CMake Generator Visual Studio 2017 Does Not Work

Question

_{Thursday, October 17, 2019 10:54 AM}

Using Visual Studio 2019 Developer Command Prompt v16.3.5, cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2017" -A x64  <path to source here> has the following error:

CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:3 (project): Generator
Visual Studio 15 2017
  could not find any instance of Visual Studio.

This is the same type of issue reported here: https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/433328/cmake-visual-studio-2017-generator-does-not-work.html

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

All replies (2)

_{Friday, October 18, 2019 8:18 AM ✅Answered}

Hi Brigity,

Welcome to the MSDN forum.

According to your description, I have tried to reproduce your issue in my side.

I tried to create two files (CMakeLists.txt file and XXX.cpp file) in the same folder and use Command Prompt(2019 and 2017), type cmake –g “Visual Studio 15 2017” –A x64 <path> and cmake –g “Visual Studio 16 2019” –A x64 <path> separately to check but both of them could work well.

Not sure if the “-G” command maybe affect this build, because I first use cmake –G “Visual Studio 15 2017” –A x64 <path> like you said but it failed with error like : The C compiler identification is unknown… though not the same error like you but when I changed it to –g it works.

Maybe you could also check if the path of your source files are correct.

In addition, I also researched more, You could try to install these components: Visual C++ tools for CMake, C++/CLI support, VC++ 2015.3 v14.00 (v140) toolset for desktop. (to install them from Visual Studio installer -> find VS 2017 -> Modify -> Individual components)

If this issue still persists feel free to contact us.

BTW, since it is hard for us to reproduce your issue, if possible could you share us with a simple sample then upload via onedrive or github and I will go to download and check in my side.

Hope all above could help you. 

Best Regards,

Tianyu

MSDN Community Support
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_{Friday, October 18, 2019 6:06 PM ✅Answered}

Your recommendations worked!

a) Without installing any components, using lower case "-g" instead of "-G" did not work, I got the same result as with "-G"

b) I had all the components installed that you recommended EXCEPT for:

b.1) C++/CLI support for v142 build tools (14.20)

b.2) C++/CLI support for v142 build tools (14.21)

b.3) C++/CLI support for v142 build tools (14.23)

b.4) VC++ 2015.3 v14.00 (v140) toolset for desktop (I have MSVC v140 - VS 2015 C++ build tools (v14.00) component installed. I could not install VC++ 2015.3 v14.00 (v140) component since it is not listed in the Visual Studio installer -> find VS 2010 -> Modify -> Individual components section (I am using VS2019 community and do not have vs2017)

c) I installed the components in (b.1), (b.2), and (b.3), left everything else same and rebooted. Then inside vs2019 developer command prompt I typed as you recommended: cmake –g “Visual Studio 15 2017” –A x64 <path> and it worked! Also cmake –g “Visual Studio 16 2019” –A x64 <path> worked!

Thank you for your excellent and timely advise!

Sincerely, Brigity