Modern CMake for C

Write comprehensive professional-standard CMake projects and ensure the quality and simplicity of your solutions

Key Features

• Understand and automate compilation and linking with CMake
• Manage internal and external dependencies easily
• Add quality checks and tests as an inherent step for your builds

Book Description

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researching the subject have difficulty determining which advice is up-to-date and which approaches have already been replaced by easier, better practices.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 simpler, more complete 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 later 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 also understand how to use external dependencies in your project - third-party libraries, testing frameworks, program analysis tools, and documentation generators. Finally, you'll focus on 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.

What you will learn

• Understand best practices for building C++ code
• Gain practical knowledge of the CMake language by focusing on the most useful aspects
• Use cutting-edge tooling to guarantee code quality with tests and static and dynamic analysis
• Discover how to manage, discover, download, and link dependencies with CMake
• Build solutions that can be reused and maintained in the long term
• Understand how to optimize build artifacts and the build process itself

Who This Book Is For

The book is for build engineers and software developers with knowledge of C/C++ programming who are looking to learn CMake to automate the process of building small and large software solutions. If you are just getting started with CMake, a long-time GNU make user, or someone simply looking to brush up on the latest best practices, this book is for you.

Table of Contents

1. First Steps with CMake
2. The CMake Language
3. Setting up Your First CMake Project
4. Working with Targets
5. Compiling C++ Sources with CMake
6. Linking with CMake
7. Managing Dependencies in CMake
8. Testing Frameworks
9. Program Analysis Tools
10. Generating Documentation
11. Installing and Packaging
12. Creating your Professional Chapter
13. Appendix