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researching the subject have difficulty determining which advice is up to date and which approaches have already been replaced by easier, better practices.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

The string() command

The string() command is used to manipulate strings. It comes with a variety of modes that perform different actions on the string: search and replace, manipulation, comparison, hashing, generation, and JSON operations (the last one available since CMake 3.19).

Full details can be found in the online documentation: https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/command/string.html.

string() modes that accept the <input> argument will accept multiple <input> values and concatenate them before the execution of the command:

string(PREPEND myVariable "a" "b" "c")

This is the equivalent of the following:

string(PREPEND myVariable "abc")

Let's explore all available string() modes.

Search and replace

The following modes are available:

  • string(FIND <haystack> <pattern> <out> [REVERSE]) searches for <pattern> in the <haystack> string and writes the position found as...