CMake and MsVS-NuGet

Question

I'm currently developing a desktop application, using the C++ REST SDK (codename Casablanca), Qt5 and some other libraries. For the project setup, I use CMake. How to get CMake to install NuGet Packages? I now have to install it each time manually, if I rerun CMake, which isn't really an option.

Accepted Answer

EDIT: This answer does not apply to C++ projects. EDIT: As of CMake 3.15, CMake supports referencing Nuget packages with `VS_PACKAGE_REFERENCES`. Now, this is a much cleaner solution than the work-around proposed earlier below. To add a Nuget package reference to a CMake target, use the package name and package version separated by an `_` underscore. Here is an example for `BouncyCastle` version `1.8.5`: ``` set_property(TARGET MyApplication PROPERTY VS_PACKAGE_REFERENCES "BouncyCastle_1.8.5" ) ``` The documentation shows how you can add multiple Nuget packages by semicolon-delimiting `;` the packages. For CMake versions older than 3.15, here is one potential work-around: Kudos to @Markus Mayer for the excellent answer. I ran with the suggestion, but found that using the `nuget` command line doesn't hold up if you're generating your VS project/solution files from scratch. Specifically, the `nuget` command line does not update the project files (`.csproj`), and some manual effort seems necessary to tell your project where to find the installed dependencies. The following steps outline how I worked around this for a simple project with one Nuget package dependency: - Installed the Nuget package dependency using Nuget Package Manager in Visual Studio. - Copied the generated `packages.config` file (generated in the same directory as the affected `.csproj` file). Placed the copy into a source directory, and renamed it as `packages.config.in`. Now, we can tell CMake to copy this file back to the CMake binary directory during the configure stage with `configure_file`. Nuget will use it to install/restore dependencies, if they are missing. - Took note of where Nuget installed the DLL for this package. On my machine, this was in the CMake binary directory in a `packages` directory. We can use this path to tell CMake our reference package's location: ``` set_property(TARGET MyApplication PROPERTY VS_DOTNET_REFERENCE_MyReferenceLib ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/packages/path/to/lib/MyReferenceLib.dll) ``` We can also see where this dependency is installed in the `.csproj` file to verify we got the correct path (see `HintPath`), and didn't miss any other dependencies: ``` packages\path o\lib\MyReferenceLib.dll ``` - Uninstalled the Nuget package, because now we have all the information necessary to let CMake do all the heavy lifting. Putting it together, the CMake commands look like this: ``` # Find Nuget (install the latest CLI here: https://www.nuget.org/downloads). find_program(NUGET nuget) if(NOT NUGET) message(FATAL "CMake could not find the nuget command line tool. Please install it!") else() # Copy the Nuget config file from source location to the CMake build directory. configure_file(packages.config.in packages.config COPYONLY) # Run Nuget using the .config file to install any missing dependencies to the build directory. execute_process(COMMAND ${NUGET} restore packages.config -SolutionDirectory ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR} WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR} ) endif() # Provide the path to the Nuget-installed references, in case this is a fresh project build. set_property(TARGET MyApplication PROPERTY VS_DOTNET_REFERENCE_MyReferenceLib ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/packages/path/to/lib/MyReferenceLib.dll) ``` While this will now also provide package paths to the VS project for fresh CMake builds, there is one caveat. If you want to upgrade the version of the Nuget-installed package you are using, you'll have to re-do the aforementioned manual steps. TL;DR: Here is the full `CMakeLists.txt` file that I tried out with Nuget-installed SQLite: ``` cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.8) # Project name project(MyProject LANGUAGES CSharp) # Include CMake utilities for CSharp, for WinForm and WPF application support. include(CSharpUtilities) set(MyProject_SOURCES Form1.cs Form1.Designer.cs Form1.resx Program.cs Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs Properties/Resources.Designer.cs Properties/Resources.resx Properties/Settings.Designer.cs Properties/Settings.settings ) # Define the executable, including any .cs files. # The .resx and other Properties files are optional here, but including them makes them visible in the VS solution for easy editing. add_executable(MyWinFormApp ${MyProject_SOURCES}) # Set the source file properties for Windows Forms use. csharp_set_windows_forms_properties(${MyProject_SOURCES}) # Find Nuget (install the latest CLI here: https://www.nuget.org/downloads). find_program(NUGET nuget) if(NOT NUGET) message(FATAL "CMake could not find the nuget command line tool. Please install it!") else() # Copy the Nuget config file from source location to the CMake build directory. configure_file(packages.config.in packages.config COPYONLY) # Run N…

CMake and MsVS-NuGet

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