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Glaze Installation Guide

This guide covers some of the ways to install and integrate the Glaze JSON library into your C++ project. There are lots of packaged versions of Glaze, from homebrew to Conan.

System Requirements

Compiler Support

  • C++23 standard required
  • Clang 17+
  • GCC 12+
  • MSVC 2022+
  • Apple Clang (latest Xcode)

Platform Support

  • Architecture: 64-bit and 32-bit
  • Endianness: Little-endian systems only
  • Operating Systems: Windows, Linux, macOS

MSVC Specific Requirements

When using MSVC, you must use the /Zc:preprocessor flag for C++ standard conformant preprocessing:

cl /Zc:preprocessor your_source.cpp

Installation Methods

Add the following to your CMakeLists.txt:

include(FetchContent)

FetchContent_Declare(
  glaze
  GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/stephenberry/glaze.git
  GIT_TAG main
  GIT_SHALLOW TRUE
)

FetchContent_MakeAvailable(glaze)

target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE glaze::glaze)

Using a Specific Version

For production use, it's recommended to pin to a specific version:

FetchContent_Declare(
  glaze
  GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/stephenberry/glaze.git
  GIT_TAG v5.0.0  # Replace with desired version
  GIT_SHALLOW TRUE
)

2. Conan Package Manager

Glaze is available in Conan Center.

conanfile.txt

[requires]
glaze/[>=5.0.0]

[generators]
CMakeDeps
CMakeToolchain

CMakeLists.txt

find_package(glaze REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE glaze::glaze)

Command Line Installation

conan install . --build=missing
cmake --preset conan-default
cmake --build --preset conan-release

3. build2 Package Manager

Glaze is available on cppget.

manifest

depends: libglaze ^5.0.0

buildfile

import libs = libglaze%lib{glaze}
exe{myapp}: cxx{main} $libs

4. Linux Package Managers

Arch Linux

# Official repository
sudo pacman -S glaze

# Or AUR development version
yay -S glaze-git

Ubuntu/Debian (Manual)

# Install dependencies
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake git

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/stephenberry/glaze.git
cd glaze
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
sudo make install

5. Manual Installation

Download and Extract

# Download latest release
wget https://github.com/stephenberry/glaze/archive/refs/tags/v5.0.0.tar.gz
tar -xzf v5.0.0.tar.gz
cd glaze-5.0.0

Header-Only Integration

Since Glaze is header-only, you can simply:

  1. Copy the include/ directory to your project
  2. Add the include path to your compiler flags: 
    g++ -I/path/to/glaze/include your_source.cpp

CMake Configuration Options

AVX2 Support

Enable AVX2 SIMD instructions for better performance (if your target supports it):

set(glaze_ENABLE_AVX2 ON)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(glaze)

Or define the macro directly: 

#define GLZ_USE_AVX2

Disable AVX2 (Cross-compilation)

For cross-compilation to ARM or other architectures:

set(glaze_ENABLE_AVX2 OFF)

Example Project Setup

Complete CMakeLists.txt Example

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.20)
project(MyGlazeProject LANGUAGES CXX)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 23)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)

# Enable AVX2 if building for x86_64
if(CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR MATCHES "x86_64|AMD64")
    set(glaze_ENABLE_AVX2 ON)
endif()

include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(
  glaze
  GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/stephenberry/glaze.git
  GIT_TAG main
  GIT_SHALLOW TRUE
)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(glaze)

add_executable(myapp main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE glaze::glaze)

# MSVC specific flag
if(MSVC)
    target_compile_options(myapp PRIVATE /Zc:preprocessor)
endif()

Getting Help

Next Steps

After installation, check out: - Basic Usage Examples