Building

Dependencies

Required:

  • C++17 compiler

  • zlib (zlib1g-dev / zlib-devel / Homebrew zlib)

libzip and Eigen 3.4+ are fetched automatically by CMake when not found locally — no manual installation required.

Installing dependencies

The examples below include GoogleTest, which is only required when building the tests. Ninja is optional but recommended.

On Debian-based systems:

sudo apt-get install \
   zlib1g-dev \
   ninja-build \
   libgtest-dev

On Mac OS, you can install the dependencies with brew:

brew install googletest ninja zlib

On Windows, you can install the dependencies through vcpkg and chocolatey:

choco install ninja -y
vcpkg install gtest zlib

Building to use in other projects

The recommended way to consume trx-cpp is via add_subdirectory or FetchContent — this always works regardless of how libzip is resolved. When using either approach, zlib is the only dependency you need pre-installed; libzip and Eigen 3.4+ are fetched automatically if not already present. Because Eigen is a public dependency of trx-cpp, your code can use Eigen3::Eigen (and include Eigen headers) without a separate find_package(Eigen3) call.

# CMakeLists.txt of your project
add_subdirectory(path/to/trx-cpp)           # vendored copy
target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE trx-cpp::trx)

# — or via FetchContent —
include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(trx-cpp
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/tee-ar-ex/trx-cpp.git
    GIT_TAG        main)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(trx-cpp)
target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE trx-cpp::trx)

Installing trx-cpp (cmake --install) requires libzip to be available as a system-installed package with CMake config support. When libzip is auto-fetched by CMake (the default), the install step is automatically skipped with a status message.

To enable installation, first install libzip through your package manager:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install libzip-dev

# macOS
brew install libzip

# Windows (vcpkg)
vcpkg install libzip

Then configure and install trx-cpp normally:

cmake -S . -B build \
  -G Ninja \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DTRX_BUILD_EXAMPLES=OFF \
  -DTRX_ENABLE_INSTALL=ON \
  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/path/to/installation/directory
cmake --build build --config Release
cmake --install build

After installation, consume the package with:

find_package(trx-cpp CONFIG REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE trx-cpp::trx)

Key CMake options:

  • TRX_ENABLE_INSTALL: Install package config and targets (default ON for top-level builds)

  • TRX_BUILD_EXAMPLES: Build example executables (default ON)

  • TRX_BUILD_TESTS: Build tests (default OFF)

  • TRX_BUILD_DOCS: Build docs with Doxygen/Sphinx (default OFF)

  • TRX_ENABLE_CLANG_TIDY: Run clang-tidy during builds (default OFF)

  • TRX_USE_CONAN: Use Conan setup in cmake/ConanSetup.cmake (default OFF)

  • TRX_FETCH_EIGEN: Fetch Eigen3 with FetchContent when not found locally (default ON)

Building for testing

cmake -S . -B build \
  -G Ninja \
  -DTRX_BUILD_TESTS=ON \
  -DTRX_ENABLE_NIFTI=ON \
  -DTRX_BUILD_EXAMPLES=OFF

cmake --build build
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

Tests require GTest to be discoverable by CMake (e.g., via a system package or GTest_DIR). If GTest is not found, tests will be skipped. zlib must be discoverable by CMake (ZLIB::ZLIB), including for NIfTI I/O.

Building documentation:

Building the docs requires both Doxygen and sphinx-build on your PATH.

cmake -S . -B build \
  -G Ninja \
  -DTRX_BUILD_DOCS=ON

cmake --build build --target docs