Is there any way to keep compiler detection and use VCPKG_CHAINLOAD_TOOLCHAIN_FILE triplet variable?

[ccpjosephf]

I have things I need to override in a toolchain file EG build configuration settings and other things not settable in a triplet file. However if I set VCPKG_CHAINLOAD_TOOLCHAIN_FILE from the triplet file, which is required if dependencies are to use my custom toolchain file, I loose all compiler detection.

How do I do this while keeping compiler detection?

[Neumann-A]

I loose all compiler detection.

Unless you explicitly disable it compiler detection also runs when VCPKG_CHAINLOAD_TOOLCHAIN_FILE is set

[ccpjosephf]

Ah thank you! Should there be any logs generated from the chainloaded toolchain file? Maybe there's a specific option to produce them?

[Neumann-A]

in the buildtree there should be a detect_compiler folder and somewhere in there should be the *.yaml CMake generates for running test projects like the cmake compiler detection

[ccpjosephf]

The only error I can see is this:

-- The C compiler identification is unknown
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:11 (enable_language):
  No CMAKE_C_COMPILER could be found.

  Tell CMake where to find the compiler by setting either the environment
  variable "CC" or the CMake cache entry CMAKE_C_COMPILER to the full path to
  the compiler, or to the compiler name if it is in the PATH.


-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.

Which is what made me think that I needed to specify CMAKE_C_COMPILER myself in the toolchain file if I set VCPKG_CHAINLOAD_TOOLCHAIN_FILE in the triplet

My toolchain contains one line only:

include(path/to/vcpkg/scripts/toolchains/windows.cmake)

In fact this error does dissappear if I set CMAKE_C_COMPILER and CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER manually (which I don't want to have to do) in that toolchain file, so I'm confident that the rest of the file is fine

[Neumann-A]

CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:11 (enable_language):
No CMAKE_C_COMPILER could be found.

There should be a *.yaml file in a subdirectory with the corresponding logs of the cmake compiler detection run.

In fact this error does dissappear if I set CMAKE_C_COMPILER and CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER manually (which I don't want to have to do) in that toolchain file,

Sounds like the compiler is not on PATH? Setting the compiler explicit in the toolchain is generally ok and should be done (unless you use an absolute path)

[ccpjosephf]

I believe you have answered my question. Thank you very much for your help @Neumann-A !