Setting Up the C++ SDK

The Vertica C++ Software Development Kit (SDK) is distributed as part of the server installation. It contains the source and header files you need to create your UDx library. For examples that you can compile and run, see Downloading and Running UDx Example Code. For requirements for your development environment, see Setting Up a Development Environment.

The SDK files are located in the sdk subdirectory under the root Vertica server directory (usually, /opt/vertica/sdk). This directory contains a subdirectory, include, which contains the headers and source files needed to compile UDx libraries.

There are two files in the include directory you need when compiling your UDx:

  • Vertica.h is the main header file for the SDK. Your UDx code needs to include this file in order to find the SDK's definitions.
  • Vertica.cpp contains support code that needs to be compiled into the UDx library.

Much of the Vertica SDK API is defined in the VerticaUDx.h header file (which is included by the Vertica.h file). If you're curious, you might want to review the contents of this file in addition to reading the API documentation.

Finding the Current SDK Version

You must develop your UDx using the same SDK version as the database in which you plan to use it. To display the SDK version currently installed on your system, run the following command in vsql:

=> SELECT sdk_version();

Running the Examples

You can download the examples from the GitHub repository (see Downloading and Running UDx Example Code). Compiling and running the examples helps you to ensure that your development environment is properly set up.

To compile all of the examples, including the Java examples, issue the following command in the Java-and-C++ directory under the examples directory:

$ make

To compile the examples, you must have a g++ development environment installed. To install a g++ development environment on Red Hat systems, run yum install gcc gcc-c++ make.