1 # 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) 2 3 The Guideline Support Library (GSL) contains functions and types that are suggested for use by the 4 [C++ Core Guidelines](https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines) maintained by the [Standard C++ Foundation](https://isocpp.org). 5 This repo contains Microsoft's implementation of GSL. 6 7 The library includes types like `span<T>`, `string_span`, `owner<>` and others. 8 9 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. 10 11 While some types have been broken out into their own headers (e.g. [gsl/span](./gsl/span)), 12 it is simplest to just include [gsl/gsl](./gsl/gsl) and gain access to the entire library. 13 14 > NOTE: We encourage contributions that improve or refine any of the types in this library as well as ports to 15 other platforms. Please see [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md) for more information about contributing. 16 17 # Project Code of Conduct 18 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 [opencode (a] microsoft.com](mailto:opencode (a] microsoft.com) with any additional questions or comments. 19 20 # Quick Start 21 ## Supported Platforms 22 The test suite that exercises GSL has been built and passes successfully on the following platforms:<sup>1)</sup> 23 24 * Windows using Visual Studio 2013 25 * Windows using Visual Studio 2015 26 * Windows using Clang/LLVM 3.6 27 * Windows using GCC 5.1 28 * GNU/Linux using Clang/LLVM 3.6 29 * GNU/Linux using GCC 5.1 30 * OS X Yosemite using Xcode with AppleClang 7.0.0.7000072 31 * OS X Yosemite using GCC-5.2.0 32 * FreeBSD 10.x with Clang/LLVM 3.6 33 34 > 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 35 contributing any changes that were necessary back to this project to benefit the wider community. 36 37 <sup>1)</sup> For `gsl::byte` to work correctly with Clang and GCC you might have to use the ` -fno-strict-aliasing` compiler option. 38 39 ## Building the tests 40 To build the tests, you will require the following: 41 42 * [CMake](http://cmake.org), version 2.8.7 or later to be installed and in your PATH. 43 * [UnitTest-cpp](https://github.com/Microsoft/unittest-cpp), to be cloned under the [tests/unittest-cpp](./tests/unittest-cpp) directory 44 of your GSL source. 45 46 These steps assume the source code of this repository has been cloned into a directory named `c:\GSL`. 47 48 1. Create a directory to contain the build outputs for a particular architecture (we name it c:\GSL\build-x86 in this example). 49 50 cd GSL 51 md build-x86 52 cd build-x86 53 54 2. Configure CMake to use the compiler of your choice (you can see a list by running `cmake --help`). 55 56 cmake -G "Visual Studio 14 2015" c:\GSL 57 58 3. Build the test suite (in this case, in the Debug configuration, Release is another good choice). 59 60 cmake --build . --config Debug 61 62 4. Run the test suite. 63 64 ctest -C Debug 65 66 All tests should pass - indicating your platform is fully supported and you are ready to use the GSL types! 67 68 ## Using the libraries 69 As the types are entirely implemented inline in headers, there are no linking requirements. 70 71 You can copy the [gsl](./gsl) directory into your source tree so it is available 72 to your compiler, then include the appropriate headers in your program. 73 74 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. 75 76 MSVC++ 77 78 /I c:\GSL 79 80 GCC/clang 81 82 -I$HOME/dev/GSL 83 84 Include the library using: 85 86 #include <gsl/gsl> 87