"CMakeLists.txt" seems to be missing - c++

Question

I was trying to build SFML in order to start developing 2d-games in c++. I put the source-code directory inside C: (the directory itself is called 'SFML'). while trying to generate .cbp files using CMake, I ran into an error:
"The source directory "C:/SFML" does not appear to contain CMakeLists.txt"
It seems like there is a missing file that CMake didn't create.
I am using Cmake 3.10.1, the installation file can be found in https://cmake.org/download/ under the title:"Windows win32-x86 Installer".
I tried to build SFML 2.4.2, using the generator of Codeblocks - MinGW makefiles. The version of codeblocks used is: codeblocks-16.01mingw-setup.exe, found in http://www.codeblocks.org/downloads/26
Did someone encounter the same problem before and knows how to overcome it? If not -
Is there an already-built, ready to use, libray of this version? (2.4.2)
If not.. do you know about a version of SFML that is usable in visual studio 2017?
And another question (That is the last one, I promise...) - maybe you can recommend me about another library for c++, that is usable to develop 2d-games?
edt:
note: I am completely new to all this building thing
the containments of SFML:
maybe it's the binary version?
lib contains some static libraries, bin contains some .dll s

Answer 1

You probably downloaded something wrong or potentially extracted the SFML source into a sub folder or something like that.
Since you've mentioned Visual Studio: SFML is 100% compatible with Visual Studio and you can build it from source any time without having to worry about dependencies (everything included in the repository).
The steps to compile are pretty easy. I'd recommend you install Git to clone the latest source from the SFML repository. In addition you'll need CMake, which you obviously got already.
Open a Command Prompt and change your directory to C:\SFML.
Clone the official repository using Git: git clone https://github.com/SFML/SFML.git source (note the trailing .)
Wait for the source to be checked out to the source sub directory.
Create a new directory called build: md build && cd build
Now invoke CMake, pointing to the source directory and also defining your install path: cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=C:/SFML ../source
Build and install a debug build of SFML: cmake --build . --target install --config debug
Build and install a release build of SFML: cmake --build . --target install --config release
Alternatively you can just open the generated Visual Studio solution and build the INSTALL project on your own.
(You shouldn't have to define a build tool or anything; CMake should notice Visual Studio being installed and pick it up automatically.)

Answer 2

I have experienced this using cmake version 3.10 when using the -S command line option. On cmake version 3.15.4 it behaves as expected - so if you update cmake then it might just work.
Note that the -S command line option was not supported before version 3.13:
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.13/release/3.13.html#command-line
Normally cmake is called from a "build" subdirectory of a project root, the project root contains CMakelists.txt. So you would create a "build" directory, change to it, and submit "cmake ..". This would pull in CMakelists.txt from the project root, and use the "build" subdirectory that you are in as the build directory. We say "build", what it actually does is generate makefiles which can then used by the "native" build system (e.g. "make" or Visual Studio) to perform the actual compilation and linking. This arrangement is not always convenient, hence the introduction of the -S and -B command line options.