[SOLVED] Building cpp-netlib with CMake

Building cpp-netlib with CMake

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?

Solution

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.