CMake Tutorial

Introduction

The CMake tutorial provides a step-by-step guide that covers common build system issues that CMake helps address. Seeing how various topics all work together in an example project can be very helpful.

Steps

The tutorial source code examples are available in this archive. Each step has its own subdirectory containing code that may be used as a starting point. The tutorial examples are progressive so that each step provides the complete solution for the previous step.

• Step 0: Before You Begin
  • Getting the Tutorial Exercises
  • Getting CMake
  • CMake Generators
  • Single and Multi-Configuration Generators
  • Other Usage Basics
  • Try It Out
  • Getting Help and Additional Resources
• Step 1: Getting Started with CMake
  • Background
  • Exercise 1 - Building an Executable
  • Exercise 2 - Building a Library
  • Exercise 3 - Linking Together Libraries and Executables
  • Exercise 4 - Subdirectories
• Step 2: CMake Language Fundamentals
  • Background
  • Exercise 1 - Macros, Functions, and Lists
  • Exercise 2 - Conditionals and Loops
  • Exercise 3 - Organizing with Include
• Step 3: Configuration and Cache Variables
  • Background
  • Exercise 1 - Using Options
  • Exercise 2 - CMAKE Variables
  • Exercise 3 - CMakePresets.json
• Step 4: In-Depth CMake Target Commands
  • Background
  • Exercise 1 - Features and Definitions
  • Exercise 2 - Compile and Link Options
  • Exercise 3 - Include and Link Directories
• Step 5: In-Depth CMake Library Concepts
  • Background
  • Exercise 1 - Static and Shared
  • Exercise 2 - Interface Libraries
  • Exercise 3 - Object Libraries
• Step 6: In-Depth System Introspection
  • Background
  • Exercise 1 - Check Include File
  • Exercise 2 - Check Source Compiles
  • Exercise 3 - Check Interprocedural Optimization
• Step 7: Custom Commands and Generated Files
  • Background
  • Exercise 1 - Using a Code Generator
• Step 8: Testing and CTest
  • Background
  • Exercise 1 - Adding Tests
• Step 9: Installation Commands and Concepts
  • Background
  • Exercise 1 - Installing Artifacts
  • Exercise 2 - Exporting Targets
  • Exercise 3 - Exporting a Version File
• Step 10: Finding Dependencies
  • Background
  • Exercise 1 - Using find_package()
  • Exercise 2 - Transitive Dependencies
  • Exercise 3 - Finding Other Kinds of Files
• Step 11: Miscellaneous Features
  • Exercise 1: Target Aliases
  • Exercise 2: Generator Expressions