The code for this recipe is available at https://github.com/dev-cafe/cmake-cookbook/tree/v1.0/chapter-03/recipe-01. The recipe is valid with CMake version 3.5 (and higher) and has been tested on GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Python is a very popular dynamic language. Many projects package tools written in Python together with their main programs and libraries, or use Python scripts in the configuration or build process. In such cases, it is important to ensure that the runtime dependency on the Python interpreter is also satisfied. This recipe will show how to detect and use the Python interpreter at the configuration step. We will introduce the find_package command, which will be used throughout this chapter.
