Building cpp-netlib with CMake

Question

I've downloaded the cpp-netlib source, extracted it to a folder and for some reason I'm completely lost. I read the documentation carefully, it states I have to download CMake as well, which I did. Then I set the source directory and build directories, and upon clicking the "Generate" button I got this output:

The CXX compiler identification is MSVC 19.0.23506.0
Check for working C compiler using: Visual Studio 14 2015
Check for working C compiler using: Visual Studio 14 2015 -- works
Detecting C compiler ABI info
Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
Check for working CXX compiler using: Visual Studio 14 2015
Check for working CXX compiler using: Visual Studio 14 2015 -- works
Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
Detecting CXX compile features
Detecting CXX compile features - done
CMake Error at C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake/share/cmake-3.5/Modules/FindBoost.cmake:1657 (message):
  Unable to find the requested Boost libraries.

  Unable to find the Boost header files.  Please set BOOST_ROOT to the root
  directory containing Boost or BOOST_INCLUDEDIR to the directory containing
  Boost's headers.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:49 (find_package)


Could NOT find OpenSSL, try to set the path to OpenSSL root folder in the system variable OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR (missing:  OPENSSL_LIBRARIES OPENSSL_INCLUDE_DIR) 
Looking for pthread.h
Looking for pthread.h - not found
Found Threads: TRUE  
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:131 (export):
  export given target "cppnetlib-client-connections" which is not built by
  this project.


Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "C:/Users/Nick/Documents/cpp-netlib/cpp-netlib-build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".
See also "C:/Users/Nick/Documents/cpp-netlib/cpp-netlib-build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log"

It couldn't find the Boost libraries, and that's where I'm stuck. I installed boost, but I have no idea where to set "BOOST_ROOT". I did some research on that, tried to use the command line with the -DBOOST_ROOT option like so:

c:\Program Files>cmake -DBOOST_ROOT=/boost/boost_1_55_0

But it gives me the following error:

CMake Error: The source directory "C:/Program Files" does not appear to contain
CMakeLists.txt.
Specify --help for usage, or press the help button on the CMake GUI.

I'm really unsure as to what to do now and I feel this isn't the end of my problems... Is there anything obvious I'm missing?

Answer 1

You need to either run cmake from the source tree (which would contain CMakeLists.txt), or, more typically, run it from a build folder and tell it where the source tree is. A common case would be creating a build folder next to the source tree and running cmake ../sourcedir .

You seem to have initially been using a gui; surely that provides a means to set the BOOST_ROOT variable?

Alternatively, if you just put boost in the VC++ include/lib paths (either in the vc dirs, or by setting %INCLUDE%/%LIB%), you probably would not need BOOST_ROOT. Same for OpenSSL.