[cmake]how to include and link system libraries on windows using cmake

Question

this's my cpp code:

#pragma once

#include <cstdio>

int main(char** args, int size)
{
    printf("aaaaa\n");
    return 1;
}

this's my CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.5)
set(PROJECT_ROOT_PATH "./")
add_executable(app ${PROJECT_ROOT_PATH}/app.c)

my steps running command is following:

cmake -G "NMake Makefiles" ./
nmake

when I run nmake, there are many errors like this:

D:\Program_Filesx86\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\include\cstdio(36): error C2054: expected '(' to follow 'using' [E:\cmake-test\app.vcxproj]
D:\Program_Filesx86\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\include\cstdio(36): error C2061: syntax error: identifier 'using' [E:\cmake-test\app.vcxproj]

if keep a empty function there:

#pragma once

int main(char** args, int size)
{
    return 1;
}

nmake would works righ and output an executable file: app.exe

is the problem that I didn't specify includes and libraries of windows SDK? if so, how can I configurate them?

Answer 1

File cstdio might contain C++ specific stuff. C++ is a superset of a subset of C, so not every C++ code is valid C.

CMake compiles your .c file as C, thus syntax errors.

In your case the source of the error is C++ using statements that do not exist in C programming language.

To fix the problem either:

• #include <stdio.h> (and compile as C as it was)

or

• rename the file to .cpp (so it would be compiled as C++)