Ecosyste.ms: Awesome
An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.
https://github.com/yottaawesome/cross-platform-cpp-playground
Various dumb experiments with cross-building C++ projects on MSVC, GCC and Clang for Windows and Linux.
https://github.com/yottaawesome/cross-platform-cpp-playground
List: cross-platform-cpp-playground
clang cpp cpp-modules cpp20 gcc linux msvc visual-studio windows
Last synced: about 1 month ago
JSON representation
Various dumb experiments with cross-building C++ projects on MSVC, GCC and Clang for Windows and Linux.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/yottaawesome/cross-platform-cpp-playground
- Owner: yottaawesome
- License: mit
- Created: 2023-11-25T22:18:52.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2024-10-21T09:21:35.000Z (2 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2024-10-21T13:19:24.794Z (2 months ago)
- Topics: clang, cpp, cpp-modules, cpp20, gcc, linux, msvc, visual-studio, windows
- Language: C++
- Homepage:
- Size: 89.8 KB
- Stars: 0
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# Cross-platform C++ playground
## Introduction
This repo is for experimenting with building cross-platform C++ in Visual Studio (with an emphasis on module-based code) across Windows and Linux and across the big three C++ compilers: MSVC, GCC and Clang. It also functions as a useful testing ground for evaluating support of various different C++ features across the big three compilers. This repo was originally borne out of some experiments I did in my cpp-playground repo, before I realised this isn't just any other random experiment, but something worthwhile pursuing in a separate repo.
I intend to add CMake into the mix at some point, just to make things even more complicated.
## Cross-compiling and building C++ with Visual Studio
### Set up
This repo assumes you work on a Windows machine with WSL2 and that Visual Studio 2022 is your primary IDE. You'll need the _Desktop development with C++_ and the _Linux and embedded development with C++_ workloads. Building for Clang requires the _C++ Clang Compiler for Windows_ and _MSBuild Support for LLVM (clang-cl) toolset_ optional components.
### Building for Clang
Visual Studio's Clang support requires installing the Clang components -- [follow this for more info](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/clang-support-msbuild?view=msvc-170).
### Building for Linux
* You need a WSL2 distro running on your machine. I use Ubuntu. You can list your WSL2 instances with `wsl --list -v`.
* Install the required tools for Visual Studio on your WSL2 VM: `sudo apt install -y openssh-server build-essential gdb rsync make zip`
* [Enable SSH on the VM](https://jmmv.dev/2022/02/wsl-ssh-access.html). Test locally with `ssh -p 22 @localhost`.
* Configure Visual Studio to connect to the VM: `TOOLS > Options > Cross Platform > Connection Manager`.
* [Install additional GCC/g++ versions if necessary](https://phoenixnap.com/kb/install-gcc-ubuntu) (I use GCC-13/g++-13). Update the C++ Compiler option to point to the preferred compiler (and don't forget to change the language standard and enable additional flags like `-fmodules-ts` as appropriate for your compiler).
* You should be able to open the solution and build any one of the projects. If building for Linux, your WSL2 distro _needs_ to be running (you can log into it with `wsl ~` assuming you've set it as your default).
## Notes
GCC's and Clang's support for C++20 modules is still a bit flaky and lags behind MSVC's support. In GCC-13, `#including ` appears to cause an ICE and GCC also appears to dislike it when a module implementation unit (e.g. `somemodule.cpp`) has the same name as its module interface unit (e.g. `somemodule.ixx`). I wasn't able to get modules behaving in Visual Studio with Clang, but I could build them by dropping to the `x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2022` tool and following Rainer Grimm's instructions (linked below). One thing to note with Clang's implementation is the `.cppm` extension that gets compiled into a `.pcm` file.
## Additional resources
* [C++20: Module Support of the Big Three](https://www.modernescpp.com/index.php/c20-module-support-of-the-big-three-compilers/)
* [C++20: More Details about Module Support of the Big Three](https://www.modernescpp.com/index.php/c20-more-details-about-module-support-of-the-big-three/)
* [Clang/LLVM support in Visual Studio projects](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/clang-support-msbuild?view=msvc-170)
* [Walkthrough: Build and debug C++ with WSL 2 and Visual Studio 2022](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/walkthrough-build-debug-wsl2?view=msvc-170)
* [Tutorial: Create C++ cross-platform projects in Visual Studio](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/get-started-linux-cmake?view=msvc-170)
* [C++ Compiler Support](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/compiler_support): useful to ensure features used in your cross-platform code align with your available compilers.
* [C++ Standards Support in GCC](https://gcc.gnu.org/projects/cxx-status.html)
* [C++ Support in Clang](https://clang.llvm.org/cxx_status.html)
* [Microsoft C/C++ language conformance by Visual Studio version](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/overview/visual-cpp-language-conformance?view=msvc-170)
* [CMake's cxxmodules](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-cxxmodules.7.html)
* [Clang Standard C++ Modules](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/StandardCPlusPlusModules.html)