CMake does not find Visual C compiler

Question

After installing Visual Studio 2015 and running CMake on a previous project  CMake errors stating that it could not find the C compiler   The C compiler identification is unknown The CXX compiler identification is unknown CMake Error at CMakeLists txt 4  PROJECT     No CMAKE C COMPILER could be found   CMake Error at CMakeLists txt 4  PROJECT     No CMAKE CXX COMPILER could be found    I went searching for cl exe in the Visual Studio folder C  Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio 14 0  and could not find it     How do I set up CMake to work on Windows with Visual Studio 2015

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I had a similar problem with the Visual Studio 2017 project generated through CMake. Some of the packages were missing while installing Visual Studio in Desktop development with C++. See snapshot:

Visual Studio 2017 Packages:

Also, upgrade CMake to the latest version.

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I had this issue under Windows nbsp 10 when using Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2015 Professional  while Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2015 Express worked  Under Windows nbsp 7  both Visual Studio versions used to work   New projects created from the Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2015 Professional IDE successfully compile  but CMake would fail to find the compiler reporting   The C compiler identification is unknown The CXX compiler identification is unknown   I upgraded CMake from 3 4 1 to 3 11 4  and now the problem is gone

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Look in the Cmakelists txt if you find ARM you need to install C   for ARM and as well vcvarsall bat use for ARM bin folder   It s these packages    C   Universal Windows Platform for ARM64  Not Required   Visual C   Compilers and libraries for ARM  Not Required   Visual C   Compilers and libraries for ARM64  Very Likely Required   Required for finding Threads on ARM  enable language C   enable language CXX    Then the problems might disappear    No CMAKE C COMPILER could be found   No CMAKE CXX COMPILER could be found   If above does not resolve your problem   Optionally you can remove the options C and CXX in cmakelists txt by setting   infront of where the enable language C  is  And avoid Android ARM processor compilation

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In my case I could see in the CMakeError log that CMake could not find the Windows SDK  MSB8003  Could not find WindowsSDKDir variable from the registry    The version can be specified on the commandline on the first CMake run using   -DCMAKE VS WINDOWS TARGET PLATFORM VERSION    I got further after setting that  but I hit more issues later  so I assume my environment is messed up somehow   but maybe it will help someone with this issue

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In my case the issue was that the parent project  which is including googletest via  add subdirectory gtest dir    was defined as  PROJECT  projname CXX     Somehow  CMake does not recognize  PROJECT sub project name CXX C    since the C compiler is not set in the parent   I solved the issue by using  PROJECT  projname CXX C    in my main CMakeLists txt file

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A couple of tips    Try to set the path manually by checking  advanced  and modifying CMAKE LINKER and CMAKE MAKE PROGRAM Delete the cache - in the CMake with GUI go to   File   Delete Cache    My problem was a combination of previously stated  I have set the compiler version to 15 instead of 14 and when corrected  I had to delete the cache    I also started the Visual Studio command prompt as an administrator and from there I ran the cmake-gui exe  Then everything worked as it was supposed to

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If you are on Visual Studio 2017 you need at least CMake 3 8

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Those stumbling with this on Visual Studio 2017  there is a feature related to CMake that needs to be selected and installed together with the relevant compiler toolsets  See the screenshot below

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I have found the solution  While the Visual Studio IDE installed successfully it did not install any build tools and therefore did not install the C   compiler   By attempting to manually create a C   project in the Visual Studio 2015 GUI I was able to prompt it to download the C   packages  CMake was then able to find the compiler without any difficulty

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If none of the above solutions worked  then stop and do a sanity check    I got burned using the wrong -G  lt config gt  string and it gave me this misleading error   First  run from the VS Command Prompt not the regular command prompt  You can find it in  Start Menu - gt  Visual Studio 2015 - gt  MSBuild Command Prompt for VS2015 This sets up all the correct paths to VS tools  etc   Now see what generators are available from cmake     cmake -help       lt snip gt     The following generators are available on this platform    Visual Studio 15  arch         Generates Visual Studio 15 project files                                   Optional  arch  can be  Win64  or  ARM     Visual Studio 14 2015  arch    Generates Visual Studio 2015 project files                                   Optional  arch  can be  Win64  or  ARM     Visual Studio 12 2013  arch    Generates Visual Studio 2013 project files                                   Optional  arch  can be  Win64  or  ARM     Visual Studio 11 2012  arch    Generates Visual Studio 2012 project files                                   Optional  arch  can be  Win64  or  ARM     Visual Studio 10 2010  arch    Generates Visual Studio 2010 project files                                   Optional  arch  can be  Win64  or  IA64         Then chose the appropriate string with the  arch  added   mkdir  build cd  build cmake    -G  Visual Studio 15 Win64    Running cmake in a subdirectory makes it easier to do a  clean  since you can just delete everything in that directory   I upgraded to Visual Studio 15 but wasn t paying attention and was trying to generate for 2012

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Here is the solution that worked for me    Open Visual Studio command prompt tool  as an administrator   On windows 10 it might be called  Developer command prompt   Navigate to where you have the CMake executable Run Cmake exe Proceed as usual to select build and source folder Select the appropriate Visual Studio compiler and hit the configure button   Hopefully it should run without problems

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For me  I checked the CMakeError log file and found            error MSB8036  The Windows SDK version 8 1 was not found  Install the required version of Windows SDK or change the SDK version in the project property pages or by right-clicking the solution and selecting  Retarget solution     This is despite using Visual Studio 2017 on Windows nbsp 7  So it appears that CMake is trying to build its detection project with the Windows 8 1 SDK   I used the Visual Studio installer to add that component and now CMake is happy as a clam

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This might be another solution for those with the latest Windows 10 creator version   Stack Overflow post Fatal error LNK1104  cannot open file   39 gdi32 lib  39

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I had this issue with CMake GUI and the VS 21019 Community Edition  I think I may have installed CMake before Visual Studio - certainly after I updated CMake 3 15 2 to 3 15 3 the problem went away

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I looked in CMakeError log file and found an error about cannot run  rc exe   I searched and found this answer to copy RC Exe and RcDll Dll from the Microsoft SDKs bin to the VC bin  and then CMake worked     Edit  The top answer to another question suggests that it s a PATH issue  so it could be enough to ensure the Microsoft SDK bin is in your PATH

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Resolved by adding the missing component Modify- continue add as follow

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I got this problem with CMake 3 12 1  after an update of Visual Studio 2017  I simply re-ran CMake and it worked

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Checking CMakeErrors log in CMakeFiles returned      C  Program Files    x86  MSBuild Microsoft Cpp v4 0 V140 Platforms x64 PlatformToolsets v140 xp Toolset targets 36 5   warning MSB8003  Could not find WindowsSdkDir 71A variable from the   registry   TargetFrameworkVersion or PlatformToolset may be set to an   invalid version number    The error means that the build tools for XP  v140 xp  are not installed  To fix it I installed the proper feature in Visual Studio 2019 installer under Individual Components tab

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Check name folder too long or not

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I had a related problem  the Visual C   generators were not even on the list when running cmake --help   I ran where cmake in console and found that cygwin also provides its own cmake exe file  which was being used  Changing the order of directories in PATH fixed the problem

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i found this sollution at stackoverflow and i work for me although not working other sollutions  if you have a windows 10 OS  doing the following steps will fix the problem   1  go to C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft SDKs Windows v7 1A Bin  2  then copy RC exe and RcDll from this file  3  go to C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Visual Studio 14 0 VC bin and paste the two files you have copied into it   thats all i hope it is helpful

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In my case there was an environment variable set which was the reason for this error  The problem was solved after deleting cxx flags from the environment variables

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Because CMake is not able to find your Visual Studio compiler  Start any project which will download the required compilers and CMake must be able to find it then

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Make sure you are using the correct version of Visual Studio in the generator  I had incorrectly selected Visual Studio 15 when Visual Studio 14 installed

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I ran into the same issue and fixed it by relaunching the Visual Studio Install and checking the following option   Windows and Web Development   Universal Windows App Development Tools   Windows 10 SDK  It contains the standard C   headers used in most applications and therefore it is often necessary to install it as well

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None of the previous solutions worked for me   However I noticed that although I installed Visual nbsp Studio version 15  not to be confused with Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2015  the directory created on my computer was for Visual Studio 14    When I specified Visual Studio 14 when I pressed the configuration button it worked

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Menu   Visual Studio 2015   MSBuild Command Prompt for Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2015  Then CMake can find cl exe   set PATH  c  Program Files  x86  Windows Kits 10 bin 10 0 16299 0 x64    PATH    Change the upper path to where your Windows SDK is installed   CMake can find rc exe   cd to the path of CMakeLists txt and do   md  build cd  build cmake    -G  Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64  -DCMAKE BUILD TYPE Release cmake --build     The param after -G should be fetched by CMake  Use --help  you may or may not have the generator

[c++] CMake does not find Visual C++ compiler

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