABLE_STATIC_LIBS=ON`. To disable building shared libs
64  set `DISABLE_SHARED_LIBS=ON`.
65 * By default the build system will prefer *linking against* shared libraries. To force *linking against* static libraries set `STATIC_LINKAGE=ON`.
66  However, this will only affect applications. To force linking statically when building shared libraries set `STATIC_LIBRARY_LINKAGE=ON`.
67 * For more detailed documentation, see the documentation about build variables (in
68  [directory doc](https://github.com/Martchus/cpp-utilities/blob/master/doc/buildvariables.md) and
69  in Doxygen version accessible via "Related Pages").
70 * The repository [PKGBUILDs](https://github.com/Martchus/PKGBUILDs) contains build scripts for GNU/Linux, Windows and MacOS X in form
71  of Arch Linux packages. These scripts can be used example also when building under another platform.
72 
73 #### Building for Windows
74 * Building for Windows with GCC as cross compiler and mingw-w64 can be simplified by using a small
75  [Cmake wrapper and a custom toolchain file](https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/mingw-cmake.sh?h=mingw-w64-cmake):
76  ```
77  ${_arch}-cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="/final/install/location" "path/to/source/directory"
78  make DESTDIR="/temporary/install/location" install-mingw-w64-strip
79  ```
80 
81 * To create the \*.ico file for the application icon ffmpeg/avconv is required.
82 * The target ```install-mingw-w64-strip``` can be used as in the example above to only install files
83  suitable for creating a cross-compiler package and additionally strip the binaries.
84 
85 #### Building for MacOS X
86 * Building for MacOS X is possible using [osxcross](https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross).
87 * Here is a Homebrew formula to build Tag Editor (without GUI): https://gist.github.com/rakkesh/0b13b8fca5dd1d57d98537ef1dd2e0dd
88 
89 #### Development builds
90 During development I find it useful to build all required projects (for instace c++utilities, qtutilities, tagparser and tageditor) as one big project.
91 
92 This can be easily achieved by using CMake's ```add_subdirectory()``` function. For project files
93 see the repository [subdirs](https://github.com/Martchus/subdirs). For an example, see
94 [build instructions for Syncthing Tray](https://github.com/Martchus/syncthingtray#building-this-straight).
95 
96 For a debug build, just use ```-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug```.
97 
98 #### Arch Linux package
99 The repository [PKGBUILDs](https://github.com/Martchus/PKGBUILDs) contains files
100 for building Arch Linux packages.
101 
102 PKGBUILD files to cross compile for Windows using mingw-w64 and for MacOS X using osxcross are also included.
103 
104 #### RPM packages
105 RPM \*.spec files can be found at [openSUSE Build Servide](https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/home:mkittler).
106 Packages are available for x86_64, aarch64 and armv7l. Since GCC provided by Leap is too old, only Tumbleweed packages
107 are up-to-date.
108 
109 #### Gentoo
110 Packages are provided by perfect7gentleman; checkout his [repository](https://github.com/perfect7gentleman/pg_overlay).
111 
112 #### Cygwin
113 Scripts to build with Cygwin are provided by svnpenn. Checkout his
114 [repository](https://github.com/svnpenn/glade).
115 
116 ### General notes
117 * There is a workaround for [GCC Bug 66145](https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=66145) provided
118  in io/catchiofailure.h.