VS Arduino - What determines header files to be included when adding library?

Dec 21^st, 2025 at 10:10am (UTC)

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VS Arduino › Visual Micro › Installation & Troubleshooting › What determines header files to be included when adding library?

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What determines header files to be included when adding library? (Read 2643 times)

Acuario Senior Member Offline Posts: 258 Location: Spain Joined: Aug 28^th, 2015	What determines header files to be included when adding library? Jan 2^nd, 2022 at 8:18am	Print Post
	When adding a library to a sketch, sometimes a bunch of header files are added - in some cases the headers do not seem to exist. For example, adding the modbus-esp8266 library to a project adds the following headers: #include <write.h> #include <read.h> #include <files.h> #include <common.h> #include <ModbusTLS.h> #include <ModbusTCPTemplate.h> #include <ModbusTCP.h> #include <ModbusSettings.h> #include <ModbusRTU.h> #include <ModbusIP_ESP8266.h> #include <ModbusEthernet.h> #include <ModbusEthernet-v1.h> #include <ModbusAPI.h> #include <Modbus.h> #include <darray.h> ..when really all that needs to be added is: #include <ModbusIP_ESP8266.h> Running a compile with the full list then throws an error that <write.h> does not exist (I don't have deep search enabled).' Removing all but the needed include builds correctly.


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Tim@Visual Micro Administrator Offline Posts: 12203 Location: United Kingdom Joined: Apr 10^th, 2010	Re: What determines header files to be included when adding library? Reply #1 - Jan 3^rd, 2022 at 12:30am	Print Post
	The Arduino specification caters for a list of header files to be configured in the "library.properties" text file. The text file is supplied with Arduino v2 format libraries (most are v2, the older v1 is used less these days). If the property is not provided in the library.properties text file then all headers found in the library root (or \src for vs2 libs) are used. The Arduino IDE should use the same logic. You are right you often only need one or two headers depending on which part of the library code you are using. Ideally a library author would put "private" headers in a subfolder of the [library]\src folder. That would simply the library usage for users.


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Acuario Senior Member Offline Posts: 258 Location: Spain Joined: Aug 28^th, 2015	Re: What determines header files to be included when adding library? Reply #2 - Jan 3^rd, 2022 at 5:04pm	Print Post
	Thanks for the explanation. I see some (very few!) libraries.properties do have an includes= section so this makes sense. From what you explain though it doesn't make sense that (in this particular case) there are several headers added that aren't in the src folder (I haven't tried other libraries to see if this is a common occurrence). Specifically with this library the following headers are added that are not in the src folder, and apart from common.h don't seem to exist. #include <write.h> #include <read.h> #include <files.h> #include <common.h> I've looked at all the files in the src folder and none of them include any of the above so why are they added?


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Tim@Visual Micro Administrator Offline Posts: 12203 Location: United Kingdom Joined: Apr 10^th, 2010	Re: What determines header files to be included when adding library? Reply #3 - Jan 4^th, 2022 at 12:40am	Print Post
	Please provide the information request in the yellow box above. That will show from where files are discovered. It is always useful to have this info.


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Acuario Senior Member Offline Posts: 258 Location: Spain Joined: Aug 28^th, 2015	Re: What determines header files to be included when adding library? Reply #4 - Jan 4^th, 2022 at 4:52am	Print Post
	The library is form https://github.com/emelianov/modbus-esp8266 The sketch is the example client.ino The successful build is the unmodified sketch. The fail is when the library is added from 'Add Library' (adds the headers in post #1) I've emailed the build as the forum has no option to attach files


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