Building on Windows (MSVC)

Prerequisites

Tool	Version	Notes
Visual Studio 2022 / Build Tools	17.x with the C++ workload	MSVC 19.3x+, C++20 required
CMake	3.21+	ships with VS 2022, or cmake.org
Git	any recent

MinGW-w64 (GCC 13+) also works — the repo ships mingw-* presets pointing at an MSYS2 toolchain; adjust the compiler paths in CMakePresets.json for your install.

Build and test

git clone https://github.com/Abdullah-Masood-05/Bisondb.git
cd Bisondb
cmake --preset msvc
cmake --build --preset msvc-release -j 6
ctest --preset msvc-release --output-on-failure

Binaries land in build\msvc\Release\: bisond.exe, bisonsh.exe, bisonc.exe. Use msvc-debug presets for a debug build. Catch2 is fetched automatically on first configure (network required once).

.\build\msvc\Release\bisond.exe --dir data\db

Troubleshooting

No CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER could be found / missing VC++ toolset — the C++ workload isn't installed. Open Visual Studio Installer → Modify → check Desktop development with C++. Configure from a Developer PowerShell for VS 2022 if plain terminals can't find the toolset.

CMake 3.21 or higher is required — an old standalone CMake shadows the VS one. Run cmake --version; remove the stale PATH entry or install current CMake.

FetchContent fails to download Catch2 — first configure needs network access to GitHub. On a proxied machine set HTTPS_PROXY, or pre-clone Catch2 and point FETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_CATCH2 at it.

MSB8020: build tools for v143 cannot be found — the preset generates for VS 2022; an older VS opened the folder. Delete build\msvc and reconfigure with VS 2022's tools.

Tests fail with file-lock errors (os error 32 style) — antivirus scanning freshly written test files. Re-run; persistent cases usually mean a real-time scanner is holding temp .idx files — exclude the build/temp directories.