Using the superbuild pattern

The code for this recipe is available at https://github.com/dev-cafe/cmake-cookbook/tree/v1.0/chapter-08/recipe-01 and has a C++ example. The recipe is valid with CMake version 3.5 (and higher) and has been tested on GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows.

This recipe will introduce the superbuild pattern with a very simple example. We will show how to use the ExternalProject_Add command to build a simple "Hello, World" program.

Getting ready

This recipe will build the "Hello, World" executable from the following source code (hello-world.cpp):

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

std::string say_hello() { return std::string("Hello, CMake superbuild...