# How to use swipl within my C++ program? **URL:** \ **Category:** PlDoc\ **Tags:** how-to\ **Created:** [May 13, 2026, 7:56pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620 "2026-05-13T19:56:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Raphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Raphy](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Raphy)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 7:56pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/1 "2026-05-13T19:56:29Z")
I compiled and built swipl-devel in this way: ```prolog raphy@raphy:~$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel.git raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/raphy/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/ -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=PGO -DSWIPL_PACKAGES_JAVA=OFF -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF -DINSTALL_TESTS=OFF -DINSTALL_DOCUMENTATION=OFF -GNinja -B builddir -S . raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake --build builddir --target install -j9 ``` In the `CMakeLists.txt` file of my project I’ve put : ```prolog target_link_directories(${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC ./src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib ./src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux ./src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux ) target_include_directories(${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC ./src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/include ) target_link_libraries (${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC swipl ) ``` In `./src/main.cpp` : ```prolog #include "SWI-Prolog.h" char *av[10]; int ac = 0; av[ac++] = "./swipl-devel/bin/swipl"; av[ac++] = "-x"; av[ac++] = "./swiple-devel/lib/swipl/boot.prc"; av[ac] = NULL; PL_initialise(ac, av); PL_halt(PL_toplevel() ? 0 : 1); ``` where `boot.prc` is in this subfolder : ```prolog src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl$ ls ABI bin boot.prc customize doc lib LICENSE swipl.home app boot cmake demo include library README.md ``` and `swipl` executable is in this subfolder: ```prolog /src/swipl-devel/bin$ ls -lah total 8.0K drwxr-xr-x 2 raphy raphy 4.0K May 13 18:45 . drwxr-xr-x 5 raphy raphy 4.0K May 13 18:45 .. lrwxrwxrwx 1 raphy raphy 35 May 13 18:45 swipl -> ../lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl lrwxrwxrwx 1 raphy raphy 38 May 13 18:45 swipl-ld -> ../lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl-ld lrwxrwxrwx 1 raphy raphy 39 May 13 18:45 swipl-win -> ../lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl-win ``` Compiling ```prolog cmake --build builddir -j9 ``` and executing I get the following error message: ```prolog [FATAL ERROR: at Wed May 13 21:41:13 2026 Could not open resource database "./swiple-devel/lib/swipl/boot.prc": No such file or directory] Aborted (core dumped) ``` ```prolog OS: Ubuntu 24.04 gcc (Ubuntu 14.2.0-4ubuntu2~24.04.1) 14.2.0 ``` What am I doing wrong and/or missing? How to make it work? Doing in this way: ````prolog char *argv[] = {"hello", "-q"}; PL_initialise(2, argv); PL_halt(PL_toplevel() ? 0 : 1); I do not get the error message anymore, but, when executing I get: ```1 ?- ``` which is the prompt for swipl-devl But what I would like to do is to be able to use swipl within my C++ program Is this feasible and possible? How to do it? ```` ---
**Author:** ![jan](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/jan/32/4_2.png) [@jan](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/jan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2026, 7:01am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/2 "2026-05-14T07:01:26Z")
> [@Raphy](#): > > `./swiple-devel` What is this extra e doing there? ---
**Author:** ![Raphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Raphy](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Raphy)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2026, 8:03am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/3 "2026-05-14T08:03:10Z")
Hi @Jan It seems the that there should be other errors apart from that typo `swiple`: With `/src/main` : ```prolog char *av[10]; int ac = 0; av[ac++] = "./swipl-devel/bin/swipl"; av[ac++] = "-x"; av[ac++] = "./swipl-devel/lib/swipl/boot.prc"; av[ac] = NULL; PL_initialise(ac, av); PL_halt(PL_toplevel() ? 0 : 1); ``` I still get the error message: ```prolog [FATAL ERROR: at Thu May 14 09:58:10 2026 Could not open resource database "./swipl-devel/lib/swipl/boot.prc": No such file or directory] Aborted (core dumped) ``` ```prolog /src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl$ ls ABI bin boot.prc customize doc lib LICENSE swipl.home app boot cmake demo include library README.md ``` ---
**Author:** ![jan](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/jan/32/4_2.png) [@jan](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/jan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2026, 8:42am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/4 "2026-05-14T08:42:33Z")
Trying the same, adjusted for my local paths works just fine. Depending on the platform, I’d try tracing system calls. On linux: ``` strace -o calls.log ``` and then search in `calls.log` to see what is happening. Make sure you link the a compatible `libswipl.so` (or whatever it is named on your platform). One of the few things that changed over the years is that it expects an ABI file next to boot.prc that is inspected to validate that the Prolog VM is compatible with the one that created the boot file. In the old days a mismatch often worked to some degree. Now it is rejected. ---
**Author:** ![Raphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Raphy](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Raphy)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2026, 9:54am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/5 "2026-05-14T09:54:07Z")
I tried to build and compile swipl fetching the swipl-devel git repo within MyPrj’s CMakeLists.txt : ```prolog FetchContent_Declare( swipl GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel.git GIT_TAG master ) FetchContent_MakeAvailable(swipl) ``` But during compilation I got this error message: ```prolog gmake[2]: *** No rule to make target '_deps/swipl-build/man/utf8proc', needed by 'man/pldoc2tex'. Stop. gmake[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:3793: _deps/swipl-build/man/CMakeFiles/pldoc2tex_state.dir/all] Error 2 ``` So…I’m going to stick to my previous method: ```prolog raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/raphy/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/ -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=PGO -DSWIPL_PACKAGES_JAVA=OFF -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF -DINSTALL_TESTS=OFF -DINSTALL_DOCUMENTATION=OFF -GNinja -B builddir -S . raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake --build builddir --target install -j9 ``` And I will trace system calls, as you suggested. I will write down here the output ---
**Author:** ![Raphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Raphy](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Raphy)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2026, 10:14am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/6 "2026-05-14T10:14:11Z")
Output of strace: ```prolog raphy@raphy:~$ strace -o calls.log /home/raphy/MyPrj/builddir/MyPrj Current path: "/home/raphy" [FATAL ERROR: at Thu May 14 12:12:58 2026 Could not open resource database "./swipl-devel/lib/swipl/boot.prc": No such file or directory] Aborted (core dumped) ``` In `CMakeLists.txt` file`: ```prolog target_link_directories(${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC ./src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib ./src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux ./src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux ) target_include_directories(${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC ./src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/include ) target_link_libraries (${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC swipl ) raphy@raphy:~/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux$ ls -lah | grep libswipl.so lrwxrwxrwx 1 raphy raphy 14 May 13 18:45 libswipl.so -> libswipl.so.10 lrwxrwxrwx 1 raphy raphy 18 May 13 18:45 libswipl.so.10 -> libswipl.so.10.1.7 -rw-r--r-- 1 raphy raphy 14M May 13 18:44 libswipl.so.10.1.7 ``` ```prolog raphy@raphy:~/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl$ ls ABI app bin boot boot.prc cmake customize demo doc include lib library LICENSE README.md swipl.home raphy@raphy:~/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl$ cat ABI swipl-abi-2-68-b5762387-a5b83da7 ``` I built and compiled again swipl: ```prolog raphy@raphy:~$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel.git raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/raphy/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/ -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DSWIPL_PACKAGES_JAVA=OFF -DINSTALL_DOCUMENTATION=OFF -GNinja -B builddir -S . raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake --build builddir --target install -j10 -- Install configuration: "Release" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/home/raphy/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl" to "/home/raphy/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/home/raphy/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux/libswipl.so.10.1.7" to "/home/raphy/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/home/raphy/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl-win" to "/home/raphy/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/home/raphy/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl-ld" to "/home/raphy/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" But I get the same error : raphy@raphy:~/MyPrj$ ./builddir/MyPrj Current path: "/home/raphy/MyPrj" [FATAL ERROR: at Thu May 14 12:55:25 2026 Could not open resource database "./swipl-devel/lib/swipl/boot.prc": No such file or directory] Aborted (core dumped) raphy@raphy:~$ strace -o calls.log /home/raphy/MyPrj/builddir/MyPrj Current path: "/home/raphy" [FATAL ERROR: at Thu May 14 13:01:32 2026 Could not open resource database "./swipl-devel/lib/swipl/boot.prc": No such file or directory] Aborted (core dumped) ``` Last lines of `calls.log` : ```prolog ioctl(0, TCGETS, {c_iflag=ICRNL|IXON|IUTF8, c_oflag=NL0|CR0|TAB0|BS0|VT0|FF0|OPOST|ONLCR, c_cflag=B38400|CS8|CREAD, c_lflag=ISIG|ICANON|ECHO|ECHOE|ECHOK|IEXTEN|ECHOCTL|ECHOKE, ...}) = 0 ioctl(1, TCGETS, {c_iflag=ICRNL|IXON|IUTF8, c_oflag=NL0|CR0|TAB0|BS0|VT0|FF0|OPOST|ONLCR, c_cflag=B38400|CS8|CREAD, c_lflag=ISIG|ICANON|ECHO|ECHOE|ECHOK|IEXTEN|ECHOCTL|ECHOKE, ...}) = 0 ioctl(2, TCGETS, {c_iflag=ICRNL|IXON|IUTF8, c_oflag=NL0|CR0|TAB0|BS0|VT0|FF0|OPOST|ONLCR, c_cflag=B38400|CS8|CREAD, c_lflag=ISIG|ICANON|ECHO|ECHOE|ECHOK|IEXTEN|ECHOCTL|ECHOKE, ...}) = 0 newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/raphy", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0750, st_size=4096, ...}, 0) = 0 newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}, 0) = 0 newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}, 0) = 0 newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/raphy", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0750, st_size=4096, ...}, 0) = 0 newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "./swipl-devel/bin/swipl", 0x7fff38e53cc0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) readlink("./swipl-devel/bin/swipl", 0x7fff38e55d60, 4095) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) getcwd("/home/raphy", 4096) = 12 newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}, 0) = 0 newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/raphy/swipl-devel/bin", 0x7fff38e4cbc0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/raphy/swipl-devel/swipl.home", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/raphy/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/ABI", O_RDONLY) = 13 ioctl(13, TCGETS, 0x7fff38e50b70) = -1 ENOTTY (Inappropriate ioctl for device) fcntl(13, F_SETFD, FD_CLOEXEC) = 0 read(13, "swipl-abi-2-68-b5762387-a5b83da7"..., 4096) = 33 close(13) = 0 openat(AT_FDCWD, "./swipl-devel/bin/swipl", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) openat(AT_FDCWD, "./swipl-devel/lib/swipl/boot.prc", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) write(2, "[FATAL ERROR: at Thu May 14 13:0"..., 43) = 43 write(2, "Could not open resource database"..., 94) = 94 write(2, "]\n", 2) = 2 rt_sigprocmask(SIG_UNBLOCK, [ABRT], NULL, 8) = 0 gettid() = 153682 getpid() = 153682 tgkill(153682, 153682, SIGABRT) = 0 --- SIGABRT {si_signo=SIGABRT, si_code=SI_TKILL, si_pid=153682, si_uid=1000} --- +++ killed by SIGABRT (core dumped) +++ ``` @jan What does `“Inappropriate ioctl for device”` mean ? And why ```prolog newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "./swipl-devel/bin/swipl", 0x7ffc02a43000, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) ``` ? Looking for suggestions about how to overcome the issue and make swipl work ---
**Author:** ![Raphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Raphy](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Raphy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 7:24am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/7 "2026-05-15T07:24:15Z")
Trying to understand what’s going on .. ```prolog The "Inappropriate ioctl for device" error in Ubuntu 24.04 can occur due to compatibility issues with certain operations or drivers. Check for kernel updates or specific driver support for your hardware ``` My system is updated: ```prolog raphy@raphy:~$ sudo apt-get full-upgradeReading package lists… DoneBuilding dependency tree… DoneReading state information… DoneCalculating upgrade… Done0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. ``` The ABI is actually read: ```prolog openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/raphy/MyPrj/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/ABI", O_RDONLY) = 13 ``` But, on the other hands, it says: ```prolog openat(AT_FDCWD, "./swipl-devel/bin/swipl", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) openat(AT_FDCWD, "./swipl-devel/lib/swipl/boot.prc", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) ``` What could be the reasons for `Inappropriate ioctl for device` error message? Looking around I’ve found this hint: [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72445825/gpg-error-inappropriate-ioctl-for-device](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72445825/gpg-error-inappropriate-ioctl-for-device) but tried, and it didn’t work: ```prolog raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ export GPG_TTY=$(tty) raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ ./builddir/Grasp Current path: "/home/raphy/Grasp" [FATAL ERROR: at Fri May 15 09:45:25 2026 Could not open resource database "./swipl-devel/lib/swipl/boot.prc": No such file or directory] Aborted (core dumped) ``` ---
**Author:** ![jan](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/jan/32/4_2.png) [@jan](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/jan)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 7:58am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/8 "2026-05-15T07:58:05Z")
> [@Raphy](#): > > `gmake[2]: *** No rule to make target '_deps/swipl-build/man/utf8proc', needed by 'man/pldoc2tex'. Stop.` It doesn’t clone the submodules. To build from git, you need to init the submodules (recursively). > [@Raphy](#): > > @jan What does `“Inappropriate ioctl for device”` mean ? I think it is from calling isatty() to detect whether a stream is a tty. I would not worry. > [@Raphy](#): > > `newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "./swipl-devel/bin/swipl", 0x7ffc02a43000, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)` That is what is nailing you. Wrong directory, wrong path, something weird with permissions, … I’d compile for debugging. You can than add `-d initialize` to get some more messages on the startup or attach a debugger and step through the initialization. Looks like some weird local problem. P.s. SWI-Prolog installs CMake import files in `/lib/cmake`. ---
**Author:** ![Raphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Raphy](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Raphy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 8:55am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/9 "2026-05-15T08:55:30Z")
I’ve built and compiled swipl in Debug mode and used gdb debugger during the program execution. Building and compiling of swipl : ```prolog raphy@raphy:~$ git clone --recurse-submodule https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel.git Submodule 'bench' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/bench.git) registered for path 'bench' Submodule 'debian' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/distro-debian.git) registered for path 'debian' Submodule 'packages/PDT' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-PDT.git) registered for path 'packages/PDT' Submodule 'packages/RDF' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-RDF.git) registered for path 'packages/RDF' Submodule 'packages/archive' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-archive.git) registered for path 'packages/archive' Submodule 'packages/bdb' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-bdb.git) registered for path 'packages/bdb' Submodule 'packages/chr' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-chr.git) registered for path 'packages/chr' Submodule 'packages/clib' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-clib.git) registered for path 'packages/clib' Submodule 'packages/clpqr' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-clpqr.git) registered for path 'packages/clpqr' Submodule 'packages/cpp' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-cpp.git) registered for path 'packages/cpp' Submodule 'packages/cql' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-cql.git) registered for path 'packages/cql' Submodule 'packages/http' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-http.git) registered for path 'packages/http' Submodule 'packages/inclpr' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-inclpr.git) registered for path 'packages/inclpr' Submodule 'packages/jpl' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-jpl.git) registered for path 'packages/jpl' Submodule 'packages/json' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-json.git) registered for path 'packages/json' Submodule 'packages/libedit' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-libedit.git) registered for path 'packages/libedit' Submodule 'packages/ltx2htm' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-ltx2htm.git) registered for path 'packages/ltx2htm' Submodule 'packages/mqi' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-mqi.git) registered for path 'packages/mqi' Submodule 'packages/nlp' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-nlp.git) registered for path 'packages/nlp' Submodule 'packages/odbc' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-odbc.git) registered for path 'packages/odbc' Submodule 'packages/paxos' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-paxos.git) registered for path 'packages/paxos' Submodule 'packages/pcre' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-pcre.git) registered for path 'packages/pcre' Submodule 'packages/pengines' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-pengines.git) registered for path 'packages/pengines' Submodule 'packages/pldoc' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-pldoc.git) registered for path 'packages/pldoc' Submodule 'packages/plunit' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-plunit.git) registered for path 'packages/plunit' Submodule 'packages/protobufs' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/contrib-protobufs.git) registered for path 'packages/protobufs' Submodule 'packages/redis' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-redis.git) registered for path 'packages/redis' Submodule 'packages/semweb' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-semweb.git) registered for path 'packages/semweb' Submodule 'packages/sgml' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-sgml.git) registered for path 'packages/sgml' Submodule 'packages/ssl' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-ssl.git) registered for path 'packages/ssl' Submodule 'packages/stomp' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-stomp.git) registered for path 'packages/stomp' Submodule 'packages/sweep' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-sweep.git) registered for path 'packages/sweep' Submodule 'packages/swipy' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-swipy) registered for path 'packages/swipy' Submodule 'packages/table' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-table.git) registered for path 'packages/table' Submodule 'packages/tipc' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/contrib-tipc.git) registered for path 'packages/tipc' Submodule 'packages/utf8proc' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-utf8proc.git) registered for path 'packages/utf8proc' Submodule 'packages/windows' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-windows.git) registered for path 'packages/windows' Submodule 'packages/xpce' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-xpce.git) registered for path 'packages/xpce' Submodule 'packages/yaml' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-yaml.git) registered for path 'packages/yaml' Submodule 'packages/zlib' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-zlib.git) registered for path 'packages/zlib' raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ git submodule init raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ git submodule update raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/raphy/Grasp/src/swipl-devel/ -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=DEBUG -DSWIPL_PACKAGES_JAVA=OFF -DSWIPL_PACKAGES_GUI=OFF -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF -DINSTALL_TESTS=OFF -DSWIPL_PACKAGES_ODBC=OFF -DINSTALL_DOCUMENTATION=OFF -GNinja -B builddir -S . raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake --build builddir --target install -j9 [1085/1086] Install the project... -- Install configuration: "DEBUG" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/home/raphy/Grasp/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl" to "/home/raphy/Grasp/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/home/raphy/Grasp/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux/libswipl.so.10.1.7" to "/home/raphy/Grasp/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/home/raphy/Grasp/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl-win" to "/home/raphy/Grasp/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/home/raphy/Grasp/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl-ld" to "/home/raphy/Grasp/src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" raphy@raphy:~/Grasp/src/swipl-devel$ ls -lah total 20K drwxrwxr-x 5 raphy raphy 4.0K May 15 10:29 . drwxr-xr-x 79 raphy raphy 4.0K May 15 10:20 .. drwxr-xr-x 2 raphy raphy 4.0K May 15 10:29 bin drwxrwxr-x 4 raphy raphy 4.0K May 15 10:29 lib drwxrwxr-x 4 raphy raphy 4.0K May 15 10:29 share raphy@raphy:~/Grasp/src/swipl-devel$ ls -lah ./lib/ total 16K drwxrwxr-x 4 raphy raphy 4.0K Feb 25 09:41 . drwxr-xr-x 5 raphy raphy 4.0K Feb 25 09:41 .. drwxrwxr-x 3 raphy raphy 4.0K Feb 25 09:41 cmake drwxrwxr-x 12 raphy raphy 4.0K Feb 25 09:41 swipl raphy@raphy:~/Grasp/src/swipl-devel$ ls -lah ./bin/ total 8.0K drwxr-xr-x 2 raphy raphy 4.0K May 15 10:29 . drwxrwxr-x 5 raphy raphy 4.0K May 15 10:29 .. lrwxrwxrwx 1 raphy raphy 35 May 15 10:29 swipl -> ../lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl lrwxrwxrwx 1 raphy raphy 38 May 15 10:29 swipl-ld -> ../lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl-ld lrwxrwxrwx 1 raphy raphy 39 May 15 10:29 swipl-win -> ../lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl-win ``` In CMakeLists.txt file : ```prolog raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ nano CMakeLists.txt : target_link_directories(${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC ./src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib ./src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux ./src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux ) target_include_directories(${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC ./src/swipl-devel/lib/swipl/include ) target_link_libraries (${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC swipl ) raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ cmake --build builddir/ ``` Executed the program with the debugger gdb : ```prolog raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ gdb ./builddir/Grasp GNU gdb (Ubuntu 15.1-1ubuntu1~24.04.1) 15.1 Copyright (C) 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying" and "show warranty" for details. This GDB was configured as "x86_64-linux-gnu". Type "show configuration" for configuration details. For bug reporting instructions, please see: . Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at: . For help, type "help". Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word"... Reading symbols from ./builddir/Grasp... (gdb) watch PL_initialise Hardware watchpoint 1: PL_initialise (gdb) run Starting program: /home/raphy/Grasp/builddir/Grasp This GDB supports auto-downloading debuginfo from the following URLs: Enable debuginfod for this session? (y or [n]) n Debuginfod has been disabled. To make this setting permanent, add 'set debuginfod enabled off' to .gdbinit. [Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled] Using host libthread_db library "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libthread_db.so.1". [New Thread 0x7fffdebff6c0 (LWP 7474)] [New Thread 0x7fffde3fe6c0 (LWP 7475)] [New Thread 0x7fffddbfd6c0 (LWP 7476)] [New Thread 0x7fffdd3fc6c0 (LWP 7477)] [New Thread 0x7fffdcbfb6c0 (LWP 7478)] [New Thread 0x7fffdc3fa6c0 (LWP 7479)] [New Thread 0x7fffdbbf96c0 (LWP 7480)] [New Thread 0x7fffdb3f86c0 (LWP 7481)] [New Thread 0x7fffdabf76c0 (LWP 7482)] [New Thread 0x7fffd3fff6c0 (LWP 7483)] [New Thread 0x7fffda3f66c0 (LWP 7484)] [New Thread 0x7fffd9bcd6c0 (LWP 7485)] [New Thread 0x7fffd93bd6c0 (LWP 7486)] Current path: "/home/raphy/Grasp" [Detaching after vfork from child process 7488] [Detaching after vfork from child process 7490] [Detaching after vfork from child process 7492] [Detaching after vfork from child process 7494] [Detaching after vfork from child process 7496] [New Thread 0x7fffd37fe6c0 (LWP 7498)] [FATAL ERROR: at Fri May 15 10:48:34 2026 Could not open resource database "./swipl-devel/lib/swipl/boot.prc": No such file or directory] Thread 1 "Grasp" received signal SIGABRT, Aborted. __pthread_kill_implementation (no_tid=0, signo=6, threadid=) at ./nptl/pthread_kill.c:44 warning: 44 ./nptl/pthread_kill.c: No such file or directory (gdb) bt #0 __pthread_kill_implementation (no_tid=0, signo=6, threadid=) at ./nptl/pthread_kill.c:44 #1 __pthread_kill_internal (signo=6, threadid=) at ./nptl/pthread_kill.c:78 #2 __GI___ pthread_kill (threadid=, signo=signo@entry=6) at ./nptl/pthread_kill.c:89 #3 0x00007fffe564527e in __GI_raise (sig=sig@entry=6) at ../sysdeps/posix/raise.c:26 #4 0x00007fffe56288ff in __GI_abort () at ./stdlib/abort.c:79 #5 0x00007fffed626fc9 in PL_abort_process () at /home/raphy/swipl-devel/src/pl-fli.c:5109 #6 0x00007fffed5a00ed in vfatalError (fm=0x7fffed6a33b8 "Could not open resource database \"%s\": %s", args=0x7fffffff9e80) at /home/raphy/swipl-devel/src/pl-init.c:2174 #7 0x00007fffed59f71d in fatalError (fm=0x7fffed6a33b8 "Could not open resource database \"%s\": %s") at /home/raphy/swipl-devel/src/pl-init.c:1968 #8 0x00007fffed59d2a3 in openResourceDB (is_hash_bang=false) at /home/raphy/swipl-devel/src/pl-init.c:1204 #9 0x00007fffed59df0d in PL_initialise (argc=0, argv=0x5555577f45e0) at /home/raphy/swipl-devel/src/pl-init.c:1409 ``` Why does it look for this path: ```prolog in PL_abort_process () at /home/raphy/swipl-devel/src/pl-fli.c:5109 #6 0x00007fffed5a00ed in vfatalError (fm=0x7fffed6a33b8 "Could not open resource database \"%s\": %s", ``` if I specified the INSTALL\_PREFIX ```prolog -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/raphy/Grasp/src/swipl-devel/ cmake --build builddir --target install -j9 ``` and like it is defined in SWIPLConfig.cmake file ? : ```prolog raphy@raphy:~/Grasp/src/swipl-devel/lib/cmake/swipl$ cat SWIPLConfig.cmake ####### Expanded from @PACKAGE_INIT@ by configure_package_config_file() ####### ####### Any changes to this file will be overwritten by the next CMake run #### ####### The input file was SWIPLConfig.cmake.in ######## get_filename_component(PACKAGE_PREFIX_DIR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/../../../" ABSOLUTE) #################################################################################### # Version information set(SWIPL_VERSION_COUNT 3) set(SWIPL_VERSION_MAJOR 10) set(SWIPL_VERSION_MINOR 1) set(SWIPL_VERSION_PATCH 7) set(SWIPL_VERSION_STRING 10.1.7) # Location suitable for passing to PL_initialise() as argv[0] set(SWIPL_EXECUTABLE "${PACKAGE_PREFIX_DIR}/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl") # Exported targets include("${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/SWIPLTargets.cmake") raphy@raphy:~/Grasp/src/swipl-devel/lib/cmake/swipl$ cat SWIPLTargets-debug.cmake #---------------------------------------------------------------- # Generated CMake target import file for configuration "DEBUG". #---------------------------------------------------------------- # Commands may need to know the format version. set(CMAKE_IMPORT_FILE_VERSION 1) # Import target "swipl::swipl" for configuration "DEBUG" set_property(TARGET swipl::swipl APPEND PROPERTY IMPORTED_CONFIGURATIONS DEBUG) set_target_properties(swipl::swipl PROPERTIES IMPORTED_LOCATION_DEBUG "${_IMPORT_PREFIX}/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl" ) list(APPEND _cmake_import_check_targets swipl::swipl ) list(APPEND _cmake_import_check_files_for_swipl::swipl "${_IMPORT_PREFIX}/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl" ) # Import target "swipl::libswipl" for configuration "DEBUG" set_property(TARGET swipl::libswipl APPEND PROPERTY IMPORTED_CONFIGURATIONS DEBUG) set_target_properties(swipl::libswipl PROPERTIES IMPORTED_LOCATION_DEBUG "${_IMPORT_PREFIX}/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux/libswipl.so.10.1.7" IMPORTED_SONAME_DEBUG "libswipl.so.10" ) list(APPEND _cmake_import_check_targets swipl::libswipl ) list(APPEND _cmake_import_check_files_for_swipl::libswipl "${_IMPORT_PREFIX}/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux/libswipl.so.10.1.7" ) # Commands beyond this point should not need to know the version. set(CMAKE_IMPORT_FILE_VERSION) ``` What do I have to do to make it work? ---
**Author:** ![Raphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Raphy](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Raphy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 10:16am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/10 "2026-05-15T10:16:52Z")
I really do not understand why this happens: ```prolog raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ gdb /home/raphy/Grasp/builddir/Grasp [FATAL ERROR: at Fri May 15 13:15:21 2026 Could not open resource database "./swipl-devel/lib/swipl/boot.prc": No such file or directory] Thread 1 "Grasp" received signal SIGABRT, Aborted. __pthread_kill_implementation (no_tid=0, signo=6, threadid=) at ./nptl/pthread_kill.c:44 warning: 44 ./nptl/pthread_kill.c: No such file or directory (gdb) (gdb) (gdb) bt #0 __pthread_kill_implementation (no_tid=0, signo=6, threadid=) at ./nptl/pthread_kill.c:44 #1 __pthread_kill_internal (signo=6, threadid=) at ./nptl/pthread_kill.c:78 #2 __GI___ pthread_kill (threadid=, signo=signo@entry=6) at ./nptl/pthread_kill.c:89 #3 0x00007fffe564527e in __GI_raise (sig=sig@entry=6) at ../sysdeps/posix/raise.c:26 #4 0x00007fffe56288ff in __GI_abort () at ./stdlib/abort.c:79 #5 0x00007fffed626fc9 in PL_abort_process () at /home/raphy/swipl-devel/src/pl-fli.c:5109 // <----------------- ???? #6 0x00007fffed5a00ed in vfatalError (fm=0x7fffed6a33b8 "Could not open resource database \"%s\": %s", args=0x7fffffff9e80) at /home/raphy/swipl-devel/src/pl-init.c:2174 #7 0x00007fffed59f71d in fatalError (fm=0x7fffed6a33b8 "Could not open resource database \"%s\": %s") at /home/raphy/swipl-devel/src/pl-init.c:1968 #8 0x00007fffed59d2a3 in openResourceDB (is_hash_bang=false) at /home/raphy/swipl-devel/src/pl-init.c:1204 #9 0x00007fffed59df0d in PL_initialise (argc=0, argv=0x5555577f2f50) at /home/raphy/swipl-devel/src/pl-init.c:1409 ``` Why does it look here in `/home/raphy/swipl-devel/` ```prolog Could not open resource database \"%s\": %s", args=0x7fffffff9e80) at /home/raphy/swipl-devel/src/pl-init.c:2174 ``` and not in `/home/raphy/Grasp/src/swipl-devel` where the files have been installed ? And what should I do to make it work? Looking forward to kind help ---
**Author:** ![Raphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Raphy](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Raphy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 11:48am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/11 "2026-05-15T11:48:34Z")
@jan I tried to directly include swipl in CMakeLists.txt using FetchContent : ````prolog FetchContent_Declare( swipl GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel.git GIT_TAG master ) FetchContent_MakeAvailable(swipl) target_link_libraries (${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC swipl )``` raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ cmake -B builddir -DRATS_BUILD_TESTS=OFF -DWITH_BENCHMARK_TOOLS=FALSE -DOPENSSL_ROOT_DIR="/usr/local/ssl/" -DEigen3_DIR="/usr/include/eigen3" -DSWIPL_PACKAGES_JAVA=OFF -DSWIPL_PACKAGES_GUI=OFF -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF -DINSTALL_TESTS=OFF -DSWIPL_PACKAGES_ODBC=OFF -DINSTALL_DOCUMENTATION=OFF -Wno-author Cloning into 'swipl-src'... Already on 'master' Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'. Submodule 'bench' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/bench.git) registered for path 'bench' Submodule 'debian' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/distro-debian.git) registered for path 'debian' Submodule 'packages/PDT' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-PDT.git) registered for path 'packages/PDT' Submodule 'packages/RDF' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-RDF.git) registered for path 'packages/RDF' Submodule 'packages/archive' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-archive.git) registered for path 'packages/archive' Submodule 'packages/bdb' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-bdb.git) registered for path 'packages/bdb' Submodule 'packages/chr' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-chr.git) registered for path 'packages/chr' Submodule 'packages/clib' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-clib.git) registered for path 'packages/clib' Submodule 'packages/clpqr' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-clpqr.git) registered for path 'packages/clpqr' Submodule 'packages/cpp' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-cpp.git) registered for path 'packages/cpp' Submodule 'packages/cql' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-cql.git) registered for path 'packages/cql' Submodule 'packages/http' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-http.git) registered for path 'packages/http' Submodule 'packages/inclpr' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-inclpr.git) registered for path 'packages/inclpr' Submodule 'packages/jpl' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-jpl.git) registered for path 'packages/jpl' Submodule 'packages/json' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-json.git) registered for path 'packages/json' Submodule 'packages/libedit' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-libedit.git) registered for path 'packages/libedit' Submodule 'packages/ltx2htm' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-ltx2htm.git) registered for path 'packages/ltx2htm' Submodule 'packages/mqi' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-mqi.git) registered for path 'packages/mqi' Submodule 'packages/nlp' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-nlp.git) registered for path 'packages/nlp' Submodule 'packages/odbc' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-odbc.git) registered for path 'packages/odbc' Submodule 'packages/paxos' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-paxos.git) registered for path 'packages/paxos' Submodule 'packages/pcre' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-pcre.git) registered for path 'packages/pcre' Submodule 'packages/pengines' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-pengines.git) registered for path 'packages/pengines' Submodule 'packages/pldoc' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-pldoc.git) registered for path 'packages/pldoc' Submodule 'packages/plunit' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-plunit.git) registered for path 'packages/plunit' Submodule 'packages/protobufs' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/contrib-protobufs.git) registered for path 'packages/protobufs' Submodule 'packages/redis' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-redis.git) registered for path 'packages/redis' Submodule 'packages/semweb' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-semweb.git) registered for path 'packages/semweb' Submodule 'packages/sgml' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-sgml.git) registered for path 'packages/sgml' Submodule 'packages/ssl' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-ssl.git) registered for path 'packages/ssl' Submodule 'packages/stomp' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-stomp.git) registered for path 'packages/stomp' Submodule 'packages/sweep' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-sweep.git) registered for path 'packages/sweep' Submodule 'packages/swipy' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-swipy) registered for path 'packages/swipy' Submodule 'packages/table' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-table.git) registered for path 'packages/table' Submodule 'packages/tipc' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/contrib-tipc.git) registered for path 'packages/tipc' Submodule 'packages/utf8proc' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-utf8proc.git) registered for path 'packages/utf8proc' Submodule 'packages/windows' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-windows.git) registered for path 'packages/windows' Submodule 'packages/xpce' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-xpce.git) registered for path 'packages/xpce' Submodule 'packages/yaml' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-yaml.git) registered for path 'packages/yaml' Submodule 'packages/zlib' (https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-zlib.git) registered for path 'packages/zlib' ```` But I get the following error message : ```prolog CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:1070 (target_link_libraries): Target "swipl" of type EXECUTABLE may not be linked into another target. One may link only to INTERFACE, OBJECT, STATIC or SHARED libraries, or to executables with the ENABLE_EXPORTS property set. ``` It seems that I cannot link the target library ``swipl` when using FetchContent with the swipl github repo` And during compilation phase I get this other error message: ```prolog raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ cmake --build builddir -j9 ERROR: [Thread main] Prolog initialisation failed: ERROR: [Thread main] script_file `'/home/raphy/Grasp/builddir/home/library/prolog_qlfmake.pl'' does not exist gmake[2]: *** [_deps/swipl-build/src/CMakeFiles/library_qlf.dir/build.make:73: _deps/swipl-build/src/ __library_QLF_files__] Error 1 gmake[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:1650: _deps/swipl-build/src/CMakeFiles/library_qlf.dir/all] Error 2 gmake[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs.... ``` Update: Putting in CMakeLists.txt : ```prolog target_link_libraries (${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC qsave_program(swipl, [goal=my_main_predicate, global=128000]) ) ``` I solved the first error message But, still, the compilation phase gives the following error : ```prolog raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ cmake --build builddir -j10 ERROR: [Thread main] Prolog initialisation failed: ERROR: [Thread main] script_file `'/home/raphy/Grasp/builddir/home/library/prolog_qlfmake.pl'' does not exist gmake[2]: *** [_deps/swipl-build/src/CMakeFiles/library_qlf.dir/build.make:73: _deps/swipl-build/src/ __library_QLF_files__] Error 1 gmake[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:1650: _deps/swipl-build/src/CMakeFiles/library_qlf.dir/all] Error 2 gmake[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs.... ``` Why it says “prolog\_glfmake.pl does not exist” if it is actually present? ```prolog https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel/blob/1f1b778f543161fd2e0d61afe64ebba546b48ef1/library/prolog_qlfmake.pl raphy@raphy:~/Grasp/builddir/_deps/swipl-build/home/library$ ls -lah | grep prolog_qlfmake lrwxrwxrwx 1 raphy raphy 44 May 15 14:08 prolog_qlfmake.pl -> ../../../swipl-src/library/prolog_qlfmake.pl raphy@raphy:~/Grasp/builddir/_deps/swipl-src/library$ ls -lah | grep prolog_qlfmake.pl -rw-rw-r-- 1 raphy raphy 17K May 15 14:01 prolog_qlfmake.pl ``` What am I doing wrong and/or missing? How to make it work? ---
**Author:** ![jan](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/jan/32/4_2.png) [@jan](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/jan)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 1:53pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/12 "2026-05-15T13:53:33Z")
> [@Raphy](#): > > What do I have to do to make it work? First of all, as you are just trying to start the boot.prc file, I’d suggest making sure the home is found and omit the `-x`. Possibly no option is good enough as it is now quite keen to find a compatible home and the last resort is to try the compiled-in default. If all fails, you really have to step through some of the stuff in PL\_initialise() that makes it find the home and resource file. > [@Raphy](#): > > ```prolog > FetchContent_MakeAvailable(swipl) > > ``` Surely you want `libswipl` as `swipl` is the executable. Whether that works is not clear as it might just build `libswipl.so` without the stuff it needs to run. You have to build the toplevel target to get a working system. ---
**Author:** ![Raphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Raphy](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Raphy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 2:26pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/13 "2026-05-15T14:26:53Z")
Omitting the -x in the building phase, causes the following error message during the compilation phase: ```prolog raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/raphy/Grasp/src/swipl-devel/ -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=DEBUG -GNinja -B builddir -S . raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake --build builddir --target install -j9 ninja: error: 'man/utf8proc', needed by 'man/pldoc2tex', missing and no known rule to make it ``` libswipl in FetchContent : ```prolog FetchContent_Declare( libswipl GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel.git GIT_TAG master ) FetchContent_MakeAvailable(libswipl) target_link_libraries (${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC swipl ) ``` gives this error message: ```prolog CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:1069 (target_link_libraries): Target "swipl" of type EXECUTABLE may not be linked into another target. One may link only to INTERFACE, OBJECT, STATIC or SHARED libraries, or to executables with the ENABLE_EXPORTS property set. ``` Tried to build and compile without setting INSTALL\_PREFIX : ````prolog raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake -B builddir -- Build files have been written to: /home/raphy/swipl-devel/builddir raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake --build builddir raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake --build builddir [60%] Built target sgml gmake[2]: *** No rule to make target 'man/utf8proc', needed by 'man/pldoc2tex'. Stop. gmake[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:3917: man/CMakeFiles/pldoc2tex_state.dir/all] Error 2 gmake: *** [Makefile:166: all] Error 2 With DOCUMENTATION=OFF : ``` raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake -B builddir -DINSTALL_DOCUMENTATION=OFF raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake -B builddir [100%] QLF compile library [100%] Built target library_qlf [100%] Building C object src/CMakeFiles/swipl-win.dir/pl-main.c.o [100%] Linking C executable swipl-win [100%] Built target swipl-win [100%] Building C object src/CMakeFiles/swipl-ld.dir/swipl-ld.c.o [100%] Linking C executable swipl-ld [100%] Built target swipl-ld [100%] Generating tests/test_certs/generated [100%] Built target test_certificates raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel/builddir$ sudo make install [100%] Built target tipc [100%] QLF compile library [100%] Built target library_qlf [100%] Built target swipl-win [100%] Built target swipl-ld [100%] Built target test_certificates Install the project... -- Install configuration: "RelWithDebInfo" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/usr/local/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl" to "/usr/local/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/usr/local/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux/libswipl.so.10.1.7" to "/usr/local/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/usr/local/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl-win" to "/usr/local/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/usr/local/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl-ld" to "/usr/local/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" raphy@raphy:~$ swipl Welcome to SWI-Prolog (threaded, 64 bits, version 10.1.7-22-g1f1b778f5) SWI-Prolog comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software. Please run ?- license. for legal details. For online help and background, visit https://www.swi-prolog.org 1 ?- Where are the header files required within my main.cpp C++ program? : raphy@raphy:/usr/local/include$ ls -lah | grep swipl raphy@raphy:/usr/local/include$ ```` ---
**Author:** ![jan](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/jan/32/4_2.png) [@jan](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/jan)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 3:00pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/14 "2026-05-15T15:00:21Z")
> [@Raphy](#): > > ```prolog > FetchContent_MakeAvailable(libswipl) > > target_link_libraries (${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC > swipl > ) > > ``` You want to link against `libswipl` … Target `swipl` is the executable. > [@Raphy](#): > > `Where are the header files required within my main.cpp C++ program? : ` Everything is contained in `/lib/swipl`. There you find the includes and the CMake import files that you can use with CMake find\_package(). ---
**Author:** ![Raphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Raphy](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Raphy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 6:28pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/15 "2026-05-15T18:28:02Z")
I’ve set `CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH` : ```prolog raphy@raphy:~$ echo $CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH /usr/local/lib/swipl ``` and I’ve set `swipl_DIR` : ```prolog raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ export swipl_DIR=/usr/local/lib/swipl/cmake ``` In CMakeLists.txt : ```prolog set (CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake-modules ) find_package( swipl REQUIRED ) ``` `cmake-modules` folder: ```prolog raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ nano ./cmake-modules/Find.swipl.cmake find_path(swipl_INCLUDE_DIR NAMES swipl_include ) find_library(swipl_LIBRARY NAMES libswipl PATHS "/usr/local/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" ) set (swipl_LIBRARY "/usr/local/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux") set (swipl_INCLUDE_DIR "/usr/local/lib/swipl/include") mark_as_advanced(swipl_INCLUDE_DIR swipl_LIBRARY) ``` But, still, I get this error message: ```prolog CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:140 (find_package): Could not find a package configuration file provided by "swipl" with any of the following names: swipl.cps swiplConfig.cmake swipl-config.cmake Add the installation prefix of "swipl" to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH or set "swipl_DIR" to a directory containing one of the above files. If "swipl" provides a separate development package or SDK, be sure it has been installed. ``` What should I do @jan ? Thank you in advance ---
**Author:** ![Raphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Raphy](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Raphy)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2026, 8:45am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/16 "2026-05-16T08:45:06Z")
Hi @jan I tried to install swipl using the PPA Repository for Ubuntu: > **[Installing from PPA (Ubuntu Personal Package Archive)](https://www.swi-prolog.org/build/PPA.html)** ```prolog raphy@raphy:~$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:swi-prolog/stable PPA publishes dbgsym, you may need to include 'main/debug' component Repository: 'Types: deb URIs: https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/swi-prolog/stable/ubuntu/ Suites: noble Components: main ' Description: Comprehensive Prolog implementation with extensive libraries and development tools. Primarily targetted at teaching, RDF processing and web-related tasks, such as creating web services or analysing web content. raphy@raphy:~$ sudo apt-get install swi-prolog Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done The following additional packages will be installed: swi-prolog-nox Suggested packages: prolog-el The following NEW packages will be installed: swi-prolog swi-prolog-nox ``` But I got this strange message : ```prolog raphy@raphy:~$ dpkg -l swi-prolog Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Architecture Description +++-==============-=============================-============-====================================== ii swi-prolog 10.0.2-1-gb8d8f931a-nobleppa2 amd64 ISO/Edinburgh-style Prolog interpreter ``` So I removed those two packages and the PPA: ````prolog raphy@raphy:~$ sudo apt-get remove swi-prolog raphy@raphy:~$ sudo apt-get remove swi-prolog-nox raphy@raphy:/etc/apt/sources.list.d$ sudo rm swi-prolog-ubuntu-stable-noble.sources raphy@raphy:~$ sudo apt-get update``` ```` I found in the _Official Ubuntu 24.04 Repository_ a bunch of libraries related to `swi-prolog` : ```prolog raphy@raphy:~$ sudo apt-cache search swi-prolog elpa-ediprolog - Emacs Does Interactive Prolog swi-prolog - ISO/Edinburgh-style Prolog interpreter swi-prolog-bdb - Berkeley DB interface for SWI-Prolog swi-prolog-core - ISO/Edinburgh-style Prolog interpreter - core system swi-prolog-core-packages - ISO/Edinburgh-style Prolog interpreter - core packages swi-prolog-doc - documentation and examples for SWI-Prolog swi-prolog-full - ISO/Edinburgh-style Prolog interpreter - full suit swi-prolog-java - Bidirectional interface between SWI-Prolog and Java swi-prolog-nox - ISO/Edinburgh-style Prolog interpreter - without X support swi-prolog-odbc - ODBC library for SWI-Prolog swi-prolog-test - tests and checks for SWI-Prolog swi-prolog-x - User interface library for SWI-Prolog - with X support ``` I installed `swi-prolog-core-packages`` library : ` ````prolog raphy@raphy:~$ sudo apt-get install swi-prolog-core-packages Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done Note, selecting 'swi-prolog-core-packages' for regex 'swi-prolog-core-packages?' The following additional packages will be installed: swi-prolog-core Suggested packages: elpa-ediprolog swi-prolog-doc swi-prolog-java swi-prolog-odbc swi-prolog-bdb The following NEW packages will be installed: swi-prolog-core swi-prolog-core-packages Which is installed mainly in `/usr/lib` folder : ```raphy@raphy:~$ dpkg -L swi-prolog-core-packages /. /usr /usr/lib /usr/lib/swi-prolog /usr/lib/swi-prolog/bin /usr/lib/swi-prolog/bin/latex2html /usr/lib/swi-prolog/include /usr/lib/swi-prolog/include/SWI-cpp.h /usr/lib/swi-prolog/include/SWI-cpp2.h /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/swiplserver /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/swiplserver/LICENSE /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/swiplserver/ __init__.py /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/swiplserver/prologmqi.py /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/cgi.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/crypt.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/double_metaphone.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/files.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/hashstream.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/http_stream.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/inclpr.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/isub.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/json.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/mallocinfo.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/md54pl.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/memfile.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/ntriples.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/pdt_console.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/porter_stem.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/process.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/prolog_stream.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/protobufs.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/rdf_db.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/readutil.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/redis4pl.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/rlimit.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/sched.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/sgml2pl.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/sha4pl.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/snowball.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/socket.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/streaminfo.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/sweep-module.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/syslog.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/table.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/test_cpp.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/test_ffi.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/tex.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/time.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/turtle.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/uid.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/unicode4pl.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/unix.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/uri.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/uuid.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/websocket.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/lib/x86_64-linux/zlib4pl.so /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/DTD /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/DTD/HTML4.dcl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/DTD/HTML4.dtd /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/DTD/HTML4.soc /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/DTD/HTML5.dtd /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/DTD/HTMLlat1.ent /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/DTD/HTMLspec.ent /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/DTD/HTMLsym.ent /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/c14n2.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/cgi.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/a_star.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/binomialheap.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/builtins.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/chr_compiler_errors.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/chr_compiler_options.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/chr_compiler_utility.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/chr_debug.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/chr_hashtable_store.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/chr_integertable_store.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/chr_messages.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/chr_op.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/chr_runtime.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/chr_translate.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/clean_code.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/find.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/guard_entailment.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/listmap.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr/pairlist.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/chr.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpq /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpq/bb_q.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpq/bv_q.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpq/fourmotz_q.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpq/ineq_q.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpq/itf_q.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpq/nf_q.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpq/store_q.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpq.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpqr /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpqr/class.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpqr/dump.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpqr/geler.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpqr/highlight.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpqr/itf.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpqr/ordering.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpqr/project.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpqr/redund.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpr /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpr/bb_r.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpr/bv_r.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpr/fourmotz_r.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpr/ineq_r.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpr/itf_r.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpr/nf_r.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpr/store_r.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/clpr.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/inclpr /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/inclpr/inclpr_consistency.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/inclpr/inclpr_core.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/inclpr/inclpr_interval_arithmetic.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/inclpr/inclpr_inversion.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/inclpr/inclpr_natural_interval_extension.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/inclpr/inclpr_newton.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/inclpr/inclpr_ordering.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/inclpr/inclpr_symbolic_processing.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/clp/inclpr.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/crypt.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/doc_files.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/doc_http.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/doc_latex.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/double_metaphone.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/filesex.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/hash_stream.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/INDEX.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/README.md /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/ax.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/dcg_basics.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/graphql.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/html_head.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/html_quasiquotations.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/html_write.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_authenticate.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_client.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_cookie.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_cors.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_digest.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_dirindex.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_dispatch.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_dyn_workers.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_error.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_exception.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_files.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_header.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_hook.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_host.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_json.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_load.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_log.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_multipart_plugin.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_open.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_openid.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_parameters.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_path.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_proxy.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_pwp.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_redis_plugin.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_server.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_server_files.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_session.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_sgml_plugin.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_stream.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_unix_daemon.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/http_wrapper.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/hub.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/jquery.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/js_grammar.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/js_write.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/json.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/json_convert.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/mimepack.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/mimetype.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/term_html.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/thread_httpd.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/css /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/css/dirindex.css /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/css/openid.css /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/css/plterm.css /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/icons /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/icons/back.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/icons/c.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/icons/compressed.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/icons/folder.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/icons/generic.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/icons/layout.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/icons/openid-logo-square.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/icons/openid-logo-tiny.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/js /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/js/pengines.js /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/websocket.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/yadis.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/iso_639.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/isub.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/icons /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/icons/home.gif /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/icons/index.gif /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/icons/info.gif /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/icons/next.gif /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/icons/prev.gif /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/icons/up.gif /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/icons/yellow_pages.gif /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/latex.cmd /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/latex2html.css /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/latex2html.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/pldoc.cmd /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/sty_pldoc.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/sty_xpce.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/latex2html/xpce.cmd /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/mallocinfo.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/md5.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/memfile.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/mqi.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/paxos.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pdt_console.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pengines.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pengines_io.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pengines_sandbox.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_access.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_colour.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_html.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_html.qlf /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_htmlsrc.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_index.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_library.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_man.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_modes.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_pack.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_process.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_register.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_search.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_util.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_wiki.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/doc_words.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/edit.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/editpred.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/favicon.ico /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/h1-bg.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/h2-bg.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/hooks.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/man_index.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/multi-bg.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/pldoc.css /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/pldoc.js /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/pldoc.sty /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/pllisting.css /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/priv-bg.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/private.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/pub-bg.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/public.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/reload.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/source.png /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc/up.gif /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pldoc.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/plunit.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/porter_stem.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/process.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/prolog_server.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/prolog_stream.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/protobufs /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/protobufs/gen_pb /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/protobufs/gen_pb/google /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/protobufs/gen_pb/google/protobuf /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/protobufs/gen_pb/google/protobuf/INDEX.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/protobufs/gen_pb/google/protobuf/compiler /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/protobufs/gen_pb/google/protobuf/compiler/INDEX.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/protobufs/gen_pb/google/protobuf/compiler/plugin_pb.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/protobufs/gen_pb/google/protobuf/descriptor_pb.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/protobufs/protoc-gen-swipl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/protobufs.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/pwp.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/rdf.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/rdf_diagram.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/rdf_parser.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/rdf_triple.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/rdf_write.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/redis.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/redis_streams.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/rewrite_term.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/rlimit.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/sched.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/INDEX.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/dc.rdfs /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/eor.rdfs /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/owl.owl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf11.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf11_containers.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_cache.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_compare.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_db.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_edit.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_http_plugin.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_library.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_library.ttl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_litindex.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_ntriples.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_persistency.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_portray.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_prefixes.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_sandbox.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_turtle.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_turtle_write.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdf_zlib_plugin.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdfa.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdfs.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/rdfs.rdfs /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/sparql_client.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/semweb/turtle.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/sgml.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/sgml_write.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/sha.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/snowball.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/socket.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/stomp.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/streaminfo.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/streampool.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/sweep_link.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/syslog.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/table.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/table_util.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/term_to_json.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/test_cover.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/test_wizard.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/time.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/udp_broadcast.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/uid.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/unicode.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/unix.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/uri.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/uuid.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/xpath.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/xsdp_types.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/zlib.pl /usr/lib/swi-prolog/test /usr/lib/swi-prolog/test/packages /usr/lib/swi-prolog/test/packages/mqi /usr/lib/swi-prolog/test/packages/mqi/python /usr/lib/swi-prolog/test/packages/mqi/python/swiplserver /usr/lib/swi-prolog/test/packages/mqi/python/swiplserver/ __init__.py /usr/lib/swi-prolog/test/packages/mqi/python/swiplserver/prologmqi.py /usr/lib/swi-prolog/test/packages/mqi/python/test_prologserver.py /usr/share /usr/share/doc /usr/share/doc/swi-prolog-core-packages /usr/share/doc/swi-prolog-core-packages/copyright /usr/share/lintian /usr/share/lintian/overrides /usr/share/lintian/overrides/swi-prolog-core-packages /usr/share/texmf /usr/share/texmf/tex /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/swi-prolog /usr/lib/swi-prolog/library/http/web/js/jquery-1.11.3.min.js /usr/share/doc/swi-prolog-core-packages/NEWS.Debian.gz /usr/share/doc/swi-prolog-core-packages/changelog.Debian.gz /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/swi-prolog/pldoc.sty ```` But…: Among the header files installed through the _Official Ubuntu Repository_, there are SWI-cpp.h and SWI-cpp2.h but there is **no SWI-Prolog.h**. And there is **no `libswipl.so` or `swipl.so` file** Is this fine? In CMakeLists.txt I’ve set the include folder : ```prolog target_include_directories(${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC /usr/lib/swi-prolog/include ) ``` In main.cpp : ```prolog //#include “SWI-Prolog.h” #include “SWI-cpp2.h” ``` Compiling I get error messages : ```prolog In file included from /home/raphy/Grasp/src/main.cpp:72: /usr/lib/swi-prolog/include/SWI-cpp2.h:1645:16: error: expected nested-name-specifier before ‘PL_av’ 1645 | #define PL_A1 PL_av[0] | ^ ~~~~ /usr/lib/swi-prolog/include/SWI-cpp2.h:1657:17: note: in expansion of macro ‘PL_A1’ 1657 | #define A1 PL_A1 ``` And by the way `SWI-cpp2.h` seems also to interfere with another library installed : ```prolog /home/raphy/Grasp/builddir/_deps/dlib-src/dlib/../dlib/bayes_utils/../string/../algs.h:692: note: in expansion of macro ‘A1’ 692 | template class funct_wrap3 /usr/lib/swi-prolog/include/SWI-cpp2.h:1646:16: error: expected nested-name-specifier before ‘PL_av’ 1646 | #define PL_A2 PL_av[1] | ^ ~~~~ /usr/lib/swi-prolog/include/SWI-cpp2.h:1658:17: note: in expansion of macro ‘PL_A2’ 1658 | #define A2 PL_A2 | ^ ~~~~ /home/raphy/Grasp/builddir/_deps/dlib-src/dlib/../dlib/bayes_utils/../string/../algs.h:692: note: in expansion of macro ‘A2’ 692 | template class funct_wrap3 /usr/lib/swi-prolog/include/SWI-cpp2.h:1645:16: error: ‘PL_av’ has not been declared 1645 | #define PL_A1 PL_av[0] The same if I include "SWI-cpp.h" instead of SWI-cpp2.h ``` So.. I removed the package : ````prolog ``` raphy@raphy:~$ sudo apt-get remove swi-prolog-core-packages Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required: swi-prolog-core Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it. The following packages will be REMOVED: swi-prolog-core-packages 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 5 not upgraded. After this operation, 8,589 kB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y (Reading database ... 228423 files and directories currently installed.) Removing swi-prolog-core-packages (9.0.4+dfsg-3.1ubuntu4) ```` ---
**Author:** ![jan](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/jan/32/4_2.png) [@jan](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/jan)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2026, 11:25am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/17 "2026-05-16T11:25:16Z")
> [@Raphy](#): > > And there is **no `libswipl.so` or `swipl.so` file** > > Is this fine? `swipl.so` does not exist. `swipl` is the executable. `libswipl.so` is part of one of the other packages as it is the core, not a core package. But then, it seems you can compile a properly working version. Why also install the PPA? Best you can get is a number of different versions in different places with the risk to mix them up and get something not working. - Built and install swi-prolog from source (that worked) - Use find\_package(SWIPL), after pointing cmake to include `/lib/cmake/swipl` Here is a very minimal example that links against SWI-Prolog installed with `` `/home/jan/cmake/build` CMakeLists.txt ```prolog cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.22.0) project(test) set(CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH /home/jan/cmake/build/lib/cmake/swipl) find_package(SWIPL) add_executable(test test.c) target_link_libraries(test swipl::libswipl) ``` test.c ```prolog #include int main(int argc, char **argv) { if ( !PL_initialise(argc, argv) ) PL_halt(1); return !PL_toplevel(); } ``` This creates an executable test that simply executes the normal Prolog toplevel. ---
**Author:** ![Raphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Raphy](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Raphy)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2026, 1:45pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/18 "2026-05-16T13:45:02Z")
Steps followed: ```prolog raphy@raphy:~$ git clone --recurse-submodule https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel.git raphy@raphy:~$ cd swipl-devel/ raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ git submodule update raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ git submodule init raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake -DINSTALL_DOCUMENTATION=OFF -GNinja -B builddir -S . raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ cmake --build builddir -j10 raphy@raphy:~/swipl-devel$ sudo cmake --install builddir/ -- Install configuration: "RelWithDebInfo" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/usr/local/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl" to "/usr/local/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/usr/local/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux/libswipl.so.10.1.7" to "/usr/local/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/usr/local/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl-win" to "/usr/local/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" -- Set non-toolchain portion of runtime path of "/usr/local/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl-ld" to "/usr/local/lib/swipl/lib/x86_64-linux" raphy@raphy:/usr/local/lib/swipl$ ls ABI app bin boot boot.prc cmake customize demo doc include lib library LICENSE README.md swipl.home raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ nano CMakeLists.txt : set (CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH /usr/local/lib/swipl/cmake/swipl) find_package(SWIPL) target_link_libraries (${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC swipl::libswipl ) in main.cpp : #include "SWI-Prolog.h char *av[10]; int ac = 0; av[ac++] = "/usr/local/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl"; av[ac++] = "-x"; av[ac++] = "/usr/local/lib/swipl/boot.prc"; av[ac] = NULL; PL_initialise(ac, av); PL_halt(PL_toplevel() ? 0 : 1); ``` Result: ```prolog raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ ./builddir/Grasp Current path: "/home/raphy/Grasp" Welcome to SWI-Prolog (threaded, 64 bits, version 10.1.7-23-g72633bbb4) SWI-Prolog comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software. Please run ?- license. for legal details. For online help and background, visit https://www.swi-prolog.org ``` Is this the normal standard swi-prolog top level ? I still miss how to call and execute prolog within C++, without abandoning my C++ program: how to call a simple prolog statement/function within my C++ program? PS: If I change in main.cpp the path to swipl executable and to `boot.prc`to : ````prolog //av[ac++] = "/usr/local/lib/swipl/bin/x86_64-linux/swipl"; av[ac++] = "./bin/x86_64-linux/swipl"; av[ac++] = "-x"; //av[ac++] = "/usr/local/lib/swipl/boot.prc"; av[ac++] = "./boot.prc"; av[ac] = NULL; PL_initialise(ac, av); PL_halt(PL_toplevel() ? 0 : 1); I get the usual error message: ```raphy@raphy:~/Grasp$ ./builddir/Grasp Current path: "/home/raphy/Grasp" [FATAL ERROR: at Sat May 16 16:01:58 2026 Could not open resource database "./boot.prc": No such file or directory] Aborted (core dumped) ```` ---
**Author:** ![peter.ludemann](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/peter.ludemann/32/48_2.png) [@peter.ludemann](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/peter.ludemann)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2026, 6:25pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/19 "2026-05-16T18:25:46Z")
> [@jan](#): > > It doesn’t clone the submodules. To build from git, you need to init the submodules (recursively). `git clone --recurse` works without a separate `git update --init --recursive`; and `git pull --recurse` works for updating. (The documentation at [SWI-Prolog -- Installation on Linux, \*BSD (Unix)](https://www.swi-prolog.org/build/unix.html) is a bit outdated / inconsistent) ---
**Author:** ![jan](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/jan/32/4_2.png) [@jan](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/jan)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 7:13am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620/20 "2026-05-17T07:13:20Z")
> [@peter.ludemann](#): > > (The documentation at [SWI-Prolog – Installation on Linux, \*BSD (Unix)](https://www.swi-prolog.org/build/unix.html) is a bit outdated / inconsistent) What is wrong with it? If you see things that can be improved, please file a PR against [GitHub - SWI-Prolog/plweb-www: Submodule of plweb.git that contains the (wiki) web-pages · GitHub](https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/plweb-www.git) [Next page](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-swipl-within-my-c-program/9620.md?page=2)