Keeping all libraries in the Arduino sketch directory

c++ c header arduino
Adam Haile picture Adam Haile · Jan 16, 2011 · Viewed 40.6k times · Source

I know that you are supposed to place any external libraries under the "libraries" folder of the arduino install directory, but I have a project that uses several libraries that I have created for the project and mainly to keep all that code self contained and out of the main pde file. However, I have tried to place the libraries in the same directory as the main PDE file so that I can more easily keep everything synced up in subversion (I work on this on multiple computers) and I don't want to have to keep going back and syncing up the libraries separately. Also, just for the sake of being able to easily zip of the sketch folder and know that it contains everything it needs.

I've tried adding the header files to the sketch as a new tab, but that doesn't seem to work at all... don't even care if they should up in the arduino IDE.

I've also tried adding the libraries to the sketch directory in subdirectories (what I would greatly prefer) and then linking to them as:

#include "mylib/mylib.h"

and

#include <mylib/mylib.h>

But both of these result in file not found errors.

Is this possible? And, if so, how do I include them in the main file for building? Preferably in their own subdirectories.

Answer

Uwe Hafner picture Uwe Hafner · May 6, 2017

I had the same issue. Solved it for Arduino IDE > 1.8. Seems a specialty in newer IDEs (?) according to the reference (see bottom link).

You have to add a "src" Subdirectory before creating a library folder. So essentially your project should look like this: 

/SketchDir (with *.ino file)  
/SketchDir/src  
/SketchDir/src/yourLib (with .h and .cpp file)

and finally in your sketch you reference: 

#include "src/yourLib/yourLib.h"

otherwise in my case - if I am missing the "src" folder - I get the error message that it cannot find the yourLib.cpp file.

Note: I am using a windows system in case it differs and actually VS Code as wrapper for Arduino IDE. But both IDE compile it with this structure.

References: https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=445230.0

Related questions

Tool to track #include dependencies

Any good suggestions? Input will be the name of a header file and output should be a list (preferably a tree) of all files including it directly or indirectly.

Read More
Including C headers inside a C++ program

I have a C++ program (.cpp) inside which I wish to use some of the functions which are present inside the C header files such as stdio.h, conio.h, stdlib.h, graphics.h, devices.h etc. I could include …

Read More
Where do library C header files go on Linux

Embarrassingly basic question. sudo apt-get install libmemcached6 - where do the .h's and .o's or .so's live in a typical install on a Linux machine (Ubuntu)? And, how do I make sure g++ can pick them up?

Read More