CMaker

CMaker is a CMake project generator for C/C++ projects. It is designed to be a simple tool to generate a CMake project with a single command. It is also designed to be a simple tool to add libraries and submodules to the project.

The project is good for C/C++ beginners who want to start a new project with CMake. It demonstrates most of the commonly used functions in CMake and common practices in C/C++ software development. It is also good for C/C++ experts who want to start a new project with CMake quickly but tired of writing boilerplates CMake code.

The created repository consists of the following directories:

# cmaker new mylib
[INFO] creating repo for static library: mylib
[INFO] directory mylib created!
[INFO] entering directory mylib
[INFO] directory src created!
[INFO] directory mylib created!
[INFO] directory cmake_modules created!
[INFO] directory thirdparty created!
[INFO] directory bench created!
[INFO] directory unit_test created!
[INFO] root CMakeLists.txt written complete!
[INFO] unit_test/CMakeLists.txt written complete!
[INFO] benchmark example written complete!
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/wb/myrepo/cmaker/mylib/.git/
[INFO] leaving directory mylib

# tree mylib 
mylib
├── bench
│   ├── bench_example.cpp
│   └── CMakeLists.txt
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── README.md
├── LICENSE
├── .gitignore
├── .clang-format
├── cmake_modules
├── mylib
│   ├── mylib.h.in
│   └── mylib.cpp
├── thirdparty
└── unit_test
    ├── CMakeLists.txt
    └── example.cpp

5 directories, 9 files

1. a bench directory for benchmarking, with pre-configured CMakeLists.txt and a sample benchmark source file.
2. a cmake_modules directory for custom CMake modules. It is empty by default. You can add your own CMake modules here. When calling cmaker add-library, a FindMyLib.cmake file related to the library will be created under this directory, containing the common practice of how you can write a FindXXX.cmake module as an example (and it works).
3. a mylib directory for the library source files. When calling cmaker new the library name will be the same as the project name. The directoy constains a header file header.h with default GetVersionString function.
4. a src directory for the library source files. It contains a 'library.cpp' file with the implementation of the GetVersionString function.
5. a thirdparty directory for third-party libraries. It is empty by default. You can add your own third-party libraries here. When calling cmaker add-module, the module will be downloaded through git submodule add and added to this directory.
6. a unit_test directory for unit testing, with pre-configured CMakeLists.txt and a sample unit test source file.
7. a root CMakeLists.txt file for the project. It contains all the common CMake commands for a C/C++ project, such as, add_library or add_executable (when called with cmaker new mylib --exe), install, enable_testing, include(CTest), include(CPack), etc.

The pre-configured install commands in the root CMakeLists.txt will by default install the mylib directory to the ${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR} as public headers, and the headers located under src will be considered as private headers. You can change the install commands in the CMakeLists.txt file to achieve more customization.

Note that by default, the CMakeLists.txt file will install the mylib directory as a static library. If you want to install it as a shared library, you can add the --shared option when calling cmaker new.

Also note that by default, the package location will be under the build/package directoy after calling cpack under the build directory, and it will be packed as tarball in Linux and Zip archive in Windows. You can change the package location and packaging behavior by modifying the CPack section in the root CMakeLists.txt file.

Another thing to note is that by default, the header.h contains your library's version string consisting from MYLIB_VERSION_MAJOR, MYLIB_VERSION_MINOR and MYLIB_VERSION_PATCH ('MYLIB' is the library name). The CPack section in the root CMakeLists.txt file will automatically set the package version to the version string. So that whenever you changes the version of you header, the package name will automatically change as well.

If you want to add unit tests to your project, simply call cmaker template tests. It will generate a unit_test directory with example code and CMakelists.txt, using GoogleTest framework. You can add your own unit test source files to the unit_test directory and they will be automatically added to the unit test executables. For now, the add_unit_test function takes only 1 source file as argument. If you want to add more source files in a unit test executable, you would have to modify the add_unit_test function by yourself. cmaker template bench will create a bench directory with example code, using google's benchmark framework.

It also contains pre-configured .gitignore, .clang-format and .clang-tidy (stolen from fmtlib :p) files. You can modify them to suit your needs.

Table of Contents

• Dependencies
• Installation
• Usage
• Contributing
• License

Dependencies

• Boost program_options
• fmtlib
• CMake
• Ninja
• Git
• GTest
• Benchmark
• A C++ compiler that supports C++11 like GCC 4.8.5 with Boost library, or C++17 like GCC 9.3.0 or above (requried for std::filesystem and initializer for-loop)

The project is tested on rhel 7.9 with GCC 4.8.5 (plus boost.filesystem) and ubuntu 20.04 with GCC 13.2.0. If your compiler does not support C++17, Boost.filesystem is required.

Installation

cmake -H. -Bbuild -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
ninja -C build install

Usage

# creating a new repository
cmaker new mylib

# adding a new library
cd mylib
cmaker add-library mydep -I thirdparty/include/mydep.h -L thirdparty/lib

# adding a new submodule
cmaker add-submodule myrepo -U https://github.com/me/myrepo.git

# adding benchmark and gtest template
cmaker template bench # this will create a bench directory with bench_example.cpp
cmaker template tests # this will create a unit_test directory with example.cpp

Contributing

Feel free to contribute to the project. You can open an issue or create a pull request.

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2023 [email protected]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.