Visual Studio's CMake with vcpkg: Error gdal is not found

Question

I have been trying to build a cmake c++ project. More specifically I am trying to use the gdal library in this project. In the CMakeLists.txt it says find_library(GDAL gdal) after doing some research i found, that visual studio can open cmake files by default as mention in this thread: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/cmake-projects-in-visual-studio?view=vs-2019.

Moreover, visual studio should also automatically include the gdal library once i have set it up with vcpkg correctly. I've already downloaded the x64-windows version of the library (vcpkg install gdal:x64-windows) in order to build for the right architecture and made it available via vcpkg integrate install on a user-wide scope.

After some trial and error, everything works fine now, the toolchain gets included accordingly and the library is found automatically, resulting in a configuration like that:

However, when trying to include the header files (or anything else; see code snippet), visual studio does not seem to link the library correctly as it will result in the error message: cannot open source file "gdal/gdal.h".

#include <gdal/ogrsf_frmts.h>
#include <gdal/gdal.h>
#include <gdal>

Where should I further investigate?

Answer 1

Based on the ouput from vcpkg when installing any new package:

Computing installation plan...
The following packages will be built and installed:
    zlib[core]:x64-windows
Starting package 1/1: zlib:x64-windows
Building package zlib[core]:x64-windows...
-- Downloading http://www.zlib.net/zlib-1.2.11.tar.gz...
-- Extracting source D:/Dev/vcpkg/downloads/zlib1211.tar.gz
-- Applying patch cmake_dont_build_more_than_needed.patch
-- Using source at D:/Dev/vcpkg/buildtrees/zlib/src/1.2.11-deec42f53b
-- Configuring x64-windows
-- Building x64-windows-dbg
-- Building x64-windows-rel
-- Installing: D:/Dev/vcpkg/packages/zlib_x64-windows/share/zlib/copyright
-- Performing post-build validation
-- Performing post-build validation done
Building package zlib[core]:x64-windows... done
Installing package zlib[core]:x64-windows...
Installing package zlib[core]:x64-windows... done
Elapsed time for package zlib:x64-windows: 28.35 s

Total elapsed time: 28.35 s

The package zlib is compatible with built-in CMake targets:

    find_package(ZLIB REQUIRED)
    target_link_libraries(main PRIVATE ZLIB::ZLIB)

So you will have to add

find_package(ZLIB REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(main PRIVATE ZLIB::ZLIB)

to your CMakeLists.txt file for your project.