AWSSDK with CMake and find_package on Windows

[Denzil-Dexter-66]

Hello AWS,
I have been trying to build a simple AWS application on WIndows 10 and have realised I need some help. Here's the setup:

• Windows 10, 64bit,
• Visual Studio 19 Build Tools (x64),
• CMake version 3.30.4,
• AWSSDK Version 1.11.400

I have built the parts of the library that I'm interested in and have installed them to a directory on the Windows 10 machine. Here's how I did that:

• Using Cygwin (configured with the VS2019 command line x64 environment) (See Note1)
• Unzip the archive (1.11.400),
• Run prefetch_crt_dependency.sh
• Create an out of build directory ${AWS_BUILD_DEBUG_DIR} and then configure, build and install the AWS SDK using these following commands

Note1 I've also tried this outside of Cygwin in a Visual Studio Command x64 Prompt and get the same errors.

mkdir ./${AWS_BUILD_DEBUG_DIR}
cd ./${AWS_BUILD_DEBUG_DIR}
cmake ../${AWS_SDK_BASENAME} -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A x64 \
	-DSIMPLE_INSTALL=OFF \
	-DAUTORUN_UNIT_TESTS=OFF \
	-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="${AWS_SDK_DIR}" \
	-DCPP_STANDARD=17 \
	-DENABLE_TESTING=OFF \
	-DENABLE_UNITY_BUILD=ON \
	-DBUILD_ONLY="s3;s3-encryption;transfer;iam;sts"
if [ ! $? -eq 0 ]; then
	echo "Error, CMake failed to configure AWS SDK debug build"
	exit 1
fi

cmake --build . --config=Debug --parallel 4
if [ ! $? -eq 0 ]; then
	echo "Error, CMake failed to build AWS SDK debug build"
	exit 1
fi

cmake --install . --config=Debug
if [ ! $? -eq 0 ]; then
	echo "Error, CMake failed to install AWS SDK debug build"
	exit 1
fi

This build happily and installs to the required location. The installation folder looks like this:

aws-sdk-cpp-1.11.400
    bin\
       aws-c-xxx dlls
       windows
           intel64
              Debug
                  aws cpp sdk dlls, libs and pdbs here
    include\
        aws
            headers
        smithy
            headers        
        lib\
            aws-c-xxx libs
            cmake
                 cmake files
                 AWSSDK
                      cmake files (in particular AWSSDKCofig.cmake)
    

NOTE: I've also built the Release version of the libraries in the same manner but for Release. Not shown above for brevity.

I have a very simple application with a CMakeLists.txt file containing the following:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.22)

....

set(AWSSDKRequiredLibs
    s3
    s3-encryption
    transfer
    iam
    sts)

find_package(AWSSDK COMPONENTS ${AWSSDKRequiredLibs} REQUIRED)
add_executable(hello-aws-world
    main.cpp
)

The configure step ALWAYS fails no matter what I try and I just cannot figure out why. I appreciate some help:

cmake -S . -B ./build -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A x64 --debug-find
   -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
   -DAWSSDK_DIR="<path>/aws-sdk-cpp-1.11.400/"
   -DAWSSDK_ROOT_DIR="<path>/aws-sdk-cpp-1.11.400/"
   -DAWSSDK_DIR="<path>/aws-sdk-cpp-1.11.400/lib/cmake/AWSSDK"

This fails with this

-- Found AWS SDK for C++, Version: 1.11.400, Install Root:C:/ThirdParty/v1.0.0/aws-sdk-cpp-1.11.400, Platform Prefix:, Platform Dependent Libraries: Userenv;version;ws2_32;Wininet;winhttp
-- Components specified for AWSSDK: s3;s3-encryption;transfer;iam;sts, application will be depending on libs: aws-cpp-sdk-s3-encryption;aws-cpp-sdk-kms;aws-cpp-sdk-transfer;aws-cpp-sdk-iam;aws-cpp-sdk-sts;aws-cpp-sdk-s3;aws-cpp-sdk-core
-- Try finding aws-cpp-sdk-core
CMake Error at C:/ThirdParty/v1.0.0/aws-sdk-cpp-1.11.400/lib/cmake/AWSSDK/AWSSDKConfig.cmake:310 (find_package):
  By not providing "Findaws-cpp-sdk-core.cmake" in CMAKE_MODULE_PATH this
  project has asked CMake to find a package configuration file provided by
  "aws-cpp-sdk-core", but CMake did not find one.

Full configure log here:
configure-log.txt

I know it's a lot to ask but I am out of ideas as I've tried every combination of arguments I can think of and have spent what feels like ages examining the cmake files.

Regards,
DD

[Denzil-Dexter-66]

Some observations, in \aws-sdk-cpp-1.11.400\lib\cmake\AWSSDK\AWSSDKConfig.cmake

line 135: At this point LIB_SEARCH_PREFIX is always empty. It's not set anywhere so far as I can tell.
line 143: At this point AWSSDK_PLATFORM_PREFIX is set to TEMP_PLATFORM_PREFIX which is always empty? It should be 'windows/intel64/Debug' IMO (or similar)
line 146: AWSSDK_INCLUDE_DIR is correct
line 147: AWSSDK_CMAKE_DIR seems wrong as AWSSDK_INSTALL_LIBDIR is 'bin' and my cmake files are installed to 'lib'
line 148: AWSSDK_LIB_DIR wrong as the platform prefix is wrong
line 149: AWSSDK_BIN_DIR wrong as the platform prefix is wrong

Even if I fix the above to what I think they should be then the find_package(${TARGET} REQUIRED) on line 354 always fails. At this point ${TARGET} is aws-cpp-sdk-core and that DLL and library does exist in:

<install_path>\aws-sdk-cpp-1.11.400\bin

I can't be the only one trying to do this on Windows. Has anyone had any success? I've got it all working on Linux without hassle. If anyone does have it working can you share how the AWSSDK is installed on your system? And perhaps the arguments you supply to cmake. Any help much appreciated.

[Denzil-Dexter-66]

OK I've given up trying to work this out and as there's been no response I've crafted the following which does at least seem to work. I'll post it here for feedback and in the hope someone else finds it useful:

if (${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME} STREQUAL "Windows")

    # ensure the AWSSDK root directory has been specified
    if (${AWSSDK_DIR} STREQUAL "")
        message(FATAL_ERROR "Please define AWSSDK_DIR=...")
    endif()

    # look for the expected header in that directory
    set(AWSSDK_INCLUDE_DIRS "${AWSSDK_DIR}/include")
    set(AWS_HEADER "${AWSSDK_INCLUDE_DIRS}/aws/core/Aws.h")
    if(NOT EXISTS ${AWS_HEADER})
        message(FATAL_ERROR "Unable to locate ${AWS_HEADER}")
    endif()

    add_library(aws-cpp-sdk-core SHARED IMPORTED GLOBAL)
    add_library(aws-cpp-sdk-iam SHARED IMPORTED GLOBAL)
    add_library(aws-cpp-sdk-kms SHARED IMPORTED GLOBAL)
    add_library(aws-cpp-sdk-s3-encryption SHARED IMPORTED GLOBAL)
    add_library(aws-cpp-sdk-s3 SHARED IMPORTED GLOBAL)
    add_library(aws-cpp-sdk-sts SHARED IMPORTED GLOBAL)
    add_library(aws-cpp-sdk-transfer SHARED IMPORTED GLOBAL)

    set(AWSSDK_LIB_DIR ${AWSSDK_DIR}/bin)    
    set(AWSSDK_CORE_LIB ${AWSSDK_LIB_DIR}/aws-cpp-sdk-core.lib)    
    if(NOT EXISTS ${AWSSDK_CORE_LIB})
        message(FATAL_ERROR "Unable to locate ${AWSSDK_CORE_LIB}")
    endif()

    set_target_properties(aws-cpp-sdk-core PROPERTIES 
        IMPORTED_IMPLIB ${AWSSDK_LIB_DIR}/aws-cpp-sdk-core.lib)
    set_target_properties(aws-cpp-sdk-iam PROPERTIES 
        IMPORTED_IMPLIB ${AWSSDK_LIB_DIR}/aws-cpp-sdk-iam.lib)        
    set_target_properties(aws-cpp-sdk-kms PROPERTIES 
        IMPORTED_IMPLIB ${AWSSDK_LIB_DIR}/aws-cpp-sdk-kms.lib)        
    set_target_properties(aws-cpp-sdk-s3-encryption PROPERTIES 
        IMPORTED_IMPLIB ${AWSSDK_LIB_DIR}/aws-cpp-sdk-s3-encryption.lib)        
    set_target_properties(aws-cpp-sdk-s3 PROPERTIES 
        IMPORTED_IMPLIB ${AWSSDK_LIB_DIR}/aws-cpp-sdk-s3.lib)        
    set_target_properties(aws-cpp-sdk-sts PROPERTIES 
        IMPORTED_IMPLIB ${AWSSDK_LIB_DIR}/aws-cpp-sdk-sts.lib)        
    set_target_properties(aws-cpp-sdk-transfer PROPERTIES 
        IMPORTED_IMPLIB ${AWSSDK_LIB_DIR}/aws-cpp-sdk-transfer.lib)        

    message("Found AWSSDK:\n"
        "AWSSDK includes  : ${AWSSDK_INCLUDE_DIRS}\n"
        "AWSSDK libraries : ${AWSSDK_LIB_DIR}"
    )

    set(AWSSDK_LIBRARIES 
        aws-cpp-sdk-core 
        aws-cpp-sdk-iam
        aws-cpp-sdk-kms
        aws-cpp-sdk-s3-encryption
        aws-cpp-sdk-s3
        aws-cpp-sdk-sts
        aws-cpp-sdk-transfer)

else()

    set(AWSSDKRequiredLibs
        s3
        s3-encryption
        transfer
        iam
        sts)

    find_package(AWSSDK COMPONENTS ${AWSSDKRequiredLibs} REQUIRED)

endif()

[jmklix]

If you haven't already you can follow the steps to build the sdk on windows here, and how to build a sample s3 application here

[github-actions[bot]]

Hello! Reopening this discussion to make it searchable.