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CMake Best Practices
CMake Best Practices

CMake Best Practices: Upgrade your C++ builds with CMake for maximum efficiency and scalability , Second Edition

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Profile Icon Dominik Berner Profile Icon Mustafa Kemal Gilor
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CMake Best Practices

Kickstarting CMake

If you’re developing software using C++ or C, you have probably heard about CMake before. Over the last 20 years, CMake has evolved into something that’s an industry standard when it comes to building C++ applications. But CMake is more than just a build system – it is a build system generator, which means it produces instructions for other build systems such as Makefile, Ninja, Visual Studio, QtCreator, Android Studio, and XCode. It does not stop at building software – CMake also includes features that support installing, packaging, and testing software.

As a de facto industry standard, CMake is a must-know technology for any C++ programmer.

In this chapter, you will get a high-level overview of what CMake is and learn about the necessary basics to build your first program. We will have a look at CMake’s build process and provide an overview of how to use the CMake language to configure build processes.

In this chapter...

Technical requirements

To run the examples in this chapter, you will need a recent C++ compiler that understands C++17. Although the examples are not complex enough to require the functionality of the new standard, the examples have been set up accordingly.

We recommend using any of the compilers listed here to run the examples:

  • Linux: GCC 9 or newer, Clang 10 or newer
  • Windows: MSVC 19 or newer or MinGW 9.0.0 or newer
  • macOS: AppleClang 10 or newer

The complete samples used in this chapter can be found at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/CMake-Best-Practices---2nd-Edition/tree/main/chapter01

Note

To try out any examples in this book, we have provided a ready-made Docker container that contains all the requirements.

You can find it at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/CMake-Best-Practices---2nd-Edition.

CMake in a nutshell

CMake is open source and available on many platforms. It is also compiler-independent, making it a very strong tool when it comes to building and distributing cross-platform software. All these features make it a valuable tool for building software in a modern way – that is, by relying heavily on build automation and built-in quality gates.

CMake consists of three command-line tools:

  • cmake: CMake itself, which is used to generate build instructions
  • ctest: CMake’s test utility, which is used to detect and run tests
  • cpack: CMake’s packaging tool, which is used to pack software into convenient installers, such as DEB, RPM, and self-extracting installers

There are also two interactive tools:

  • cmake-gui: A GUI frontend to help with configuring projects
  • ccmake: An interactive terminal UI for configuring CMake

The cmake-gui tool can be used to conveniently configure a CMake build and select the compiler to...

Installing CMake

CMake is freely available to download from https://cmake.org/download/. It is available as either a precompiled binary or as source code. For most use cases, the precompiled binary is fully sufficient, but since CMake itself has very few dependencies, building a version is also possible.

Any major Linux distribution offers CMake over its package repositories. Although the pre-packaged versions of CMake are not usually the latest releases, these installations are often sufficient to use if the system is regularly updated. Another convenient way to install CMake is by using pip, the Python package manager.

Note

The minimum version of CMake to use with the examples in this book is 3.23. We recommend that you download the appropriate version of CMake manually to ensure that you get the correct version.

Building CMake from source

CMake is written in C++ and uses Make to build itself. Building CMake from scratch is possible, but for most use cases, using the...

Building your first project

Now, it’s time to get your hands dirty and see if your installation worked. We have provided an example of a simple hello world project that you can download and build right away. Open a console, type in the following, and you’ll be ready to go:

git clone   https://github.com/PacktPublishing/CMake-Best-Practices---2nd-Edition.git
cd CMake-Best-Practices---2nd-Edition/chapter01/simple_executable
cmake -S . -B build
cmake -–build ./build

This will result in an executable called ch_simple_executable that prints out Welcome to CMake Best Practices on the console.

Let’s have a detailed look at what happened here:

First, the example repository is checked out using Git. The file structure of the example CMake project located in the chapter01/simple_executable subfolder will look like this before the build:

.
├── CMakeLists.txt
└── src
    └...

Understanding the CMake build process

CMake’s build process works in two steps, as shown in the following diagram. First, if it’s invoked without any special flags, CMake scans the system for any usable toolchains during the configuration process and then decides what its output should be. The second step, which is when cmake --build is invoked, is the actual compilation and building process:

Figure 1.3 – CMake’s two-stage build process

Figure 1.3 – CMake’s two-stage build process

The standard output is Unix Makefiles unless the only detected compiler is Microsoft Visual Studio, in which case a Visual Studio solution (.sln) will be created.

To change the generator, you can pass the -G option to CMake, like this:

cmake .. -G Ninja

This will generate files to be used with Ninja (https://ninja-build.org/), an alternative build generator. Many generators are available for CMake. A list of the ones that are supported natively can be found on CMake’s website...

Writing CMake files

When you’re writing CMake files, there are a few core concepts and language features that you need to know about. We won’t cover every detail of the language here as CMake’s documentation does a pretty good job at this – especially when it comes to being comprehensive. In the following sections, we will provide an overview of the core concepts and language features. Further chapters will dive into the details of different aspects.

The full documentation for the language can be found at https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-language.7.html.

The CMake language – a 10,000-foot overview

CMake uses configuration files called CMakeLists.txt files to determine build specifications. These files are written in a scripting language, often called CMake as well. The language itself is simple and supports variables, string functions, macros, function definitions, and importing other CMake files.

Apart from lists, there...

Different toolchains and build types

The power of CMake comes from the fact that you can use the same build specification – that is, CMakeLists.txt – for various compiler toolchains without the need to rewrite anything. A toolchain typically consists of a series of programs that can compile and link binaries, as well as create archives and similar.

CMake supports a variety of languages that the toolchains can be configured for. In this book, we will focus on C++. Configuring the toolchain for different programming languages is done by replacing the CXX part of the following variables with the respective language tag:

  • C
  • CXX – C++
  • CUDA
  • OBJC – Objective C
  • OBJCXX – Objective C++
  • Fortran
  • HIP – HIP C++ runtime API for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs
  • ISPC – C-Based SPMD programming language
  • ASM – Assembler

If a project does not specify its language, it’s assumed that C and CXX are being used...

Maintaining good build configurations with presets

A common problem when building software with CMake is how to share good or working configurations to build a project. Often, people and teams have a preferred way of where the build artifacts should go, which generator to use on which platform, or just the desire that the CI environment should use the same settings to build as they do locally. Since CMake 3.19 came out in December 2020, this information can be stored in CMakePresets.json files, which are placed in the root directory of a project. Additionally, each user can superimpose their configuration with a CMakeUserPresets.json file. The basic presets are usually placed under version control, but the user presets are not checked into the version system. Both files follow the same JSON format, with the top-level outline being as follows:

{
"version": 6,
"cmakeMinimumRequired": {
"major": 3,
"minor": 23,
"patch": 0
},
"configurePresets...

Summary

In this chapter, we provided you with a brief overview of CMake. First, you learned how to install and run a simple build. Then, you learned about the two-stage build process of CMake and single-configuration and multi-configuration generators.

By now, you should be able to build the examples provided in this book’s GitHub repository at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/CMake-Best-Practices---2nd-Edition. You learned about the core features of the CMake language, such as variables, targets, and policies. We briefly covered functions and macros, as well as conditional statements and loops for flow control. As you continue reading this book, you will use what you have learned so far to discover further good practices and techniques to move from simple one-target projects to complex software projects that keep being maintainable through a good CMake setup.

In the next chapter, we will learn how some of the most common tasks in CMake can be performed and how CMake...

Further reading

To learn more about the topics that were covered in this chapter, take a look at the following resources:

Questions

Answer the following questions to test your knowledge of this chapter:

  1. How do you start the configure step of CMake?
  2. What is the difference between single-configuration and multi-configuration generators?
  3. How do you start the build step of CMake?
  4. Which executable from CMake can be used to run tests?
  5. Which executable from CMake is used for packaging?
  6. What are targets in CMake?
  7. What is the difference between properties and variables?
  8. What are CMake presets used for?

Answers

The following are the answers to the preceding questions:

  1. You can start the configure step of CMake with the following command:

    cmake -S /path/to/source -B /path/to/build

  2. Single-configuration generators will only generate build files for one type of build, such as debug or release builds. Multi-configuration generators will generate build instructions for all available build types in one go.
  3. You can start the build step of CMake using:
    cmake -build /path/to/build
  4. The following executable from CMake can be used to run tests:
    ctest
  5. The following executable from CMake is used for packaging:
    cpack
  6. Targets in CMake are logical units around which CMake organizes a build. They can be executables, libraries, or contain custom commands.
  7. Unlike variables, properties are attached to a specific object or scope.
  8. CMake presets are used to share working configurations for a build.
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Key benefits

  • Master CMake, from basics to advanced techniques, for seamless project management
  • Gain practical insights and best practices to tackle real-world CMake challenges
  • Implement advanced strategies for optimizing and maintaining large-scale CMake projects
  • Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Description

Discover the cutting-edge advancements in CMake with the new edition of CMake Best Practices. This book focuses on real-world applications and techniques to leverage CMake, avoiding outdated hacks and overwhelming documentation. You’ll learn how to use CMake presets for streamlined project configurations and embrace modern package management with Conan 2.0. Covering advanced methods to integrate third-party libraries and optimize cross-platform builds, this updated edition introduces new tools and techniques to enhance software quality, including testing frameworks, fuzzers, and automated documentation generation. Through hands-on examples, you’ll become proficient in structuring complex projects, ensuring that your builds run smoothly across different environments. Whether you’re integrating tools for continuous integration or packaging software for distribution, this book equips you with the skills needed to excel in modern software development. By the end of the book, you’ll have mastered setting up and maintaining robust software projects using CMake to streamline your development workflow and produce high-quality software.

Who is this book for?

This book is for software engineers and build system maintainers working with C or C++ who want to optimize their workflow using CMake. It's also valuable for those looking to enhance their understanding of structuring and managing CMake projects efficiently. Basic knowledge of C++ and general programming is recommended to fully grasp the examples and techniques covered in the book.

What you will learn

  • Architect a well-structured CMake project
  • Modularize and reuse CMake code across projects
  • Use the latest CMake features for presets and dependency management
  • Integrate tools for static analysis, linting, formatting, and documentation into a CMake project
  • Execute hands-on cross-platform builds and seamless toolchain integration
  • Implement automated fuzzing techniques to enhance code robustness
  • Streamline your CI/CD pipelines with effective CMake configurations
  • Craft a well-defined and portable build environment for your project
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Table of Contents

20 Chapters
Part 1 – The Basics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 1: Kickstarting CMake Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 2: Accessing CMake in the Best Ways Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 3: Creating a CMake Project Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Part 2 – Practical CMake – Getting Your Hands Dirty with CMake Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 4: Packaging, Deploying, and Installing a CMake Project Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 5: Integrating Third-Party Libraries and Dependency Management Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 6: Automatically Generating Documentation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 7: Seamlessly Integrating Code Quality Tools with CMake Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 8: Executing Custom Tasks with CMake Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 9: Creating Reproducible Build Environments Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 10: Handling Distributed Repositories and Dependencies in a Super-Build Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 11: Creating Software for Apple Systems Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Part 3 – Mastering the Details Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 12: Cross-Platform-Compiling Custom Toolchains Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 13: Reusing CMake Code Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 14: Optimizing and Maintaining CMake Projects Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 15: Migrating to CMake Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
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