`vix run` fails on macOS after clean install — OpenSSL resolution + stale `.vix-scripts` cache

[andrewssobral]

Title

vix run fails on macOS after clean install — OpenSSL resolution + stale .vix-scripts cache

Description

After a clean clone, build, and install on macOS (Apple Silicon, Homebrew), vix run server.cpp fails with CMake errors. Two separate issues compound to make debugging difficult.

Environment

• macOS (Apple Silicon / M1)
• Homebrew dependencies: cmake 4.x, openssl@3, spdlog, fmt, nlohmann-json, brotli
• Vix v2.2.0 (built from source, installed to ~/.local)

Steps to reproduce

# 1. Clone and build
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/vixcpp/vix.git
cd vix
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j
cmake --install build --prefix "$HOME/.local"

# 2. Try running an example
mkdir ~/vix-examples && cd ~/vix-examples
cat > server.cpp << 'EOF'
#include <vix/core.h>
int main() {
    vix::App app;
    app.get("/", [](auto& req, auto& res) { res.send("Hello"); });
    app.listen(8080);
}
EOF

vix run server.cpp

Bug 1: VixConfig.cmake exports OpenSSL as REQUIRED even though it's optional

When OpenSSL is found during the build, VIX_WITH_OPENSSL is set to ON, and the installed VixConfig.cmake ends up with:

# Line 34 in installed VixConfig.cmake
if (ON)
  find_dependency(OpenSSL REQUIRED)
endif()

On macOS, Homebrew's openssl@3 is keg-only — it's not on the default system search paths. So when a consumer project runs find_dependency(OpenSSL REQUIRED), it fails unless the user manually sets OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR or CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH.

Additionally, the exported VixTargets.cmake hardcodes OpenSSL::SSL and OpenSSL::Crypto in the link interface of vix::core and vix::crypto, so even if find_dependency is removed, the generate step still fails.

Expected behavior: Either:

• VixConfig.cmake should include a Homebrew hint (e.g., check brew --prefix openssl@3) so consumers can find it automatically, or
• OpenSSL should be off by default for the install/export path on macOS, or
• The config should gracefully handle the case where OpenSSL was available at build time but not resolvable by consumers

Bug 2: vix run reuses stale .vix-scripts/ cache after SDK reinstall

vix run creates a .vix-scripts/ directory with a CMake build cache. After rebuilding and reinstalling Vix (e.g., with -DVIX_CORE_WITH_OPENSSL=OFF), the stale cache in .vix-scripts/ still references the old installed VixTargets.cmake. This causes the same error to persist even after the fix has been installed.

The user must manually rm -rf .vix-scripts to pick up the new installation, which is not obvious.

Expected behavior: vix run should detect when the installed Vix SDK has changed (e.g., by checking a version hash or timestamp of the installed cmake files) and invalidate the cache automatically.

Workaround

# Rebuild without OpenSSL and MySQL
rm -rf build
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DVIX_DB_USE_MYSQL=OFF \
  -DVIX_CORE_WITH_OPENSSL=OFF
cmake --build build -j
cmake --install build --prefix "$HOME/.local"

# Clear stale consumer cache
rm -rf ~/vix-examples/.vix-scripts

# Now it works
cd ~/vix-examples
vix run server.cpp

Related

A similar issue exists with VIX_DB_USE_MYSQL which defaults to ON — the installed config requires MySQLCppConn even if the user doesn't need MySQL support. This was fixed by passing -DVIX_DB_USE_MYSQL=OFF at build time.

[GaspardKirira]

This has been mostly fixed.

• vix run now uses a fast path for simple scripts (no unnecessary CMake)
• Vix runtime scripts are correctly detected and linked
• MySQL is no longer required by default for consumers

Remaining:

• OpenSSL resolution on macOS still needs improvement
• .vix-scripts cache is not yet auto-invalidated after reinstall

Main execution and linking issues are resolved.

[GaspardKirira]

Hello, this is now fixed in v2.3.1.
You can try it again and let me know if anything still looks off.
Thanks again for the report.