Notes.md

CMake

Folder hierarchy

root
└───src
└───include

• src: Should contain files which use libraries. For example, main.c should be placed here.
• include: Libraries should be placed inside this folder.

CMake

CMake is a tool which automates makefile creation process. It allows to define paths to libraries included into the project.
CMake output is saved inside the build folder. Inside it we can find a lot of file, especially the makefile to create the executable.

A general rule is to take templates of existing CMake files and customize them for specific uses.

To include specific C++ libraries inside the project, we should refer to its documentation; it will provide the instruction to add to our CMakeLists.txt.

Build

You can build from the root folder using:

# DO NOT DO THIS
cmake .

Anyway, it is a bad practice because all output files will be dropped inside the root folder.
It is possible to set an output folder and, optionally, a source folder:

cmake [<options>] -B <path-to-build> [-S <path-to-source>]

Basically, <path-to-build> is the build folder and <path-to-source> is the src folder.

[!WARNING] Rebuild

Before rebuild, delete the build folder since CMakeCache.txt could produce conflicts.

Create the executable

To build the software run:

cmake --build <build-folder>

Alternately, move to the build folder, then use regularly the utility make:

make

To clean from make output:

make clean