Generic Build Instructions

Setup

To build GoogleTest and your tests that use it, you need to tell your build system where to find its headers and source files. The exact way to do it depends on which build system you use, and is usually straightforward.

Build with CMake

GoogleTest comes with a CMake build script (CMakeLists.txt) that can be used on a wide range of platforms (“C” stands for cross-platform.). If you don’t have CMake installed already, you can download it for free from http://www.cmake.org/.

CMake works by generating native makefiles or build projects that can be used in the compiler environment of your choice. You can either build GoogleTest as a standalone project or it can be incorporated into an existing CMake build for another project.

Standalone CMake Project

When building GoogleTest as a standalone project, the typical workflow starts with

git clone https://github.com/google/googletest.git -b v1.13.0
cd googletest        # Main directory of the cloned repository.
mkdir build          # Create a directory to hold the build output.
cd build
cmake ..             # Generate native build scripts for GoogleTest.

The above command also includes GoogleMock by default. And so, if you want to build only GoogleTest, you should replace the last command with

cmake .. -DBUILD_GMOCK=OFF

If you are on a *nix system, you should now see a Makefile in the current directory. Just type make to build GoogleTest. And then you can simply install GoogleTest if you are a system administrator.

make
sudo make install    # Install in /usr/local/ by default

If you use Windows and have Visual Studio installed, a gtest.sln file and several .vcproj files will be created. You can then build them using Visual Studio.

On Mac OS X with Xcode installed, a .xcodeproj file will be generated.

Incorporating Into An Existing CMake Project

If you want to use GoogleTest in a project which already uses CMake, the easiest way is to get installed libraries and headers.

• Import GoogleTest by using find_package (or pkg_check_modules). For example, if find_package(GTest CONFIG REQUIRED) succeeds, you can use the libraries as GTest::gtest, GTest::gmock.

And a more robust and flexible approach is to build GoogleTest as part of that project directly. This is done by making the GoogleTest source code available to the main build and adding it using CMake’s add_subdirectory() command. This has the significant advantage that the same compiler and linker settings are used between GoogleTest and the rest of your project, so issues associated with using incompatible libraries (eg debug/release), etc. are avoided. This is particularly useful on Windows. Making GoogleTest’s source code available to the main build can be done a few different ways:

• Download the GoogleTest source code manually and place it at a known location. This is the least flexible approach and can make it more difficult to use with continuous integration systems, etc.
• Embed the GoogleTest source code as a direct copy in the main project’s source tree. This is often the simplest approach, but is also the hardest to keep up to date. Some organizations may not permit this method.
• Add GoogleTest as a git submodule or equivalent. This may not always be possible or appropriate. Git submodules, for example, have their own set of advantages and drawbacks.
• Use CMake to download GoogleTest as part of the build’s configure step. This approach doesn’t have the limitations of the other methods.

The last of the above methods is implemented with a small piece of CMake code that downloads and pulls the GoogleTest code into the main build.

Just add to your CMakeLists.txt:

```cmake include(FetchContent) FetchContent_Declare( googletest # Specify the commit you depend on and update it regularly. URL https://github.com/google/googletest/archive/5376968f6948923e2411081fd9372e71a59d8e77.zip )

For Windows: Prevent overriding the parent project’s compiler/linker settings

set(gtest_force_shared_crt ON CACHE BOOL “” FORCE)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Changelog for package gtest_vendor

1.16.0 (2025-04-24)

1.15.1 (2025-04-18)

• Bump minimum CMake version to 3.15 (#33)
• Contributors: mosfet80

1.15.0 (2024-04-26)