pc-ble-driver compile on macOS, fixed: CMake ARCH error, missing libspdlogd.a

[demcanulty]

pc-ble-driver compile on macOS

I am trying to compile pc-ble-driver on macOS 10.15.2 by following the very excellent instructions on the github page. 

Fixing GCC issues

I have installed the dependencies and made it to step 2 under Compiling pc-ble-driver on Ubuntu Linux or macOS, and when I run

$ cmake     -G Ninja     ..

the output I get is:

-- NRF_BLE_DRIVER_VERSION not specified, setting it to 0.0.0

CMake Error at cmake/nrf-ble-driver.cmake:20 (message):
  ARCH not available on macOS / OS X.  Universal 32 and 64-bit binaries will
  be built.

Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:30 (include)

-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "/Users/mcanulty/Downloads/pc-ble-driver-master/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".

I can see the issue in nrf-ble-driver.cmake, but I can't figure out what architecture to enter as both x86_32 or x86_64 seem to produce the same output.  

In CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log I see it begins with 

The system is: Darwin - 19.2.0 - x86_64
Compiling the C compiler identification source file "CMakeCCompilerId.c" succeeded.
Compiler: /Applications/Xcode_10.1/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/cc
Build flags:
Id flags:

I believe homebrew best practice is not to shadow the system compiler, but in this case it seemed necessary.  I went to usr/local/bin and ran the following:
ln -s gcc-6 gcc
ln -s c++-6 c++
ln -s cc    gcc  



Encountering vcpkg issues

This seems to have fixed the ARCH issues, cmake output is now as follows and I'm stumped:

$ cmake -G Ninja ..
-- NRF_BLE_DRIVER_VERSION not specified, setting it to 0.0.0
-- CONNECTIVITY_VERSION not specified, setting it to 0.0.0
-- The C compiler identification is AppleClang 11.0.0.11000033
-- The CXX compiler identification is AppleClang 11.0.0.11000033
-- Check for working C compiler: /Applications/Xcode_10.1/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/cc
-- Check for working C compiler: /Applications/Xcode_10.1/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/cc -- works
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Detecting C compile features
-- Detecting C compile features - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /Applications/Xcode_10.1/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/c++
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /Applications/Xcode_10.1/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/c++ -- works
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- Architecture not set, using native 64-bit toolchain.
-- Building with build type: .
-- Found Git: /usr/local/bin/git (found version "2.24.0")
-- Check if the system is big endian
-- Searching 16 bit integer
-- Looking for sys/types.h
-- Looking for sys/types.h - found
-- Looking for stdint.h
-- Looking for stdint.h - found
-- Looking for stddef.h
-- Looking for stddef.h - found
-- Check size of unsigned short
-- Check size of unsigned short - done
-- Using unsigned short
-- Check if the system is big endian - little endian
-- Looking for pthread.h
-- Looking for pthread.h - found
-- Performing Test CMAKE_HAVE_LIBC_PTHREAD
-- Performing Test CMAKE_HAVE_LIBC_PTHREAD - Success
-- Found Threads: TRUE
CMake Error at /usr/local/bin/vcpkg-root/installed/x64-osx/share/spdlog/spdlogConfigTargets.cmake:88 (message):
The imported target "spdlog::spdlog" references the file

"/usr/local/bin/vcpkg-root/installed/x64-osx/debug/lib/libspdlogd.a"

but this file does not exist. Possible reasons include:

* The file was deleted, renamed, or moved to another location.

* An install or uninstall procedure did not complete successfully.

* The installation package was faulty and contained

"/usr/local/bin/vcpkg-root/installed/x64-osx/share/spdlog/spdlogConfigTargets.cmake"

but not all the files it references.

Call Stack (most recent call first):
/usr/local/bin/vcpkg-root/installed/x64-osx/share/spdlog/spdlogConfig.cmake:15 (include)
/usr/local/bin/vcpkg-root/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake:233 (_find_package)
test/CMakeLists.txt:11 (find_package)

When I installed spdlog from head the output was the following.  

The following packages will be built and installed:
* fmt[core]:x64-osx
spdlog[core]:x64-osx (from HEAD)
Additional packages (*) will be modified to complete this operation.
Starting package 1/2: fmt:x64-osx
Building package fmt[core]:x64-osx...
-- Downloading github.com/.../5.3.0.tar.gz...
-- Extracting source /usr/local/bin/vcpkg-root/downloads/fmtlib-fmt-5.3.0.tar.gz
-- Using source at /usr/local/bin/vcpkg-root/buildtrees/fmt/src/5.3.0-9fc40447dd
-- Configuring x64-osx-dbg
-- Configuring x64-osx-rel
-- Building x64-osx-dbg
-- Building x64-osx-rel
-- Installing: /usr/local/bin/vcpkg-root/packages/fmt_x64-osx/share/fmt/copyright
-- Performing post-build validation
-- Performing post-build validation done
Building package fmt[core]:x64-osx... done
Installing package fmt[core]:x64-osx...
Installing package fmt[core]:x64-osx... done
Elapsed time for package fmt:x64-osx: 18.45 s
Starting package 2/2: spdlog:x64-osx
Building package spdlog[core]:x64-osx from HEAD...
-- Downloading api.github.com/.../v1.x...
-- Skipping hash check for /usr/local/bin/vcpkg-root/downloads/temp/gabime-spdlog-v1.x.tar.gz.version.
-- Downloading github.com/.../v1.x.tar.gz...
-- Skipping hash check for /usr/local/bin/vcpkg-root/downloads/temp/gabime-spdlog-v1.x.tar.gz.
-- Extracting source /usr/local/bin/vcpkg-root/downloads/gabime-spdlog-v1.x.tar.gz
-- Applying patch disable-master-project-check.patch
-- Applying patch failed. This is expected if this patch was previously applied.
-- Using source at /usr/local/bin/vcpkg-root/buildtrees/spdlog/src/head/v1.x-660000b1df
-- Configuring x64-osx-dbg
-- Configuring x64-osx-rel
-- Building x64-osx-dbg
-- Building x64-osx-rel
-- Performing post-build validation
-- Performing post-build validation done
Building package spdlog[core]:x64-osx... done
Installing package spdlog[core]:x64-osx...
Installing package spdlog[core]:x64-osx... done
Elapsed time for package spdlog:x64-osx: 47.47 s

Total elapsed time: 1.099 min

The package spdlog:x64-osx provides CMake targets:

find_package(spdlog CONFIG REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(main PRIVATE spdlog::spdlog spdlog::spdlog_header_only)

Did it install the correct version for pc-ble-driver compatibility?  Or is there something else that might be going wrong?  

[Susheel Nuguru]

I think I have installed the pc-ble-driver on Catalina version of MacOS few weeks ago and did not encounter any problem. I think I chose the x32 version. I was using brew to install other dependencies. 

[demcanulty]

Hi Susheel, thanks.  The main issue I was running into was that there seemed to be something wrong with vcpk's spdlog, I'm not sure why.  

Thanks for the info though!  I switched over to getting the javascript to work, but I think I will circle back around to this tomorrow.  

[demcanulty]

I was able to successfully compile on mac with no other changes except switching to the release/4.1 branch.  The master branch build instructions seem to be slightly wrong somehow, but the instructions worked well for v4.1.  Susheel that might explain why it worked a few weeks ago.