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Set up a C++ project

You should have already installed the C++ SDK.

We assume you have a working C++ toolchain and are using CMake to build your project. For this project we will let Rerun download and build Apache Arrow's C++ library itself. To learn more about how Rerun's CMake script can be configured, see CMake setup in detail.

Setting up your CMakeLists.txt

A minimal CMakeLists.txt looks like this:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16...3.27)
project(example_project LANGUAGES CXX)

add_executable(example_project main.cpp)

# Download the rerun_sdk
include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(rerun_sdk URL
    https://github.com/rerun-io/rerun/releases/latest/download/rerun_cpp_sdk.zip)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(rerun_sdk)

# Link against rerun_sdk.
target_link_libraries(example_project PRIVATE rerun_sdk)

Note that Rerun requires at least C++17. Depending on the SDK will automatically ensure that C++17 or newer is enabled.

Includes

To use Rerun all you need to include is rerun.hpp:

#include <rerun.hpp>

Building 

cmake -B build
cmake --build build -j
./build/example_project

You're now ready to follow the Log and Ingest tutorial.

Build options and troubleshooting

Arrow

By default, the SDK downloads and builds a pinned version of Apache Arrow's C++ library (currently 18.0.0) as part of your build. This needs internet access during the first build, and takes a while.

  • To use an Arrow library that is already installed on your system, set -DRERUN_DOWNLOAD_AND_BUILD_ARROW=OFF. CMake then finds it with find_package(Arrow). See Install Arrow C++.
  • To build Arrow from a local copy of the source archive (for example on a machine without internet access), set -DRERUN_ARROW_URL=/path/to/apache-arrow-18.0.0.tar.gz. The archive must match the pinned version, because its checksum is verified.

CMake 4

Arrow 18 does not support CMake 4 by itself. The SDK works around this by passing CMAKE_POLICY_VERSION_MINIMUM=3.5 to the Arrow build when it detects CMake 4. If you need a different value, set CMAKE_POLICY_VERSION_MINIMUM yourself, and the SDK passes that on instead.

Other platforms and cross-compiling

The SDK bundle contains prebuilt rerun_c libraries for Linux (x86_64 and arm64), macOS (arm64), and Windows (x86_64). For any other platform, including when cross-compiling, build rerun_c yourself from the Rerun repository and point CMake to it:

cargo build --release -p rerun_c --target <target-triple>
cmake -B build -DRERUN_C_LIB=/path/to/librerun_c.a

See CMake setup in detail for all CMake options.