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researching the subject have difficulty determining which advice is up to date and which approaches have already been replaced by easier, better practices.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

Chapter 3: Setting Up Your First CMake Project

We have now gathered enough information to start talking about the core function of CMake: building projects. In CMake, a project contains all the source files and configuration necessary to manage the process of bringing our solutions to life. Configuration starts by performing all the checks: whether the target platform is supported, whether it has all the necessary dependencies and tools, and whether the provided compiler works and supports required features.

When that's done, CMake will generate a buildsystem for the build tool of our choice and run it. Source files will be compiled and linked with each other and their dependencies to produce output artifacts.

Projects can be used internally by a group of developers to produce packages that users can install on their systems through package managers or they can be used to provide single-executable installers. Projects can also be shared in an open-source repository so that...