Integrate Licensecc in your application

This guide shows how to integrate licensecc into a C++ application, expanding the content of quickstart.

Working examples are provided in the examples project.

Step 1 — Locate and link the library (CMake)

Two integration methods are supported.

Method A — add_subdirectory (recommended)

Add licensecc as a git submodule and include it directly in your build. This is the simplest approach — no find_package or extra CMake modules needed.

cd /path/to/your/project
git submodule add https://github.com/open-license-manager/licensecc.git submodules/licensecc
git submodule update --init --recursive

In your CMakeLists.txt:

add_subdirectory(submodules/licensecc)
add_executable(my_app src/main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(my_app PRIVATE licensecc::licensecc)

This is the method used in the basic_features examples

Method B — find_package

Use this method when licensecc is built and installed externally (not as a submodule). This usually makes your build a bit faster.

find_package(licensecc 2.1.0 REQUIRED)
add_executable(my_app src/main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(my_app PRIVATE licensecc::licensecc)

Parameters to pass to cmake in the configuration

CMake variable	Description
CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH	Installation prefix of licensecc (the folder passed to -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX when you built the library). This lets find_package locate the package.
licensecc_DIR	Direct path to the directory containing licensecc-config.cmake, i.e. $LCC_INSTALLATION_DIR/lib/cmake/licensecc. Use this if find_package still cannot find the library.
LCC_PROJECT_NAME	Name of the project (the software being licensed). It must match the project name you used when you compiled licensecc. If you didn’t specify one, leave it unset and the default DEFAULT is used.

The directory structure created by make install looks like this:

$CMAKE_INSTALL_PATH
   ├── bin
   │   ├── <<PROJECT_NAME>>                        <--- "DEFAULT"
   │   │   └── lccinspector
   │   ├── lccgen -> lccgen-2.1.0
   │   └── lccgen-2.1.0
   ├── include
   │   └── licensecc
   │       ├── datatypes.h
   │       ├── <<PROJECT_NAME>>
   │       │   ├── licensecc_properties.h
   │       │   └── public_key.h
   │       └── licensecc.h
   └── lib
      ├── cmake
      │   └── licensecc                           <--- Point your licensecc_DIR here
      │       ├── licensecc-config.cmake
      │       └── licensecc-config-version.cmake
      └── licensecc
         └── <<PROJECT_NAME>>
            ├── cmake
            │   ├── licensecc.cmake
            │   └── licensecc-debug.cmake
            └── liblicensecc.a

Debugging find_package

If find_package(licensecc ...) fails, use CMake’s built-in debugging output to see exactly where it searches:

cmake .. -DCMAKE_FIND_DEBUG_MODE=ON

A complete working example using this method is available in the simple_pc_identifier project.

Call Licensecc from your code

The public API is declared in include/licensecc/licensecc.h. The two main entry points are:

• identify_pc() — compute a hardware identifier for the current machine.

• acquire_license() — locate, parse, and verify a license file.

A typical usage pattern:

#include <licensecc/licensecc.h>

LicenseInfo licenseInfo;
LCC_EVENT_TYPE result = acquire_license(nullptr, nullptr, &licenseInfo);

if (result == LICENSE_OK) {
    // License is valid -- proceed
} else if (result == LICENSE_FILE_NOT_FOUND) {
    // No license found -- print hardware identifier so the user can request one
    char pc_identifier[LCC_API_PC_IDENTIFIER_SIZE + 1];
    size_t pc_id_sz = sizeof(pc_identifier);
    if (identify_pc(STRATEGY_DEFAULT, pc_identifier, &pc_id_sz, nullptr)) {
        std::cout << "Hardware ID: " << pc_identifier << std::endl;
    }
    exit(1);
}

For a complete working example with error handling and event-type mapping, see the basic features examples on GitHub.

See the public api reference for full documentation of all types and functions.