116 lines
5.8 KiB
HTML
116 lines
5.8 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
|
|
|
|
<html>
|
|
|
|
<!--#include virtual="/CMake/HTML/Head.html"-->
|
|
|
|
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" leftmargin=0 topmargin=0 text="black" link="#FFFFFF"
|
|
vlink="#000000" alink="#000000">
|
|
|
|
<!--#include virtual="/CMake/HTML/Table.html"-->
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<!--#include virtual="/CMake/HTML/SideBar.html"-->
|
|
|
|
<td width="550" valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
|
|
<div align="left">
|
|
|
|
<font size=5>CMake </font> is an extensible, open-source system that
|
|
manages the build process in an operating system and compiler independent
|
|
manner. Unlike many cross-platform systems, CMake is designed to be used
|
|
in conjunction with the native build environment. Simple configuration
|
|
files placed in each source directory (called CMakeLists.txt files) are
|
|
used to generate standard build files (e.g., makefiles on Unix and
|
|
projects/workspaces in Windows MSVC) which are used in the usual
|
|
way. CMake can compile source code, create libraries, generate wrappers,
|
|
and build executables in arbitrary combinations. CMake supports in-place
|
|
and out-of-place builds, and can therefore support multiple builds from a
|
|
single source tree. CMake also supports static and dynamic library
|
|
builds. Another nice feature of CMake is that it generates a cache file
|
|
that is designed to be used with a graphical editor. For example, when
|
|
CMake runs, it locates include files, libraries, and executable, and may
|
|
encounter optional build directives. This information is gathered into
|
|
the cache, which may be changed by the user prior to the generation of
|
|
the native build files. (The following figure is the CMake cache GUI in
|
|
the Windows MSVC environment.)
|
|
<div align="center">
|
|
<img src="/CMake/Art/CMakeGUI.jpg" width=400 height=276
|
|
border=0 alt="">
|
|
</div>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
CMake is designed to support complex directory hierarchies and
|
|
applications dependent on several libraries. For example, CMake supports
|
|
projects consisting of multiple toolkits (i.e., libraries), where each
|
|
toolkit might contain several directories, and the application depends on
|
|
the toolkits plus additional code. CMake can also handle situations where
|
|
executables must be built in order to generate code that is then compiled
|
|
and linked into a final application. Because CMake is open source, and has
|
|
a simple, extensible design, CMake can be extended as necessary to support
|
|
new features.
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Using CMake is simple. The build process is controlled by creating one or
|
|
more CMakeLists.txt files in each directory (including subdirectories)
|
|
that make up a project. Each CMakeLists.txt consists of one or more
|
|
commands. Each command has the form COMMAND (args...) where COMMAND is
|
|
the name of the command, and args is a white-space separated list of
|
|
arguments. CMake provides many pre-defined commands, but if you need to,
|
|
you can add your own commands. In addition, the advanced user can add
|
|
other makefile generators for a particular compiler/OS combination.
|
|
(While Unix and MSVC++ is supported currently, other developers are
|
|
adding other compiler/OS support.) You may wish to study the
|
|
<a href="/CMake/HTML/Examples.html">examples</a> page to see more
|
|
details.
|
|
|
|
<h3>The Origins of CMake</h3> CMake was created in response to the need
|
|
for a powerful, cross-platform build environment for the Insight
|
|
Segmentation and Registration Toolkit (ITK) funded by NLM as part of the
|
|
Visible Human Project. It was influenced by an earlier system called
|
|
<b>pcmaker</b> created by Ken Martin and other developers to support the
|
|
<a href="http://public.kitware.com/vtk.html">Visualization Toolkit
|
|
(VTK)</a> open source 3D graphics and visualization system. To create
|
|
CMake, Bill Hoffman at Kitware incorporated some key ideas from pcmaker,
|
|
and added many more of his own, with the thought to adopt some of the
|
|
functionality of the Unix
|
|
<b>configure</b> tool. The initial CMake implementation was mid-2000,
|
|
with acclerated development occuring in early 2001. Many improvements
|
|
were due to the influences of other developers incorporating CMake into
|
|
their own systems. For example, the
|
|
<a href="http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~vxl/">VXL</a> software community
|
|
adopted CMake as their build environment, contributing many essential
|
|
features. Brad King added several features in order to support the CABLE
|
|
automated wrapping environment and
|
|
<a href="http://public.kitware.com/GCC_XML">GCC-XML</a>, and
|
|
GE Corporate R&D required support of their testing infrastructure
|
|
(the <a href="http://public.kitware.com/Insight/Testing/HTML/TestingResults/Dashboard/MostRecentResults-Nightly/Dashboard.html">quality dashboard</a>).
|
|
Other features were added to support the transition of VTK's
|
|
build environment to CMake, and to support ParaView, a parallel
|
|
visualization system to support the
|
|
<a href="http://www.acl.lanl.gov/">Advanced Computing Lab</a> at Los Alamos
|
|
National Laboratory.
|
|
|
|
<h3>How Do I Learn CMake?</h3> CMake is a young and rapidly growing
|
|
system. It has already seen extensive use in very large software systems
|
|
such as VTK, VXL, and ITK, and is therefore, quite
|
|
stable. Unfortuneately, the pace of development has outstripped the pace
|
|
of documentation. As a result, the best way to learn about CMake is to
|
|
study existing CMake installations, and to rely on the CMake mailing
|
|
list. There is some existing documentation, but until later in 2001 the
|
|
documentation should be treated with caution. Please go to the
|
|
<a href="/CMake/HTML/Documentation.html">documentation</a> for more
|
|
information. Also, see the <a href="/CMake/HTML/Examples.html">example</a>
|
|
found here.
|
|
</div>
|
|
</td>
|
|
</tr>
|
|
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
</td>
|
|
</tr>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|