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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

SIMD Support

AVX2 SIMD instructions are automatically enabled when the compiler detects AVX2 support (the GLZ_USE_AVX2 macro is defined automatically when __AVX2__ is available).

Disable SIMD (Cross-compilation)

For cross-compilation to ARM or other architectures, disable SIMD optimizations:

set(glaze_DISABLE_SIMD_WHEN_SUPPORTED ON)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(glaze)

Or define the macro directly before including Glaze headers: 

#define GLZ_DISABLE_SIMD
#include "glaze/glaze.hpp"

Disable Forced Inlining

By default, Glaze uses compiler-specific attributes (__attribute__((always_inline)) on GCC/Clang, [[msvc::forceinline]] on MSVC) to force inlining of performance-critical functions. This maximizes runtime performance but increases compilation time.

To disable forced inlining:

set(glaze_DISABLE_ALWAYS_INLINE ON)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(glaze)

Or define the macro directly before including Glaze headers: 

#define GLZ_DISABLE_ALWAYS_INLINE
#include "glaze/glaze.hpp"

When disabled, GLZ_ALWAYS_INLINE and GLZ_FLATTEN fall back to regular inline hints, allowing the compiler to make its own inlining decisions. This is useful when: - Compilation time is a priority - You're building for debug or development purposes - Peak runtime performance is not critical

[!NOTE] This option primarily reduces compilation time, not binary size. Modern compilers typically inline hot paths anyway using their own heuristics, so binary size reduction is often minimal. For significant binary size reduction, use the linear_search option instead (see Optimizing Performance).

Optional Dependencies

The core Glaze library (JSON, BEVE, CSV, TOML serialization) is header-only with no external dependencies.

Networking Features

For HTTP server/client, WebSocket, and RPC features, you need:

  • ASIO - Either standalone ASIO or Boost.Asio
  • OpenSSL (optional) - For HTTPS and secure WebSocket (wss://) support

See the ASIO Setup Guide for detailed instructions on: - Installing and configuring ASIO - CMake integration - SSL/TLS setup - Platform-specific configuration

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)

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