cmake pass unique -D to subdirectory - c++

I am trying to set up a cmake system for a pretty big project and I got stuck at the stage of passing a unique define to the C++ compiler for all the files in each of the sub-directories in the project. What I did was:
On the top level directory in CMakeLists.txt:
set_property(
DIRECTORY
APPEND PROPERTY COMPILE_DEFINITIONS LOG_FAPP_PKG=CORE
)
and then
add_subdirectory(Modules)
and in the Modules subdirectory in CMakeListst.txt:
add_subdirectory(ModuleConfigurationProvider)
set_property(
DIRECTORY ModuleConfigurationProvider
APPEND PROPERTY COMPILE_DEFINITIONS LOG_FAPP_MODULE=CONFPROVIDER
)
but what I get in the Makefile is just the first level (ie: the LOG_FAPP_PKG) being defined and the second level (the LOG_FAPP_MODULE) is totally ignored.
I also have tried to put in CMakeLists.txt in the ModuleConfigurationProvider directory the
set_property(
DIRECTORY
APPEND PROPERTY COMPILE_DEFINITIONS LOG_FAPP_MODULE=CONFIGPROVIDER
)
or even the
add_definitions(-DLOG_FAPP_MODULE=CONFIGPROVIDER)
but still not working. I had printed out the defines for the current directory and they show up correctly in the directory but it seems they don't propagate to the generated makefiles.
Any idea what I'm doing wrongly?

Related

CMake and external dependency

I'd like to add an external dependency to my project. The one I'm trying to add is the Leptonica library as a submodule.
My project has the following directory structure:
|root
CMakeLists.txt
|-bin
|-build
|-buildsystem
|-executable
|-leptonica
|--CMakeLists.txt
|--cmake
|---Configure.cmake
|-production
In my root CMakeLists.txt file I added ADD_SUBDIRECTORY(${ROOT_DIR}/leptonica)
Unfortunately, CMake is not searching for Configure.cmake in the proper directory:
CMake Error at leptonica/CMakeLists.txt:107 (include):
include could not find load file:
Configure
CMake Error: File
<root>/cmake/templates/LeptonicaConfig-version.cmake.in does not exist.
CMake Error at leptonica/CMakeLists.txt:113 (configure_file):
configure_file Problem configuring file
When I build the project by myself, everything goes fine. In my opinion, the problem is with CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR. When using add_subdirectory it has the value of ROOT CMake instead ROOT/leptonica, so it's searching the wrong paths - as you can see in Leptonica CMake, it's used to determinate paths of its files.
What should be the proper way to fix this - should I set CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR to ROOT/leptonica just before calling add_subdirectory and set it back when it's finished, or does some other, more elegant solutions exist?
Not every CMake project is suitable for inclusion via add_subdirectory.
Among those are projects which uses CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR or CMAKE_BINARY_DIR variables.
However, inclusion via ExternalProject_Add (optionally wrapped with execute_process) always works.
Modifying variable CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR (and CMAKE_BINARY_DIR too) is a bad idea: this variable should be changed only by CMake itself. Otherwise you may get weird errors.
Instead, you may replace (automatically, with some script) all references to the variable with another variable, which is not used in the project. This new variable you may safely set before stepping into the subproject.
${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR} and ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR} are set relative to the top-level CMakeLists.txt. If you need something relative to your current CMakeLists.txt (leptonica), use ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} and ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}.
If you're having trouble finding a cmake file like LeptonicaConfig-version.cmake.in, try appending the appropriate directory to ${CMAKE_MODULE_DIR}.
list(APPEND ${CMAKE_MODULE_DIR} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/templates)
I prefer to use ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} over ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR} any day because using the latter will break your build if you try to integrate it into a super-build later. If I need to pass my current top-level directory to subdirectories, then I do the following and use that later down the chain.
set( LEPTONICA_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} )

cannot change cmake executable output directory on windows

I have a project that builds on both Linux and Windows.
In that, I have in a subfolder somedir/modules/MyModule a CMakeLists.txt which should add some test executables. cmake wants to put them in some subdirectory binary folder, but I want to place them in the common binary folder under ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/x64
So what I'm doing is this (in the CMakeLists.txt in the somedir/modules/MyModules directory):
ADD_EXECUTABLE(MyTest MyTest.cpp)
set_target_properties(MyTest PROPERTIES RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/x64")
TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(MyTest SomeLibraries...)
ADD_TEST(MyTest ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/x64/MyTest)
Under Linux this works nicely, but under Windows I simply cannot get it to build into the ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/x64 folder. I've checked via MESSAGE, the ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/x64 does point to the right folder. I also tried changing the CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY (or even the per-target variables, e.g. CMAKE_MyTest_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, MyTest_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_Release, MyTest_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_Debug, as mentioned here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/25328001/671366). Tested both before or after ADD_EXECUTABLE, doesn't change anything. The output directory stays fixed on somedir/modules/x64/.
I'm out of ideas what I need to do, or even where the output directory it insists on using is coming from. Any ideas? At which point in time is the output directory decided in cmake? How does this relate to subdirectories? The executables specified in the parent folder CMakeLists.txt files get built in the desired directory, but if that is by mere chance I can't really say.
Config-specific property RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> has priority over common one RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY. Both types of properties are initialized from corresponded CMAKE_* variable(if it is set) when executable target is created.
So, having e.g CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_DEBUG config-specific variable being set makes this variable to be used for Debug configuration even if RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY property is explicitely set. The only way to redefine output directory in that case is to set RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_DEBUG config-specific property.

Keeping file hierarchy across subdirectories in CMake

Till date I still do not really understand what the 'best practice' is for doing this for a CMake project with many subdirectories.
Say I have a project hierarchy as such and each subdirectory has source files in it...
--CMake Project Source dir
|-- SubD1
|-- SubSubD1
|-- SubD2
What I would usually do is to do add_subdirectory(SubD1) and respectively for D2 in the CMakeLists.txt of the root directory and recursively for the subdirectory in the CMakeLists.txt of the SubD1 directory, while declaring variables in each subdirectory and making them visible in the root directory with PARENT_SCOPE.
That means if a file Source2.cpp exists in `SubSubD1', I'd simply do
set(SUBSUBD1_SOURCES Source2.cpp PARENT_SCOPE)
and expect to be able to use SUBSUBD1_SOURCE in my SubD1 directory.
Subsequently, say Source.cpp exists in SubD1, I would do
set(SUBD1_SOURCES ${SUBSUBD1_SOURCES} Source.cpp PARENT_SCOPE)
so that all sources would be visible in root dir.
The problem is of course that the file paths aren't kept when the variables arrive at the root directory. What I'm currently doing is for all source files that I set, I include a ${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}, making it
set(SUBSUBD1_SOURCES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/Source2.cpp PARENT_SCOPE)
and
set(SUBD1_SOURCES ${SUBSUBD1_SOURCES} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/Source.cpp PARENT_SCOPE)
In this case, I could then say, do add_executable(myProg SUBSUBD1_SOURCES) in the root directory of my CMake project.
Are there any better ways of doing this then having to always include a CMake variable in front of all source files?
There is a fourth way if you're using newer versions of CMake.
Take a look at target_sources() command of CMake.
It seems like you are declaring your target in your CMakeLists.txt
add_executable(my_target "subd1/CMakeLists.txt" "subd2/CMakeLists.txt")
add_subdirectory(subd1)
add_subdirectory(subd2)
Instead of propagating your Source files up to the root you can depend on the target you have defined in the root CMakeLists.txt. That means subd1/CMakeLists.txt may look like:
target_sources(my_target PRIVATE "subd1/Source.cpp" "subd1/Source2.cpp")
[EDIT]
As stated in the comments you must give the relative path of the source-files to target_sources(). I use target_sources() because I do not want the explicit source file listing to pollute the targets CMakeLists.txt. Another use case is that target_sources() can be invoked with the PUBLIC or INTERFACE keyword to propagate source files to depending targets. Well I never used target_sources() that way.
[/EDIT]
If you're using IDEs like Visual Studio that support folders you make want to also declare a source_group() in the CMakeLists.txt that contains your target. So the root CMakeLists.txt may look like:
add_executable(my_target "subd1/CMakeLists.txt" "subd2/CMakeLists.txt")
add_subdirectory(subd1)
add_subdirectory(subd2)
...
source_group(subd1 REGULAR_EXPRESSION "subd1/*")
source_group(subd2 REGULAR_EXPRESSION "subd2/*")
I'm using this approach because it leads to much cleaner CMakeLists.txt files, its lesser work and I think the introduction of not needed variables only raises the complexity of your CMakeLists.txt files.
CMakeLists.txt as target sources
I currently use the CMakeLists.txt of the sub folders as source files of the target because otherwise CMake will complain that the add_executable command has no source files given.
There are 3 ways I have used before. I normally prefer the 1st way, but have already used all 3 depending on the use case:
1. You directly name the sources in your root CMakeLists.txt file
set(
SUBD1_SOURCES
"SubD1/SubSubD1/Source2.cpp"
"SubD1/Source.cpp"
)
set(
SUBD2_SOURCES
"SubD2/Source3.cpp"
)
add_executable(myProg ${SUBD1_SOURCES} ${SUBD2_SOURCES})
2. You use OBJECT intermediate libraries to collect/group your sources
SubD1/SubSubD1/CMakeLists.txt:
add_library(SubSubD1Objs OBJECT Source2.cpp)
SubD1/CMakeLists.txt:
add_subdirectory(SubSubD1)
add_library(SubD1Objs OBJECT Source.cpp)
CMakeLists.txt:
add_executable(myProg $<TARGET_OBJECTS:SubSubD1Objs> $<TARGET_OBJECTS:SubD1Objs>)
3. You write your own function() to collect the data (and do the prefixing)
CMakeLists.txt:
function(my_collect_sources)
foreach(_source IN ITEMS ${ARGN})
if (IS_ABSOLUTE "${_source}")
set(source_abs "${_source}")
else()
get_filename_component(_source_abs "${_source}" ABSOLUTE)
endif()
set_property(GLOBAL APPEND PROPERTY GlobalSourceList "${_source_abs}")
endforeach()
endfunction(my_collect_sources)
add_subdirectory(SubD1)
#add_subdirectory(SubD2)
get_property(MY_SOURCES GLOBAL PROPERTY GlobalSourceList)
add_executable(myProg ${MY_SOURCES})
SubD1/CMakeLists.txt:
add_subdirectory(SubSubD1)
my_collect_sources(Source.cpp)
SubD1/SubSubD1/CMakeLists.txt:
my_collect_sources(Source2.cpp)
In your case there's no need to use add_subdirectory since you have only one target which is created in the root CMakeLists.txt. You can simply write this:
add_executable(myProg
SubD1/Source.cpp
SubD1/SubSubD1/Source2.cpp)
Use add_subdirectory for subdirectories creating their own targets so there's no information to pass upwards.

CMake -- Add all sources in subdirectory to cmake project

As a follow up to this question:
Add Source in a subdirectory to a cmake project
What is the best way (perhaps using the FILE directive?) to select all the .cpp and .h files in the subdirectory and add them to the SOURCE variable defined in the parent directory?
Example from answer to question above:
set(SOURCE
${SOURCE}
${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/file1.cpp
${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/file2.cpp
PARENT_SCOPE
)
set(HEADERS
${HEADERS}
${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/file1.hpp
${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/file2.hpp
PARENT_SCOPE
)
Is it possible to do something like this?
FILE(GLOB SUB_SOURCES *.cpp)
set(SOURCE
${SOURCE}
${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/${SUB_SOURCES}
PARENT_SCOPE
)
What is the best way (using CMake) to compile all the sources in a directory and a subdirectory into a single output file (not multiple libraries?)
I think what you are looking for is the aux_source_directory command.
aux_source_directory Find all source files in a directory.
aux_source_directory( )
Collects the names of all the source files in the specified directory
and stores the list in the provided. This command is
intended to be used by projects that use explicit template
instantiation. Template instantiation files can be stored in a
"Templates" subdirectory and collected automatically using this
command to avoid manually listing all instantiations.
It is tempting to use this command to avoid writing the list of source
files for a library or executable target. While this seems to work,
there is no way for CMake to generate a build system that knows when a
new source file has been added. Normally the generated build system
knows when it needs to rerun CMake because the CMakeLists.txt file is
modified to add a new source. When the source is just added to the
directory without modifying this file, one would have to manually
rerun CMake to generate a build system incorporating the new file.
Your CMakeLists.txt within the subdirectory could look like this:
aux_source_directory(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} SUB_SOURCES)
set(SOURCE
${SOURCE}
${SUB_SOURCES}
PARENT_SCOPE
)
The recommended practice is however, as you see from the documentation, to list the files individually within CMakeLists.txt as changes to the CMakeLists.txt file triggers running cmake.
I hope this was helpful and to the point.

How to work around CMake + XCode 4 paths dependencies?

I have projects structured like so:
Libs/
Apps1/
Apps2/
In each folder is a CMakeLists.txt. I would like to generate a project file for each of the folders, and each AppsN references Libs. My method of doing that is by calling CMake's add_subdirectory(../Libs/Source/LibN) etc.
Now when I do this, CMake says add_subdirectory must specify a unique absolute path for the binary output folder.
See this post:
Xcode dependencies across different build directories?
XCode can not handle dependencies when the build output folder is unique per target. It needs one folder. And CMake does this by default, it just refuses to when the folder is not a subdir.
I tried altering and changing the output path after the target is created. This will build the objects to the output folder, XCode sees them, but all references to this target in the CMake script will use the unique path.
Proposed solutions are:
include project files in App1/Projects/Subdir and duplicate projects in an irrelevant location
reorganize my folders to a shared parent folder to avoid this CMake craziness, which presents some security problems for me (as some dirs are not public)
never refer to the target by its CMake name, instead using the shared path name. Not sure how to do this properly
try and get this patched on the CMake side somehow
switch to premake
Try to add the following to the root CMakeLists.txt:
CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED(VERSION 2.8.0)
PROJECT (ContainerProject)
SET (LIBRARY_OUTPUT_PATH ${ContainerProject_BINARY_DIR}/bin CACHE PATH
"Single output directory for building all libraries.")
SET (EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH ${ContainerProject_BINARY_DIR}/bin CACHE PATH
"Single output directory for building all executables.")
MARK_AS_ADVANCED(LIBRARY_OUTPUT_PATH EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH)
# for common headers (all project could include them, off topic)
INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES(ContainerProject_SOURCE_DIR/include)
# for add_subdirectory:
# 1) do not use relative paths (just as an addition to absolute path),
# 2) include your stuffs in build order, so your path structure should
# depend on build order,
# 3) you could use all variables what are already loaded in previous
# add_subdirectory commands.
#
# - inside here you should make CMakeLists.txt for all libs and for the
# container folders, too.
add_subdirectory(Libs)
# you could use Libs inside Apps, because they have been in this point of
# the script
add_subdirectory(Apps1)
add_subdirectory(Apps2)
In Libs CMakeLists.txt:
add_subdirectory(Source)
In Source CMakeLists.txt:
add_subdirectory(Lib1)
# Lib2 could depend on Lib1
add_subdirectory(Lib2)
In this way all Apps could use all libraries. All binary will be made to your binary ${root}/bin.
An example lib:
PROJECT(ExampleLib)
INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES(
${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
)
SET(ExampleLibSrcs
...
)
ADD_LIBRARY(ExampleLib SHARED ${ExampleLibSrcs})
An example executable (with dependency):
PROJECT(ExampleBin)
INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES(
${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
${ExampleLib_SOURCE_DIR}
)
SET(ExampleBinSrcs
...
)
# OSX gui style executable (Finder could use it)
ADD_EXECUTABLE(ExampleBin MACOSX_BUNDLE ${ExampleBinSrcs})
TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(ExampleBin
ExampleLib
)
Here is a stupid and working example.