Instructions for building libsigc++ on Visual Studio

Building libsigc++ on Windows is now supported using Visual Studio

versions 2013 or later in both 32-bit and 64-bit (x64 and ARM64) flavors,

via NMake Makefiles. Due to `C++11` usage, Visual Studio 2012 or

earlier is not supported, and packages using libsigc++ may require Visual

Studio 2015 or later as C++-11 is supported more comprehensively in later

Visual Studio versions.

libsigc++ itself has no external dependencies, but building the

benchmark test program will require an installation of the Boost

C++ libraries.

Building with NMake

The following describes what items are built with the following

targets:

* `all`, `examples`: (or no target specified): The libsigc++ DLL and the example programs.

* `tests`: The libsigc++ DLL and the test programs.

* `benchmark`: The libsigc++ DLL and the benchmark program, the Boost C++ headers should be found in one of the paths that are in`%INCLUDE%`.

Building directly from a GIT checkout is now supported, provided that a `PERL`

installation is present, along with the `m4` executable that can be optained

by installing CygWin or MSYS2 (add the location of your `m4` executable to the

end of your `%PATH%` and pass the `PERL` interpreter executable in your NMake

command line by using `nmake /f Makefile.vc ... PERL=<path_to_PERL_interpreter_executable>`).

The following are instructions for performing such a build. A `clean` target is

provided-it is recommended that one cleans the build and redo the build if any

configuration option changed. An `install` target is also provided to copy the

built items in their appropriate locations under `$(PREFIX)`, which is described

below.

A 'forceclean' target is also provided to cover the actions under the target

'clean', but also to remove any traces of the headers and sources that were

generated. This may be useful if one wants to re-generate the sources and headers

from the m4 templates.

Invoke the build by issuing the command:

where:

* `CFG`: Required. Choose from a `release` or `debug` build. Note that

all builds generate a `.pdb` file for each `.dll` and `.exe` built.

* `PREFIX`: Optional. Base directory of where the third-party headers, libraries

and needed tools can be found, i.e. headers in `$(PREFIX)\include`,

libraries in `$(PREFIX)\lib` and tools and DLLs in `$(PREFIX)\bin`. If not

specified, `$(PREFIX)` is set as `$(srcroot)\..\vs$(X)\$(platform)`, where

`$(platform)` is `win32` for 32-bit builds or `x64` for 64-bit (Intel/AMD)

builds or `arm64` for 64-bit (ARM) builds, and `$(X)` is the short version of the

Visual Studio used, as follows:

* 2013: `12`

* 2015: `14`

* 2017: `15`

* 2019: `16`

* 2022: `17`

* Options, set by `<option>=1`:

* `BOOST_DLL`: When building the benchmark, link to a DLL build of the Boost

libraries. Required if your installation of the Boost libraries are built as DLLs.

Note that debug builds must link to debug builds of Boost and release builds must

link to release builds of Boost.

* `STATIC`: Optional. Set if building libsigc++ as a static library. Note that

for building items that use this static build, `/DLIBSIGCXX_STATIC`

must be passed into the compiler flags.

MSVC-Builds.md \

See MSVC_NMake/MSVC-Builds.md.