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researching the subject have difficulty determining which advice is up to date and which approaches have already been replaced by easier, better practices.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

We have completed yet another chapter! There is no doubt that compilation is a complex process. With all its edge cases and specific requirements, it can be difficult to manage without a good tool. Thankfully, CMake is doing a great job in supporting us here.

What have we learned so far? We started by discussing what compilation is and where it fits in the larger story of building and running applications in the operating system. We then examined what the stages of compilation are and the internal tools that manage them. This is very useful in resolving all the issues in more advanced cases that we might encounter down the line.

Then, we looked at how to ask CMake to verify whether the compiler available on the host is meeting all the necessary requirements for our code to build. As we have already established, it's a much better experience for users of our solution to see a friendly message asking them to upgrade, rather than some arcane error printed by an old...