Using a compiler other than cl.exe in Windows 10 to compile .cu files

Accelerated Computing CUDA CUDA Setup and Installation
1

I am trying to use GCC to compile with nvcc as opposed to cl.exe using the command

nvcc -c -o depthconv_cuda_kernel.o depthconv_cuda_kernel.cu --compiler-bindir “C:\Program Files\mingw-w64\x86_64-8.1.0-posix-seh-rt_v6-rev0\mingw64\bin” --allow-unsupported-compiler -x cu -Xcompiler -fPIC -std c++11 --gpu-architecture=compute_86 --gpu-code=sm_86 -DGPU -I"C:/Program Files/NVIDIA GPU Computing Toolkit/CUDA/v11.1/include" -DCUDNN --compiler-options “-DGPU -DCUDNN -fPIC”

I need gcc for the command line options std c++11 as well as -fPIC . It seems nvcc is still looking for MSVC’s cl.exe, how can I change this so it uses the GCC compiler I need?

I get the message:
Failed to run C:/Program Files/mingw-w64/x86_64-8.1.0-posix-seh-rt_v6-rev0/mingw64/bin/cl.exe (The system cannot find the file specified.
).
nvcc fatal : Failed to preprocess host compiler properties.

2

The system cannot find the file specified

This reads like a message coming directly from the OS. Is the full path correct (no typos)? Have you tried adding MinGW-w64’s bin directory to the PATH environment variable?

I assume that you are aware that you are in uncharted territory because MinGW-w64 is not a toolchain supported by CUDA.

3

I have recently been aware of this, so ultimately it seems the answer is I can’t compile with MinGW-w64.

4

I wouldn’t quite go that far. There may be a way of configuring and hacking nvcc until you get it to work with MinGW-w64. I haven’t tried, and probably very people have. However, if you should get to the point where things seem to work and things go wrong later, e.g. a code generation bug, there will be essentially nobody to help you with that.

Is there a particular reason you cannot use MSVC?

5

It’s possible that the path to the cl.exe is too long for some process in the chain. Try moving Ming64 closer to root and adjust the PATH-setting accordingly.

6

Well, I am was trying to replicate a compilation that used the -fPIC and -std c++11 flags to the compiler just to copy some code without any changes that could be problematic down the line, I realize now that I’m not sure this is necessary since Windows .dlls apparently don’t need -fPIC and cl.exe natively supports c++11, I believe. I am new to all this, so if anything I’ve said doesn’t make sense I apologize.

7

As far as I know, MSVC 2019 has full support for C++11. To my knowledge, there is no equivalent to -fPIC because Windows DLLs work differently than Linux DSOs, i.e. it’s not applicable.