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researching the subject have difficulty determining which advice is up to date and which approaches have already been replaced by easier, better practices.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

Working with Git repositories

Many projects rely on Git as a version control system. Assuming that our project and external library are both using it, is there some kind of Git magic that would allow us to link these repositories together? Can we build a specific (or latest) version of the library as a step toward building our project? If so, how?

Providing external libraries through Git submodules

One possible solution is to use a mechanism built into Git called Git submodules. Submodules allow a project repository to use other Git repositories without actually adding the referenced files to the project repository. They work similarly to soft links – they point to a specific branch or commit in an external repository (but you need to update them explicitly). To add a submodule to your repository (and clone its repository), execute the following command:

git submodule add <repository-url>

If you pulled a repository that already has submodules, you'll...