Setting up Bazel

Setting Up Bazel for C++ Development

Now that you’ve been introduced to Bazel and its advantages, it’s time to get hands-on. In this post, we’ll walk through setting up Bazel for your C++ development environment and building your first project. By the end, you’ll have a fully functional Bazel setup ready for future projects.

Step 1: Installing Bazel

To install Bazel, refer to the official Bazel documentation for platform-specific instructions. The documentation provides detailed steps for Linux, macOS, and Windows environments.

For version management, it’s highly recommended to use Bazelisk, a wrapper for Bazel that automatically downloads and uses the appropriate Bazel version for your project. You can download Bazelisk from the official Bazelisk releases page and follow the provided installation instructions.

Using Bazelisk ensures your builds are consistent and compatible with the required Bazel version.

Step 2: Verifying the Installation

After installation, verify that Bazel is correctly installed by running:

bazel version

You should see the installed Bazel version and its build details.

Step 3: Setting Up a C++ Project with Bazel

Let’s create a simple “Hello, World!” project to test your Bazel setup.

Create the Project Directory Structure

hello_bazel/
├── main.cpp
└── BUILD

Write the C++ Source File

Create a main.cpp file with the following content:

#include <iostream>

int main() {
    std::cout << "Hello, Bazel!" << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

Define the BUILD File

Create a BUILD file with the following content:

cc_binary(
    name = "hello_bazel",
    srcs = ["main.cpp"],
)

This tells Bazel to create a C++ binary named hello_bazel using main.cpp.

Step 4: Building and Running the Project

Build the Project

Run the following command in the project directory:

bazel build //:hello_bazel

Bazel will generate the binary in the bazel-bin directory.

Run the Binary

Use Bazel to run the binary directly:

bazel run //:hello_bazel

You should see:

Hello, Bazel!

What’s Next?

Check the article list in the introduction post