| # GSL: Guideline Support Library [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/Microsoft/GSL.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/Microsoft/GSL) [![Build status](https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/github/Microsoft/GSL?svg=true)](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/neilmacintosh/GSL) |
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| The Guideline Support Library (GSL) contains functions and types that are suggested for use by the |
| [C++ Core Guidelines](https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines) maintained by the [Standard C++ Foundation](https://isocpp.org). |
| This repo contains Microsoft's implementation of GSL. |
| |
| The library includes types like `span<T>`, `string_span`, `owner<>` and others. |
| |
| The entire implementation is provided inline in the headers under the [gsl](./gsl) directory. The implementation generally assumes a platform that implements C++14 support. There are specific workarounds to support MSVC 2013 and 2015. |
| |
| While some types have been broken out into their own headers (e.g. [gsl/span](./gsl/span)), |
| it is simplest to just include [gsl/gsl](./gsl/gsl) and gain access to the entire library. |
| |
| > NOTE: We encourage contributions that improve or refine any of the types in this library as well as ports to |
| other platforms. Please see [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md) for more information about contributing. |
| |
| # Project Code of Conduct |
| This project has adopted the [Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct](https://opensource.microsoft.com/codeofconduct/). For more information see the [Code of Conduct FAQ](https://opensource.microsoft.com/codeofconduct/faq/) or contact [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) with any additional questions or comments. |
| |
| # Quick Start |
| ## Supported Platforms |
| The test suite that exercises GSL has been built and passes successfully on the following platforms:<sup>1)</sup> |
| |
| * Windows using Visual Studio 2013 |
| * Windows using Visual Studio 2015 |
| * Windows using Clang/LLVM 3.6 |
| * Windows using GCC 5.1 |
| * GNU/Linux using Clang/LLVM 3.6 |
| * GNU/Linux using GCC 5.1 |
| * OS X Yosemite using Xcode with AppleClang 7.0.0.7000072 |
| * OS X Yosemite using GCC-5.2.0 |
| * FreeBSD 10.x with Clang/LLVM 3.6 |
| |
| > If you successfully port GSL to another platform, we would love to hear from you. Please submit an issue to let us know. Also please consider |
| contributing any changes that were necessary back to this project to benefit the wider community. |
| |
| <sup>1)</sup> For `gsl::byte` to work correctly with Clang and GCC you might have to use the ` -fno-strict-aliasing` compiler option. |
| |
| ## Building the tests |
| To build the tests, you will require the following: |
| |
| * [CMake](http://cmake.org), version 2.8.7 or later to be installed and in your PATH. |
| * [UnitTest-cpp](https://github.com/Microsoft/unittest-cpp), to be cloned under the [tests/unittest-cpp](./tests/unittest-cpp) directory |
| of your GSL source. |
| |
| These steps assume the source code of this repository has been cloned into a directory named `c:\GSL`. |
| |
| 1. Create a directory to contain the build outputs for a particular architecture (we name it c:\GSL\build-x86 in this example). |
| |
| cd GSL |
| md build-x86 |
| cd build-x86 |
| |
| 2. Configure CMake to use the compiler of your choice (you can see a list by running `cmake --help`). |
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| cmake -G "Visual Studio 14 2015" c:\GSL |
| |
| 3. Build the test suite (in this case, in the Debug configuration, Release is another good choice). |
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| cmake --build . --config Debug |
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| 4. Run the test suite. |
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| ctest -C Debug |
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| All tests should pass - indicating your platform is fully supported and you are ready to use the GSL types! |
| |
| ## Using the libraries |
| As the types are entirely implemented inline in headers, there are no linking requirements. |
| |
| You can copy the [gsl](./gsl) directory into your source tree so it is available |
| to your compiler, then include the appropriate headers in your program. |
| |
| Alternatively set your compiler's *include path* flag to point to the GSL development folder (`c:\GSL` in the example above) or installation folder (after running the install). Eg. |
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| MSVC++ |
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| /I c:\GSL |
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| GCC/clang |
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| -I$HOME/dev/GSL |
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| Include the library using: |
| |
| #include <gsl/gsl> |