Troubleshooting AWS SDK for C++ build issues

When building the AWS SDK for C++ from source, some of the following common build issues might arise.

CMake Error: Could not find a package configuration file provided by "AWSSDK"

CMake raises the following error if it cannot find the installed SDK.

1> [CMake] CMake Error at C:\CodeRepos\CMakeProject1\CMakeLists.txt:4 (find_package):
1> [CMake]   Could not find a package configuration file provided by "AWSSDK" with any
1> [CMake]   of the following names:
1> [CMake] 
1> [CMake]     AWSSDKConfig.cmake
1> [CMake]     awssdk-config.cmake
1> [CMake] 
1> [CMake]   Add the installation prefix of "AWSSDK" to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH or set
1> [CMake]   "AWSSDK_DIR" to a directory containing one of the above files.  If "AWSSDK"
1> [CMake]   provides a separate development package or SDK, be sure it has been
1> [CMake]   installed.

To resolve this error, tell CMake where to find the installed SDK (e.g. the folder that was generated as a result of the SDK install (Windows, Linux/macOS). Insert the following command before your first call to find_package() in your CMakeLists.txt file. See Creating a simple application using the AWS SDK for C++ for an example.

list(APPEND CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\aws-cpp-sdk-all\\lib\\cmake")

CMake Error: Could not find load file (and you're on SDK version 1.8)

CMake raises the following error if it cannot find the installed libraries.

1> [CMake]   include could not find load file:
1> [CMake] 
1> [CMake]     C:/Program Files (x86)/aws-cpp-sdk-all/lib/aws-c-common/cmake/static/aws-c-common-targets.cmake

1> [CMake]   include could not find load file:
1> [CMake] 
1> [CMake]     C:/Program Files (x86)/aws-cpp-sdk-all/lib/aws-checksums/cmake/static/aws-checksums-targets.cmake
1> [CMake]   include could not find load file:
1> [CMake] 
1> [CMake]     C:/Program Files (x86)/aws-cpp-sdk-all/lib/aws-checksums/cmake/static/aws-checksums-targets.cmake

To resolve this error, tell CMake where to find the installed SDK (e.g. the folder that was generated as a result of the SDK install (Windows, Linux/macOS). Insert the following commands before your first call to find_package() in your CMakeLists.txt file. See Creating a simple application using the AWS SDK for C++ for an example.

#Set the location of where Windows can find the installed libraries of the SDK.
if(MSVC)
    string(REPLACE ";" "/aws-cpp-sdk-all;" SYSTEM_MODULE_PATH "${CMAKE_SYSTEM_PREFIX_PATH}/aws-cpp-sdk-all")
    list(APPEND CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH ${SYSTEM_MODULE_PATH})
endif()

This solution is only for v1.8 of the SDK because these dependencies are handled differently in later versions. Version 1.9 addresses these issues by introducing an intermediate layer between the aws-sdk-cpp and aws-c-* libraries. This new layer is called aws-crt-cpp , and is a git submodule of the SDK for C++. aws-crt-cpp also has the aws-c-* libraries (including aws-c-common, aws-checksums, aws-c-event-stream, etc.) as its own git submodules. This allows the SDK for C++ to get all CRT libraries recursively and improves the build process.

CMake Error: Could not find load file

CMake raises the following error if it cannot find the installed libraries.

CMake Error at C:/Program Files (x86)/aws-cpp-sdk-all/lib/aws-c-auth/cmake/aws-c-auth-config.cmake:11 
         (include):  include could not find load file:   
         C:/Program Files (x86)/aws-cpp-sdk-all/lib/aws-c-auth/cmake/static/aws-c-auth-targets.cmake

To resolve this error, tell CMake to build shared libraries. Insert the following command before your first call to find_package() in your CMakeLists.txt file. See Creating a simple application using the AWS SDK for C++ for an example.

set(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS ON CACHE STRING "Link to shared libraries by default.")

Runtime Error: cannot proceed because aws-*.dll was not found

CMake raises an error similar to the following if it cannot find a required DLL.

The code execution cannot proceed because aws-cpp-sdk-[dynamodb].dll was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix this problem.

This error occurs because the required libraries or executables for the SDK for C++ are not available in the same folder as your application executables. To resolve this error, copy the SDK build output in your executable location. The specific DLL filename of the error will vary depending on which AWS services you are using. Do one of the following: