[gdal-dev] building on macOS - fatal error: 'direct.h' file not found

[Nik Sands]

Hi GDAL devs,

Since I last built GDAL (2.2.2), cmake has been introduced and it appears as though it is going to be the only option going forward.  So I’m attempting to use cmake to build GDAL 3.5.0 on macOS 12.4 ('Monterey’).  I’ve installed cmake using the ‘homebrew’ macOS package manager.

However, I’m getting numerous build errors, starting with the following error when running cmake to build GDAL 3.5.0:

	fatal error: 'direct.h' file not found

(a little more context from the error log is included at the end, below)

I’m attempting to build GDAL as follows:

export LDFLAGS=-L/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/lib
export CFLAGS="-isysroot /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk"
export CCFLAGS="-isysroot /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk"
export CXXFLAGS="-isysroot /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk"
export CPPFLAGS="-isysroot /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk"
cd gdal-3.5.0
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DPROJ_ROOT=~/build -DSQLITE3_INCLUDE_DIR=~/build/include -DSQLITE3_LIBRARY=~/build/lib/libsqlite3.a .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..

I’m a hobbyist and not a professional developer, so my understanding of these things is quite limited.  However, my research so far indicates that ‘direct.h’ is a Windows-specific header file and therefore perhaps cmake has not been configured correctly for macOS in this GDAL distribution?

Is it possible to build GDAL using cmake on macOS?  If so, how to I deal with this error?

I can supply the entire CMakeError.log file if that would help (as an attachement, or copy/pasted as text in an email).

Cheers,
Nik.

Snippet from CMakeError.log:
------------------------------

Source file was:
 int main() { return 0; }
Determining if the include file direct.h exists failed with the following output:
Change Dir: /Users/nsands/Documents/Development/3rdParty/GDAL3/gdal-3.5.0/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp

Run Build Command(s):/usr/bin/make -f Makefile cmTC_190db/fast && /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/make  -f CMakeFiles/cmTC_190db.dir/build.make CMakeFiles/cmTC_190db.dir/build
Building C object CMakeFiles/cmTC_190db.dir/CheckIncludeFile.c.o
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/cc   -isysroot /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk    -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX12.3.sdk -std=gnu99 -MD -MT CMakeFiles/cmTC_190db.dir/CheckIncludeFile.c.o -MF CMakeFiles/cmTC_190db.dir/CheckIncludeFile.c.o.d -o CMakeFiles/cmTC_190db.dir/CheckIncludeFile.c.o -c /Users/nsands/Documents/Development/3rdParty/GDAL3/gdal-3.5.0/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp/CheckIncludeFile.c
/Users/nsands/Documents/Development/3rdParty/GDAL3/gdal-3.5.0/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp/CheckIncludeFile.c:1:10: fatal error: 'direct.h' file not found
#include <direct.h>
         ^~~~~~~~~~
1 error generated.
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/cmTC_190db.dir/CheckIncludeFile.c.o] Error 1
make: *** [cmTC_190db/fast] Error 2

------------------------------


========================================================
NIK SANDS
Line Tamer | Time Traveller | Space Cadet