An introduction to the build pipeline, and how we can orchestrate it manually

Before working with CMake, it's useful to understand the tools it orchestrates. This lesson guides you through setting up a C++ toolchain.

Building C++ Programs

Walking through the steps of the C++ compilation process, from source code to machine code.

The Compilation Pipeline

The linker's role in the build process, how it resolves symbols to combine object files, and how to troubleshoot common errors.

Object Files and the Linking Process

The difference between static and dynamic libraries, how to create them, and the trade-offs between them.

Static and Shared Libraries

The C++ Build Process

Recommended approaches for managing large projects and the libraries that they depend on

Learn how to structure your C++ projects for scalability and maintainability, from basic directory layouts to managing multiple modules.

Organizing a C++ Project

Learn to manage third-party libraries in C++, covering include/library paths, static vs. shared libraries, versioning, and platform differences.

Managing Libraries and Dependencies

An introduction to traditional build tools like Makefiles and IDE projects, highlighting the maintenance, scalability, and cross-platform challenges that result

Automated Build Systems and Their Limitations

Project Structure and Dependency Management

Setting up CMake and creating your first project

An introduction to CMake, the cross-platform, open-source meta-build system that solves the core challenges of C++ project management.

Why CMake?

A step-by-step guide to installing CMake. We'll explore command-line, GUI, and IDE workflows, and how to configure your compiler.

Setting Up a CMake Environment

Creating the bare minimum `CMakeLists.txt` file and build up to a project with an executable and a library, learning the fundamental commands along the way.

Writing a CMakeLists File

Learn the two-stage process of building a CMake project. This lesson covers configuring, generating, building, running, and troubleshooting common errors.

Building and Running CMake Projects

Learn how to organize large C++ projects in CMake using subdirectories and the `add_subdirectory()` command to create modular, maintainable builds.

CMake Project Structure and Subdirectories

Introducing CMake

Exploring CMake's programming features, caching mechanisms, and interactions with the file system

A primer on the fundamental building blocks of the CMake language: variables, string interpolation, and logging messages.

CMake Variables and Logging

Discover the CMake Cache, the mechanism for storing persistent user-configurable options, and learn how to create and manage cached variables.

The CMake Cache

Exploring CMake's command syntax and its list data type, including how to create, manipulate, and use lists in your projects.

CMake Commands, Arguments, and Lists

Transform your static build descriptions into dynamic scripts with CMake's control flow commands, if() and foreach().

CMake Conditionals and Loops

Exploring CMake's `file()` command, covering how to read, write, copy, and glob files, and how to manipulate paths.

Working with the File System

Learn to create reusable logic with CMake functions and macros, and how to organize them into modules for clean, scalable build systems.

Modularizing CMake Code

CMake Language and Fundamentals

Learn more about targets, and how their properties and links are the foundation of modern CMake

Learn to work with target properties - understanding their purpose, setting and updating them, and retrieving them when your build requires it

Target Properties

Learn about target types, and how the `PUBLIC`, `PRIVATE`, and `INTERFACE` keywords control how properties are shared.

Relationships Between Targets

Discover how CMake's `target_link_libraries()` command builds a dependency graph, and how it uses this graph to automatically manage transitive dependencies and link order.

Indirect Relationships and the Dependency Graph

Learn to use abstract target types like `INTERFACE`, `ALIAS`, and `IMPORTED` to model complex project needs, organize build properties, and integrate pre-compiled binaries.

Using `INTERFACE`, `ALIAS`, and `IMPORTED` Libraries

Adding support for user-configurable library types and an initial introduction to target installation.

Using Shared Libraries

Targets and Dependencies

Learn how to manage multiple build configurations within the same project, and how to create scripts that adapt to the environment

Learn how CMake manages different build configurations like Debug and Release, the difference between generator types, and how to apply settings conditionally using modern techniques.

Build Configurations (Debug, Release, etc.)

Learn the tools and patterns needed to write portable CMakeLists.txt files that work seamlessly across platforms and compilers

Cross-Platform Configurations

Learn to write architecture-aware CMake scripts for 32/64-bit systems and Apple's Universal Binaries (Intel/ARM).

Handling Different Architectures

Learn to build for different operating systems and architectures using CMake's cross-compilation support and toolchain files.

Cross-Compilation and Toolchain Files

Platforms and Build Configurations

Learn how to add external libraries to our build, and how to create our own packages for others to use

Learn to find and use pre-installed libraries with `find_package()`, understanding Module vs. Config mode and the power of imported targets

Finding Dependencies using `find_package()`

Learn how to make your libraries consumable by other projects using CMake by turning your build-tree into a distributable install-tree.

Creating a Consumable Package

Learn how to consume a CMake package you've installed, completing the producer-consumer cycle. We'll cover using `find_package()` and how to point CMake to your library's location

Using Installed Packages

Learn how to create self-contained, reproducible builds by fetching dependencies from source using `FetchContent()` and `ExternalProject_Add()`.

Fetching External Dependencies

Creating and Consuming Packages

Integrating the vcpkg and Conan package managers to handle external dependencies

Learn to manage C++ dependencies effortlessly with the vcpkg package manager and its seamless CMake integration using toolchain files and manifests.

Integrating CMake and vcpkg

Learn the day-to-day commands for managing dependencies with vcpkg and how to guarantee reproducible builds using baselines and version overrides

vcpkg Commands and Versioning

Combine vcpkg with CMake's cross-compilation capabilities. Learn to use triplets to target different architectures and chain-load toolchain files

Cross-Compiling with vcpkg

Discover Conan, the binary-first C++ package manager, and learn how to integrate it with CMake using profiles and lockfiles for fast, reproducible builds.

Using Conan with CMake

Learn to cross-compile C++ projects with Conan, using build and host profiles to manage dependencies for different platforms.

Cross-Compilation with Conan

Package Managers

Introducing presets, allowing us to simplify our workflow and share common configurations across our team

Learn the fundamentals of CMake Presets. This lesson introduces `CMakePresets.json` to simplify complex build commands.

CMake Presets

Learn to structure your CMake presets with inheritance and customize them for your local environment using `CMakeUserPresets.json`.

User Presets and Inheritance

Learn to make your CMake presets portable by using environment variables and conditional logic to adapt to different machine configurations.

Environment Variables and Conditional Presets

Learn how to extend the build process beyond simple compilation by integrating external tools and custom commands

Learn how to use generator expressions `$<...>` for build-time conditional logic.

Generator Expressions and Conditional Logic

Learn how to attach commands to specific points in a target's build lifecycle using `add_custom_command(TARGET)` for tasks like post-build file copying.

Integrating Tools with `add_custom_command()`

Learn to integrate code generators like Protobuf into your build process using `add_custom_command()`, creating automated file-level dependencies in CMake.

Generating Files with Protobuf and `add_custom_command()`

Custom Commands

An introduction to automating common workflow chores by creating custom targets

Learn to create standalone, non-code targets using add_custom_target() for utility tasks like code formatting and documentation generation.

Custom Targets and Build Utilities

Using the Clang-Format tool to automatically enforce a consistent coding style, and integrating it into our build using a custom CMake target

Using Clang-Format

An introduction to file sets and the `target_sources()` command, allowing us to manage our header files in a more controlled way

Using File Sets

A step-by-step guide to integrating Doxygen into your CMake build process for automated C++ documentation.

Generating Documentation with Doxygen

Custom Targets

Integrate automated tests into a CMake project using CTest, GoogleTest, and GoogleMock

Learn the fundamentals of automated testing in C++ with CTest. Create your first test suite, register tests with `add_test()`, and run them with the `ctest` command.

Automated Testing and CTest

Learn to refactor manual C++ tests into a professional test suite using the GoogleTest framework, managed by vcpkg and integrated with CTest.

Integrating GoogleTest with CMake

Learn to use a wide range of assertions, write data-driven parameterized tests, and isolate dependencies with Google Mock.

Assertions and Parameterized Tests

Learn how to isolate dependencies that our project uses, and then how to replace those dependencies at test time using Google Mock.

Dependency Injection and Mocking

Learn the standard pattern for testing application logic by refactoring it into a linkable library

Testing Executables

Move beyond individual tests to manage a full test suite. Learn to organize tests, run tests in parallel, filter by labels, and measure our code coverage

Managing a Test Suite

Automated Testing

Using static and dynamic analysis in CMake projects to automatically detect memory bugs, performance issues, and problematic code

Learn to find memory bugs at runtime by integrating AddressSanitizer (ASan) into a CMake project

Using AddressSanitizer (ASan)

Adding benchmarks to our build to measure the performance of our code, and track how it changes over time

Using Google Benchmark

Integrating Clang-Tidy to enforce good practices and find bugs before we even compile

Using Clang-Tidy

Automated Analysis

Automating the entire development lifecycle using Git for souce control, GitHub Actions for cloud builds, and CPack to create distributable packages and installers.

An introduction to Git, the version control system that underpins modern collaborative software development and automated build pipelines.

Source Control with Git

Learn how to automate your build and test process with Continuous Integration (CI) and a build server. This lesson provides a guide to creating a GitHub Actions workflow for a CMake project.

Build Servers and Continuous Integration

Learn to package your C++ projects using CMake's CPack. This lesson covers creating developer ZIP archives and professional Windows MSI installers with components.

Packaging with CPack

Learn to automate the packaging process by integrating CPack with a multi-platform GitHub Actions workflow

Packaging with GitHub Actions

Learn to automate the creation of a professional Windows installer by integrating CPack, the WiX Toolset, and a multi-platform GitHub Actions workflow.

Creating Installers with CPack and GitHub Actions

Learn to automate the release process using a GitHub Actions workflow that builds, packages, and publishes artifacts to a GitHub Release

Deployment with GitHub Releases

Continuous Integration and Packaging

If you have a basic grasp of C++ but find the build process intimidating, this course is for you. We assume you know the language, but not how to manage large projects.

Manage complex, cross-platform builds using industry-standard tools. Create scalable build systems that automate the entire development lifecycle.

This course is a comprehensive deep-dive into the entire C++ build ecosystem, centered around the power and flexibility of modern CMake. We leave no stone unturned.

Start with a foundational understanding of compilers, linkers, static vs. shared libraries, and object files.

The Full Build Pipeline

Learn every aspect of the CMake language, from variables and control flow to functions, modules, and generator expressions.

Complete CMake Language Mastery

Master the modern target-centric paradigm, including properties, usage requirements, and abstract targets.

Advanced Target Management

Explore every method for handling dependencies, from `find_package` and `FetchContent` to vcpkg and Conan, including versioning and cross-compilation.

In-Depth Dependency Management

Integrate a full suite of professional tools for testing (CTest, GoogleTest), analysis (ASan, Clang-Tidy), and packaging (CPack).

Total Workflow Automation

Build a fully automated deployment pipeline that takes your code from a Git push to a published GitHub Release with multi-platform installers.

End-to-End CI/CD and Deployment

What You'll Learn

Become a software engineer with C++.  Starting from the basics, we guide you step by step along the way

Intro to C++ Programming

If you're completely new to programming or want a thorough introduction, consider starting with our free introductory course:

New to Programming?

Managing C++ Projects Using CMake

In our journey so far, we've gone from the fundamentals of the C++ build process to writing our first complete, multi-directory CMake project. We've learned the core CMake language constructs: variables, lists, control flow, and functions.


We've been using commands like `add_library()` and `target_link_libraries()`, but we've treated them as simple instructions. The real power of modern CMake, however, comes from a shift in thinking. We should stop seeing our build script as a sequence of commands and start seeing it as a description of how targets relate to each other.


A target isn't just a name for an output file; it's a first-class object with properties and relationships. We'll explore the different types of targets, learn how they store information in properties, and, most importantly, master the `PUBLIC`, `PRIVATE`, and `INTERFACE` keywords that control how these properties are shared between targets that are linked together.


In this lesson, we will focus on the properties associated with a target, and then move on to the relationships between targets in the next lesson.


## Target Properties and Meta-Information


Every target you create is an object that holds a collection of **properties**. These properties are simply data that is attached to the target.  They define everything about the target: its source files, its include directories, its compiler flags, its dependencies, and much more.


We're not just restricted to using CMake-recognized properties.  If we need to attach some custom data to a target that we'll need to access later, we can do that.


Most of the `target_*` commands we've seen are just user-friendly wrappers for setting properties that are important to CMake. For example, imagine we use the following command:


```c++
//<cmake>
target_compile_features(MyTarget PUBLIC cxx_std_20)
```


Behind the scenes, this is setting the `COMPILE_FEATURES` property on the `MyTarget` object.


While you'll usually use the high-level `target_*` commands where they're available, you can also directly manipulate properties with `set_target_properties()` and `get_target_property()`.


## Using `get_target_property()`


We'll see how to set properties in the next section, but there are some properties that CMake provides and manages on our targets by default.  For example, targets have a `TYPE` property, which we can examine if we need to know if the target is an executable or library.


The full list of types are available on the [official documentation](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-properties.7.html#id4), but we'll highlight many of the most useful ones throughout the course.


We retrieve a property on a target using the `get_target_property()` command, which requires three arguments:

- The name of the variable we want the property's value saved to
- The name of the target
- The name of the property on the target

The following example retrieves the type of our target, and saves it as a variable called `target_type`:


<CodeFile path="greeter/CMakeLists.txt">


```c++
#<cmake>
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)

add_library(GreeterLib src/Greeter.cpp)

get_target_property(target_type GreeterLib TYPE)#<h>
message("GreeterLib has type ${target_type}")
```


</CodeFile>


```c++
//<o>
GreeterLib has type STATIC_LIBRARY
```


<Pw>


## Using `set_target_properties()`


To set properties on a target, we use the `set_target_properties()` command.  This function can update any number of targets in a single command, and can set any number of properties on those targets.


To do this, we provide the following sets of arguments, in order:

- The targets we want to set the property on - each target is a separate argument
- The `PROPERTIES` keyword
- The properties we want to set, as a collection of key-value pairs.  Each pair is two arguments - they key, and the value

The following command updates the `GreeterApp` and `GreeterLib` targets with the same two properties - `FAVORITE_FRUIT` set to `Apple`, and `FAVORITE_VEGETABLE` set to `Potato`


<CodeFile path="CMakeLists.txt">


```c++
#<cmake>
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
project(Greeter VERSION "1.0")

add_subdirectory(greeter)
add_subdirectory(app)

set_target_properties(#<h>
  # Targets to update#<h>
  GreeterApp GreeterLib#<h>
  PROPERTIES#<h>
  # Properties to set#<h>
  FAVORITE_FRUIT "Apple"#<h>
  FAVORITE_VEGETABLE "Potato"#<h>
)#<h>

get_target_property(app_fruit GreeterApp FAVORITE_FRUIT)
message("GreeterApp's favorite fruit is ${app_fruit}")

get_target_property(lib_fruit GreeterLib FAVORITE_FRUIT)
if(lib_fruit STREQUAL "Apple")
  message("It is GreaterLib's favorite too")
endif()
```


</CodeFile>


```c++
//<o>
GreeterApp's favorite fruit is Apple
It is GreaterLib's favorite too
```


## CMake Target Properties


There are many target properties that CMake uses behind the scenes, but has not provided a dedicated function for setting.  They're all listed on the [official documentation](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-properties.7.html#properties-on-targets), but we'll highlight many of the most useful ones throughout this course.


For example, we can change the name of the file that a target outputs by manually setting the `OUTPUT_NAME` property.


Below, we change our executable's name from "GreeterApp" to "Greeter" (or from "GreeterApp.exe" to "Greeter.exe" on Windows):


<CodeFile path="app/CMakeLists.txt">


```c++
#<cmake>
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
project(Greeter VERSION "1.0")

add_subdirectory(greeter)
add_subdirectory(app)

set_target_properties(GreeterApp PROPERTIES #<h>
  OUTPUT_NAME "Greeter" #<h>
) #<h>
```


</CodeFile>


Building our project, we should now see the executable in `/build/app` is now being named `Greeter` (or `Greeter.exe` on Windows):


```c++
//<ti>
cmake --build .
```


```c++
//<ti>
./app/Greeter
```


```c++
//<o>
Hello from the modular Greeter library!
```


This level of control is useful, and we'll revisit properties several times in the rest of the course.  However, the real magic of modern CMake comes from how these properties are shared between targets.


The `PUBLIC` keyword we've occassionally been passing to our commands relates to this sharing process, so let's finally learn what that does in the next lesson.


## Summary


This lesson introduced the philosophical core of modern CMake. By treating targets as objects and defining their properties, we create a self-describing system that manages complexity for us.


**Targets are Objects**: Think of `add_library()` and `add_executable()` as creating objects. Commands like `target_include_directories()` are methods that modify the state of these objects.


**Reading and Writing Properties**: We use `get_target_property()` to retrieve a property from a target, and `set_target_properties()` to set one or more properties on one or more targets.


**System-Provided Properties**: Some properties on targets are automatically set by CMake, such as `TYPE`.  Some properties can be maintained through friendly helper functions like `target_include_directories()`.  Some properties that we can set will change how CMake handles the target, such as `OUTPUT_NAME`.


<Preview>


### Relationships Between Targets


We've focused on setting individual target properties in this lesson, but what's more important is how our targets interact with each other.


We'll explore this in the next lesson, including a deeper explanation of what `target_link_libraries()` does, and the impact of the  `PUBLIC`, `PRIVATE`, and `INTERFACE` keywords.


</Preview>


</Pw>

`target_link_libraries` Documentation

Creating Targets

It's Time To Do CMake Right

Embracing Modern CMake - Stephen Kelly

CMake: PUBLIC vs INTERFACE vs PRIVATE

Modern CMake is like inheritance

Master Modern CMake by understanding its core concept: targets. This guide covers target properties and how to manage them.

Target Properties

Understanding the Basics

Practical Applications

Common Mistakes

Next Steps

Additional Resources

Assessment Preparation

Managing C++ Projects Using CMake