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researching the subject have difficulty determining which advice is up to date and which approaches have already been replaced by easier, better practices.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

Configuring the optimizer

The optimizer will analyze the output of previous stages and use a multitude of tricks, which programmers would consider dirty, as they don't adhere to clean-code principles. That's okay – the critical role of the optimizer is to make code performant (that is, use few CPU cycles, few registers, and less memory). As the optimizer goes through the source code, it will transform it heavily so that it almost becomes unrecognizable. It turns into a specially prepared version for the target CPU.

The optimizer will not only decide which functions could be removed or compacted; it will also move code around or even significantly duplicate it! If it can determine with full certainty that some lines of code are meaningless, it will wipe them out from the middle of an important function (you won't even notice). It will reuse memory, so numerous variables can occupy the same slot in different periods of time. And it will transform your control...