Notes: This short instruction is written for users who want to quickly build HDF5 applications using the CMake tools. Users can adapt these instructions for their own applications. For more information, see the "Minimum C Project Files for CMake" section.
More information about using CMake can be found at the Kitware site, www.cmake.org.
CMake uses the command line; however, the visual CMake tool is available for the configuration step. The steps are similar for all of the operating systems supported by CMake.
- CMake for HDF5 development should be usable on any system where CMake is supported. Please send us any comments on how CMake support can be improved on any system.
- See the appendix at the bottom of this file for an example of using a
ctestscript for building and testing. See INSTALL_CMake.md for more information.- See the CMake Config Mode Search Procedure for more information on finding packages.
- I. Preconditions
- II. Building HDF5 Applications with CMake
- III. Minimum C Project Files for CMake
- IV. Appendix
-
We suggest you obtain the latest CMake for your platform from the Kitware web site. The HDF5
z.y.xproduct requires a minimum CMake version of 3.26. -
You have installed the HDF5 library built with CMake, by executing the HDF Install Utility (the
*.msifile in the binary package for Windows or the*.shon Linux). You can obtain pre-built binaries from The HDF Group's website at www.hdfgroup.org. -
Set the
HDF5_ROOTCMake variable (-DHDF5_ROOT=<install_path>) or environment variable (set(ENV{HDF5_ROOT} "<install_path>")) to the installed location of HDF5.- On Windows:
HDF5_ROOT=C:/Program Files/HDF_Group/HDF5/z.y.x/
- On Unix:
HDF5_ROOT=<install root folder>/HDF_Group/HDF5/z.y.x/
If you are using shared libraries, you may need to add to the path environment variable. Set the path environment variable to the installed location of the library files for HDF5.
- On Windows (
*.dll):PATH=%PATH%;C:/Program Files/HDF_Group/HDF5/z.y.x/bin - On Unix (
*.so):LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:<install root folder>/HDF_Group/HDF5/z.y.x/lib
If you are using filter plugin libraries, you will need to set the
HDF5_PLUGIN_PATHenvironment variable.- On Windows:
HDF5_PLUGIN_PATH=C:/Program Files/HDF_Group/HDF5/z.y.x/lib/plugin
- On Unix:
HDF5_PLUGIN_PATH=<install root folder>/HDF_Group/HDF5/z.y.x/lib/plugin
(Note: there are no quote characters used on Windows and all platforms use forward slashes).
- On Windows:
-
Create separate source and build directories. (CMake commands are executed in the build directory).
-
Create a
CMakeLists.txtfile(s) for your source. See Section III below.
Go through these steps to build HDF5 applications with CMake. (The application must support building with CMake.)
- Run CMake
- Configure the cache settings
- Build HDF5 Applications
- Test HDF5 Applications
These steps are described in more detail below.
The visual CMake executable is named cmake-gui.exe on Windows and should be available in your Start menu. For Linux, UNIX, and Mac users the executable is named cmake-gui and can be found where CMake was installed.
Specify the source and build directories. Make the build and source directories different. For example on Windows, if the source is at c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5, then use c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\build or c:\MyHDFstuff\build\hdf5 for the build directory.
PREFERRED:
Users can perform the configuration step without using the visual cmake-gui program. The following is an example command line configuration step executed within the build directory:
cmake -G "<generator>" [-D<options>] <sourcepath>Where <generator> is (examples):
MinGW MakefilesNMake MakefilesUnix MakefilesVisual Studio 15 2017Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64Visual Studio 16 2019(in addition VS2019 will need to set the-Aoption, [Win32, x64, ARM, ARM64])Visual Studio 17 2022(in addition VS2022 will need to set the-Aoption, [Win32, x64, ARM, ARM64])
<options> can include:
BUILD_TESTING:BOOL=ONBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:BOOL=[ON | OFF]
2.1 Visual CMake users Click the Configure button. If this is the first time you are running cmake-gui in this directory, you will be prompted for the generator you wish to use (for example on Windows, Visual Studio 16 2019). CMake will read in the CMakeLists.txt files from the source directory and display options for the HDF5 project. After the first configure you can adjust the cache settings and/or specify locations of other programs.
Any conflicts or new values will be highlighted by the configure process in red. Once you are happy with all the settings and there are no more values in red, click the Generate button to produce the appropriate build files.
- On Windows, if you are using a Visual Studio generator, the solution and project files will be created in the build folder.
- On linux, if you are using the Unix Makefiles generator, the Makefiles will be created in the build folder.
2.2 Alternative command line example On Windows in the c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\build directory:
cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A "x64" -DBUILD_TESTING:BOOL=ON ..On Windows, you can build HDF5 applications using either the Visual Studio Environment or the command line. The command line is normally used on Linux, Unix, and Mac.
To build from the command line, navigate to your build directory and execute the following:
cmake --build . --config {Debug | Release}NOTE:
--config {Debug | Release}may be optional on your platform. We recommend choosing eitherDebugorReleaseon Windows. If you are using the pre-built binaries from HDF, useRelease.
3.1 Visual Studio Environment
If you wish to use the Visual Studio environment, open the solution file in your build directory. Be sure to select either Debug or Release and build the solution.
To test the build, navigate to your build directory and execute:
ctest . -C {Debug | Release}NOTE:
-C {Debug | Release}may be optional on your platform. We recommend choosing eitherDebugorReleaseto match the build step on Windows.
The files that support building with CMake are all of the files in the config/cmake folder, the CMakeLists.txt files in each source folder, and CTestConfig.cmake.
CTestConfig.cmakeis specific to the internal testing performed by The HDF Group. It should be altered for the user's installation and needs.- The
cacheinit.cmakefile settings are used by The HDF Group for daily testing. It should be altered/ignored for the user's installation and needs.
Given the preconditions in Section I, create a CMakeLists.txt file at the source root. Include the following text in the file:
cmake_minimum_required (VERSION 3.26)
project (HDF5MyApp C)
set (LIB_TYPE STATIC) # or SHARED
string(TOLOWER ${LIB_TYPE} SEARCH_TYPE)
find_package (HDF5 NAMES hdf5 COMPONENTS C ${SEARCH_TYPE})
# find_package (HDF5) # Find non-cmake built HDF5
set_directory_properties(PROPERTIES INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES "${HDF5_INCLUDE_DIR}")
set (LINK_LIBS ${LINK_LIBS} ${HDF5_C_${LIB_TYPE}_LIBRARY})
set (example hdf_example)
add_executable (${example} ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/${example}.c)
target_link_libraries (${example} ${LINK_LIBS})
enable_testing ()
include (CTest)
add_test (NAME test_example COMMAND ${example})Below is an example of a ctest script that can be used to build the examples. Adjust the values as necessary. Note that the defaults can be entered on the command line and the build folder is created as a sub-folder. Windows should adjust the forward slash to double backslashes, except for the HDF_DIR environment variable.
NOTE: this file is available in the HDF5 repository, for more information see: USING_CMake_Examples.md
ctest -S HDF5_Examples.cmake -C Release -V -O test.logAlso available at the HDF web site is a CMake application framework template. You can quickly add files to the framework and execute the script to compile your application with an installed HDF5 binary.
For further assistance, send email to help@hdfgroup.org