Exploratory work to build under Visual Studio 2019 with CMake

[obones]

This issue is more like a "reminder" as to what needs to be done to get Visual Studio 2019 to build rtl_433 by using CMake. Once everything is sorted out, there might be a need to create/update documentation, change configuration files and so on, all to be placed into pull requests.

• Create submodule for vcpkg

[submodule "vcpkg"]
	path = vcpkg
	url = https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg
	branch = master

• Init/Update the submodule
• Open a command line in the vckpkg folder and call bootstrap-vcpkg
• Install openSSL: vcpkg --triplet=x64-windows install openssl
• Install libusb: vcpkg --triplet=x64-windows install libusb
• Start Visual Studio 2019
• Choose "Open a folder" and indicate the rtl_433 folder
• Use the CMakeSettings.json panel to specify the following value for the "CMake toolchain file" option: ${projectDir}\vcpkg\scripts\buildsystems\vcpkg.cmake

The CMake cache will start to build and you will get the following output:

1> [CMake] -- The C compiler identification is MSVC 19.28.29336.0
1> [CMake] -- Detecting C compiler ABI info
1> [CMake] -- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
1> [CMake] -- Check for working C compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Professional/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.28.29333/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe - skipped
1> [CMake] -- Detecting C compile features
1> [CMake] -- Detecting C compile features - done
1> [CMake] -- Found Git version: refs/heads/master commit 0097048a2670a469b4f6991a73c697f1e6aece74 from 2021-11-14T15:42:53+0100
1> [CMake] -- Using Git version tag: 21.05-137-g0097048a on master at 202111141542
1> [CMake] -- Found OpenSSL: C:/my/path/rtl_433/vcpkg/installed/x64-windows/debug/lib/libcrypto.lib (found version "1.1.1l")  
1> [CMake] -- OpenSSL TLS support will be compiled. Found version 1.1.1l
1> [CMake] -- Could NOT find PkgConfig (missing: PKG_CONFIG_EXECUTABLE) 
1> [CMake] -- Could NOT find PkgConfig (missing: PKG_CONFIG_EXECUTABLE) 
1> [CMake] -- Could NOT find LibRTLSDR (missing: LibRTLSDR_LIBRARY LibRTLSDR_INCLUDE_DIR) 
1> [CMake] CMake Error at C:\my\path\rtl_433\CMakeLists.txt:181 (message):
1> [CMake]   RTL-SDR development files not found.
1> [CMake] 
1> [CMake] 
1> [CMake] -- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

First of all, it appears PKGCONFIG should not be required at all to begin with. At least that's what I figured out looking for details about that specific error, vcpkg is to be used instead.

The error about librtlsdr is because we did not install it from vcpkg. But if you try it, you will get an error telling you that "no ports could be found". Sure enough, librtlsdr is not in the vcpkg\ports folder so one has to actually create a new port which appears to be quite "difficult" to do because it does not seem to have proper documentation. Here is what I have found so far:

https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg/blob/master/docs/examples/packaging-zipfiles.md https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg/pull/9430 https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg/tree/master/scripts/templates https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg/issues/12823 https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg/discussions/17903

But the first step for a valid port is to identify the source Github repository for a libRTLSDR that builds under windows x64. The original appears to be here, but seems very old: https://github.com/steve-m/librtlsdr The, there is the one I used with VC++ here: https://github.com/winterrace/librtlsdr But the most promising one seems to be this one: https://github.com/librtlsdr/librtlsdr

I would suggest using the later one, especially because it has properly defined tags with prebuilt DLLs.

[zuckschwerdt]

The canonical "original" lib rtlsdr is https://github.com/osmocom/rtl-sdr/ ("librtlsdr" is a improved variant https://github.com/librtlsdr/librtlsdr ) You can get prebuilt libs from https://downloads.myriadrf.org/builds/PothosSDR/

[voltagex]

@obones how did you get vcpkg to work?

c:\git\rtl_433\build>cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=C:/git/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake -G "Visual Studio 17" ..
CMake Deprecation Warning at CMakeLists.txt:4 (cmake_minimum_required):
  Compatibility with CMake < 2.8.12 will be removed from a future version of
  CMake.

  Update the VERSION argument <min> value or use a ...<max> suffix to tell
  CMake that the project does not need compatibility with older versions.


-- Selecting Windows SDK version 10.0.19041.0 to target Windows 10.0.19044.
-- Found Git version: refs/heads/master commit eee45de11f600631c3dd793ffaefe77f0d3c0048 from 2022-08-07T11:13:16+0200
-- Using Git version tag: 21.12-133-geee45de1 on master at 202208071113
-- IPv6 support enabled.
-- Threads support will be compiled.
-- Could NOT find OpenSSL, try to set the path to OpenSSL root folder in the system variable OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR (missing: OPENSSL_CRYPTO_LIBRARY OPENSSL_INCLUDE_DIR)
-- OpenSSL development files not found, TLS won't be possible.
-- Could NOT find PkgConfig (missing: PKG_CONFIG_EXECUTABLE)
-- Could NOT find PkgConfig (missing: PKG_CONFIG_EXECUTABLE)
-- Could NOT find LibRTLSDR (missing: LibRTLSDR_LIBRARY LibRTLSDR_INCLUDE_DIR)
-- Could NOT find PkgConfig (missing: PKG_CONFIG_EXECUTABLE)
-- Could NOT find LibUSB (missing: LibUSB_LIBRARY LibUSB_INCLUDE_DIR)
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:223 (message):
  RTL-SDR development files not found.


-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "C:/git/rtl_433/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".
See also "C:/git/rtl_433/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log".

c:\git\rtl_433\build>

c:\git\vcpkg\vcpkg.exe list
libusb:x64-windows                                 1.0.26           a cross-platform library to access USB devices
openssl:x64-windows                                3.0.5#3          OpenSSL is an open source project that provides ...
pthreads:x64-windows                               3.0.0#11         Meta-package that provides PThreads4W on Windows...
rtlsdr:x64-windows                                 2020-04-16#3     rtl-sdr is a library that turns your Realtek RTL...
vcpkg-cmake-config:x64-windows                     2022-02-06#1
vcpkg-cmake-get-vars:x64-windows                   2022-05-10#1
vcpkg-cmake:x64-windows                            2022-07-18

[obones]

I'm not calling it manually, I'm using it via Visual Studio itself, with the indicated configuration

[gdt]

Where are we on this? I'd like to move to something in tree (in some readme), and not have long-term open issues.

[voltagex]

Not something I've worked on recently, sorry.

[obones]

I haven't looked at since then as I did not have much time for it, nor was I able to get "debugging" right with VS2019. I should try again with VS2022

[gdt]

Do you want to keep this open? I guess if you manage to create a PR, even if draft and you are not fully happy with it, then we could close this. There are VS2017 instructions now, and I don't know windows culture enough to know if that's no longer of interest, but I'm guessing that just updating to VSrecent is in order.