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researching the subject have difficulty determining which advice is up to date and which approaches have already been replaced by easier, better practices.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

This command provides all kinds of operations related to files: reading, transferring, locking, and archiving. It also provides modes to inspect the filesystem and operations on strings representing paths.

Full details can be found in the online documentation:

https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/command/file.html

Reading

The following modes are available:

  • file(READ <filename> <out> [OFFSET <o>] [LIMIT <max>] [HEX]) reads the file from <filename> to the <out> variable. The read optionally starts at offset <o> and follows the optional limit of <max> bytes. The HEX flag specifies that output should be converted to hexadecimal representation.
  • file(STRINGS <filename> <out>) reads strings from the file at <filename> to the <out> variable.
  • file(<algorithm> <filename> <out>) computes the <algorithm> hash from the file at <filename> and stores...