CMake

Welcome to CMake, the cross-platform, open-source make system. CMake is used to control the software compilation process using simple platform and compiler independent configuration files. CMake generates native makefiles and workspaces that can be used in the compiler environment of your choice. CMake is quite sophisticated: it is possible to support complex environments requiring system configuration, pre-processor generation, code generation, and template instantiation.

You will find here not only documentation for CMake, but also for CPack and CTest.

CMake

Primary Resources - Look here first!

• Where can I download CMake?
• CMake Documentation
• Useful CMake Variables
• FAQ (Frequently asked questions)
• CMake Mailing List

Development Topics

• Cross compiling
• RPATH handling
• Editors/IDEs with CMake syntax support
• Docs for Specific Project Generators (Eclipse, KDevelop3, CodeBlocks, Makefile)
• Contributed macros
• Module Maintainers
• On variables, lists, strings, maps, regexps, etc.
• Platform Dependent Information
• Documentation for previous releases

Tutorials

Basic Introductions

• A Simple CMake Example
• Cross-Platform Software Development Using CMake
• CMake: The Cross Platform Build System
• Syntax of the CMake language
  • A quick introduction to CMake syntax
  • /Language Syntax (wiki page)

Specific Topics

• How to write platform checks with CMake
  Describes how to implement platform or configure checks with CMake.

• How to find installed software with CMake
  Describes how to search for and then use software packages with CMake.

• How to find and use existing frameworks on OS X
  A quick example to help OS X users find frameworks automatically.

• How to build KDE4 software with CMake

• Qt with CMake
  Explains how to use CMake to build software with Qt4, Qt3 and KDE3.

• How to use CMake for building software with wxWidgets

• Building eCos applications with CMake

Converters from other buildsystems to CMake

All converters listed here are not "complete", i.e. the generated CMake files are not 100% finished, in all cases some work is left for the developer.

automake/autotools/autoconf

• am2cmake (requires Ruby) Converts automake/autotools/libtool based projects to CMake, specialized in converting from KDE 3 to KDE 4, should also work for others. This one has been used for converting the KDE buildsystem to CMake.

• Alternative Automake2CMake (requires PHP) Converts KDevelop projects that use automake to CMake.

autoconf

When converting from autoconf, the generation of "config.h" files can be complex. You may wish to examine the CMake scripts within the gcc-xml project at gcc-xml (XML output of gcc's internal representation). The project builds a modified gcc compiler using CMake. This is an impressive feat of autoconf conversion.

For example, the HAVE_THIS/HAVE_THAT defines used within autoconf projects can be overwhelming when converting a large project. Below is a snippet from the "config.h.in" file within gcc-xml:

/* Define to 1 if you have the `bcopy' function. */

#cmakedefine HAVE_BCOPY @HAVE_BCOPY@

/* Define to 1 if you have the `bsearch' function. */

#cmakedefine HAVE_BSEARCH @HAVE_BSEARCH@

/* Define to 1 if you have the `bzero' function. */

#cmakedefine HAVE_BZERO @HAVE_BZERO@

While not a drop-in tool, their scripts are an excellent starting point. Be sure to reference the code from their CVS repository instead of the out-of-date tarball listed.

qmake

• qmake converter (requires Ruby) Converts projects that use Qt's qmake.

KDE

• gencmake (requires Ruby) Creates basic CMakeLists.txt files from looking at the existing files.

Visual Studio

• vcproj2cmake.rb (requires Ruby) Creates CMakeLists.txt files by extracting info from Visual Studio project files.

Success Stories

• What are some projects using CMake?
• Articles about CMake
• Really Cool CMake Features

More Topics

• Fortran Issues
• For CMake Hackers
• Experiments With Lua
• Performance Tips
• Replacing deprecated INSTALL_FILES, INSTALL_PROGRAMS and INSTALL_TARGETS commands
• GNU style directory layout with CMake
• CMake TODO

CTest

Tutorials

• Testing With CTest
  Introduces to testing with CTest, submitting dashboards, and using CMake to add tests to the test system.

• CTest Scripting
  Describes the scripting with CTest which can significantly simplify and automate testing and submitting dashboards.

• Generating Input Files For CTest
  Describe more in details the concepts behind testing with CTest and also explans how to use CTest without using CMake.

More Information

• Configuring CTest Submission Methods
• CTest Nightly, Experimental, Continuous, ...
• CTest:Coverage
• Media:CTest Running Modes.pdf
• CTest Frequently asked questions

CPack

Tutorials

• Packaging with CPack
  Introduction to CPack, installing and packaging of software.
• CPack Variables
  
• Supported package formats
  

More Information

• CPack Generator Information

CDash

• CDash Wiki.
• CDash FAQ.

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