Book Image

Modern CMake for C++

By : Rafał Świdziński
5 (2)
Book Image

Modern CMake for C++

5 (2)
By: Rafał Świdziński

Overview of this book

Creating top-notch software is an extremely difficult undertaking. Developers researching the subject have difficulty determining which advice is up to date and which approaches have already been replaced by easier, better practices. At the same time, most online resources offer limited explanation, while also lacking the proper context and structure. This book offers a simpler, more comprehensive, experience as it treats the subject of building C++ solutions holistically. Modern CMake for C++ is an end-to-end guide to the automatization of complex tasks, including building, testing, and packaging. You'll not only learn how to use the CMake language in CMake projects, but also discover what makes them maintainable, elegant, and clean. The book also focuses on the structure of source directories, building targets, and packages. As you progress, you’ll learn how to compile and link executables and libraries, how those processes work, and how to optimize builds in CMake for the best results. You'll understand how to use external dependencies in your project – third-party libraries, testing frameworks, program analysis tools, and documentation generators. Finally, you'll get to grips with exporting, installing, and packaging for internal and external purposes. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to use CMake confidently on a professional level.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Section 1: Introducing CMake
5
Section 2: Building With CMake
10
Section 3: Automating With CMake

Summary

Now you understand what CMake is and how it works; you learned the key components of the CMake tool family and how to install them on a variety of systems. Like a true power user, you know all the ways in which to run CMake through the command line: buildsystem generation, building a project, installing, running scripts, command-line tools, and printing help. You are aware of the CTest, CPack, and GUI applications. This will help you to create projects, with the right perspective, for users and other developers. Additionally, you learned what makes up a project: directories, listfiles, configs, presets, and helper files, along with what to ignore in your VCS. Finally, you took a sneak peek at other non-project files: standalone scripts and modules.

In the next chapter, we will take a deep dive into CMake's programming language. This will allow you to write your own listfiles and open the door to your first script, project, and module.