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cmake: surface headers in Visual Studio solution #1222

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cmake: surface headers in Visual Studio solution
cnaples79 Oct 6, 2025
5146d31
cmake: fix interface header paths
cnaples79 Oct 7, 2025
d43635b
cmake: glob headers and surface solution docs
cnaples79 Oct 8, 2025
8fce2e7
cmake: avoid VS solution items property
cnaples79 Oct 8, 2025
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46 changes: 45 additions & 1 deletion CMakeLists.txt
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -17,7 +17,51 @@ target_compile_features(GSL INTERFACE "cxx_std_14")
# Setup include directory
add_subdirectory(include)

target_sources(GSL INTERFACE $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/GSL.natvis>)
file(GLOB GSL_HEADER_FILES
RELATIVE "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include"
"${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/gsl/*"
)
list(SORT GSL_HEADER_FILES)
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@carsonRadtke carsonRadtke Oct 8, 2025

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nit: According to the docs, the result of file(GLOB, ... is already sorted.

https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/command/file.html#filesystem


# Build/install interface lists ensure CMake is happy when exporting headers via
# INTERFACE sources. Absolute paths would be rejected by newer CMake versions
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@carsonRadtke carsonRadtke Oct 8, 2025

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nit: "Newer" may be true now but won't be true in the future. Any chance you know which version of CMake starts throwing the error?

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@cnaples79 cnaples79 Oct 8, 2025

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I believe it's 4.1.2, below that didn't throw for me.

# (discovered while testing with 4.1).
set(GSL_HEADER_INTERFACE_SOURCES)
foreach(header ${GSL_HEADER_FILES})
list(APPEND GSL_HEADER_INTERFACE_SOURCES
$<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/${header}>
$<INSTALL_INTERFACE:include/${header}>
)
endforeach()

target_sources(GSL INTERFACE
${GSL_HEADER_INTERFACE_SOURCES}
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@carsonRadtke carsonRadtke Oct 8, 2025

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suggestion: According to https://github.com/microsoft/GSL/pull/1112/files#r1190452831 this only affects VS solutions. Let's move it into your new if (CMAKE_GENERATOR MATCHES "Visual Studio") block and combine it with the other target_sources (which doesn't yet exist; see my comment about VS_SOLUTION_ITEMS).

$<BUILD_INTERFACE:${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/GSL.natvis>
)

if (CMAKE_GENERATOR MATCHES "Visual Studio")
# Visual Studio still needs concrete file paths for solution grouping.
set(GSL_HEADER_ABSOLUTE_PATHS)
foreach(header ${GSL_HEADER_FILES})
list(APPEND GSL_HEADER_ABSOLUTE_PATHS ${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/include/${header})
endforeach()
source_group(TREE ${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/include PREFIX "Header Files" FILES ${GSL_HEADER_ABSOLUTE_PATHS})
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@carsonRadtke carsonRadtke Oct 8, 2025

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issue: Based on your PR description, it sounds like this should appear in the solution adjacent to "Solution Items"? I'm not seeing anything.

> cmake --version
> PS D:\GSL\build> cmake --version
cmake version 4.1.0
Image

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@cnaples79 cnaples79 Oct 8, 2025

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I added a source_group call, the docs should land in the solution items node now.


set(GSL_SOLUTION_FILES
${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/.clang-format
${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/.gitattributes
${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/.gitignore
${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/CMakeSettings.json
${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/CONTRIBUTING.md
${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/LICENSE
${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/README.md
${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/SECURITY.md
${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/ThirdPartyNotices.txt
)

set_property(DIRECTORY PROPERTY VS_SOLUTION_ITEMS ${GSL_SOLUTION_FILES})
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@carsonRadtke carsonRadtke Oct 8, 2025

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issue: The VS_SOLUTION_ITEMS property is new in CMake 4.0.0. At this time, we want to maintain backwards compatibility with older CMakes. Apologies for not catching this the first time around, but we will need to figure out something else.

From what I understand, before 4.0.0 there was no way of adding arbitrary files to VS solutions. What you'll need to do is create a custom target and add the files in the GSL workspace to that target. Something like:

if (CMAKE_GENERATOR MATCHES "Visual Studio")
    file(GLOB GSL_WORKSPACE_FILES "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/gsl/*")
    list(APPEND GSL_WORKSPACE_FILES
        ${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/.clang-format
        ${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/.gitattributes
        ${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/.gitignore
        ${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/CMakeSettings.json
        ${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/CONTRIBUTING.md
        ${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/LICENSE
        ${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/README.md
        ${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/SECURITY.md
        ${GSL_SOURCE_DIR}/ThirdPartyNotices.txt
    )
    target_sources(GSL PRIVATE ${GSL_WORKSPACE_FILES})
endif()

And that should probably be the bulk of the change.

https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/prop_dir/VS_SOLUTION_ITEMS.html

source_group("Solution Items" FILES ${GSL_SOLUTION_FILES})
endif()

if (GSL_TEST)
enable_testing()
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