Embed binary files and resources (such as GLSL shader source files) into C++ projects. Uses C++11 features but no other library/dependencies.

Use CPM to add this to your CMakeLists.txt:

include(cmake/CPM.cmake)
CPMAddPackage("gh:CodeFinder2/embed-resource#master")

Now you can add your resources, by calling the provided embed_resources() function in your CMakeLists.txt file:

embed_resources(MyResources shaders/vertex.glsl shaders/frag.glsl)

Then add the generated source files, containing the resources, to your binary by adding the created variable to your add_executable() statement and linking against embed_resource:

add_executable(your_target_name ${SOURCE_FILES} ${MyResources})
target_link_libraries(your_target_name embed_resource)

In your C++ project, you can access your embed resources using the Resource class provided in embed_resource/loader.h. Here's an example:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

#include <embed_resource/loader.h>

int main()
{
  Resource text = LOAD_RESOURCE(shaders_frag_glsl);
  cout << text.toString() << endl;

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Note: to reference the file, replace the . in frag.glsl with an underscore _. So, in this example, the symbol name is shaders_frag_glsl.

An example is provided in the example/ directory. It can be compiled and started as follows:

mkdir build && cd build/
cmake -DEMBED_RESOURCE_BUILD_EXAMPLE=ON .. && make -j$(nproc)
./embed_resource_example

• embed_resources() can only be called once.
• Resource names cannot be modified and must match the provided (and properly modified) path to the resource file.

Forked and improved from here.

Public Domain / WTFPL