Awesome CMake – Massive Collection of Resources

A curated list of awesome CMake scripts, modules, examples and others

There is another file NonModernCMake.md with other links worth taking a look, but they use obsolete practices which are considered non-modern – like not using target_*-based dependency management – see #16 and #42 for more details.

Contents

• Community
• Resources
• Package Management / Build Systems
• Modules
• Utility Scripts
• Toolchains
• Examples / Templates
• Other

Community

• #cmake on Freenode
• /r/cmake on Reddit
• /r/cpp on Reddit
• Official Discourse Forum
• Stack Overflow

Resources

• Latest Documentation
• FAQ
• Wiki
• Webinars
• Web Book – CGold: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the CMake. [BSD2]
• Modern CMake – Modern CMake PDF and samples by the creator of cmakepp. [MIT]
• Tutorial – Modern CMake tutorials part1: CMake basics
• Article – Easily supporting CMake install and find_package().
• Article – Easy dependency management for C++ with CMake and Git.
• Article – Opt-in header-only libraries with CMake.
• Article – Ultimate Guide to Modern CMake.
• Article – A list of common CMake antipatterns (from 2013 but still relevant).
• Article – How to Build a CMake-Based Project.
• Article – Learn CMake’s Scripting Language in 15 Minutes.
• Article – The architecture of CMake.
• Lecture – Effective CMake – by Daniel Pfeifer, C++Now 2017.
• Article – Building Cross-Platform CUDA Applications with CMake.
• Tutorial – A step-by-step guide for understanding CMake.
• Article + Lecture – Embracing Modern CMake – by Stephen Kelly.
• Lecture – Modern CMake for Modular Design – by Mathieu Ropert, CppCon 2017.
• Article – It’s Time To Do CMake Right (one of the best articles about CMake).
• Articles – A series on CMake – by Martin Hořeňovský
  • Basic CMake usage.
  • Basic CMake, part 2: libraries.
• Lecture – Introduction to CMake – by Florent Castelli, C++ Sweden 2018.
• Article – Some nice and accurate CMake tips.
• Article – Modern CMake for Library Developers.
• Article – Effective Modern CMake: a great summary of most good practices – by Manuel Binna.
• Book – Professional CMake: A Practical Guide (paid).
• Book – Effective CMake: Practical Advice to Write Better CMake (not fully written yet).
• Web Book – An Introduction to Modern CMake.
• YouTube Series – How to CMake Good. [CC0-1.0]
• Lecture – More Modern CMake (slides & examples)- by Deniz Bahadir, Meeting C++ 2018.
• Lecture – Oh No! More Modern CMake (slides)- by Deniz Bahadir, Meeting C++ 2019.
• Article – Modifying the default CMake build types/flags, toolchains and patches – Oh my! – by Cristian Adam.
• Tutorial – Tutorial and Example on How to Properly Use Modern CMake.

Package Management / Build Systems

• hunter – Cross-platform package manager for C++ (based on CMake ExternalProject). [BSD2]
• cget – CMake package retrieval. This can be used to download and install CMake packages. [BOOST]
• cppan – C++ Archive Network – C++ Package Manager based on CMake, implemented in C++14. [APACHE2]
• cpm – C++ Package Manager based on CMake and Git. [MIT]
• conan – Conan C++ Package Manager, implemented in Python and has a CMake integration backend. [MIT]
• fips – High-level build system/dependency management for distributed, multi-platform C/C++ projects. [MIT]
• Ninja – Build system that differs from others in two major respects: it is designed to have its input files generated by a higher-level build system (like CMake), and it is designed to run builds as fast as possible. [APACHE2]
• vcpkg – A tool to acquire and build C++ open source libraries. Uses CMake internally as a build script language. [MIT]
• pmm – PMM is a module for CMake that manages… package managers. [MIT]
• cpm – A setup-free CMake + git dependency manager. [MIT]

Modules

• cmake-modules – Ryan Pavlik‘s collection of CMake modules. There are a number of find modules, especially for virtual reality and physical simulation, some utility modules, and some patches or workarounds for CMake itself. [BOOST]
• cmake-modules – This is a collection of additional CMake modules. Most of them are from Ryan Pavlik. [BOOST]
• CMake – Eyescale‘s common CMake modules. [BSD3]
• cmake-modules – CMake modules for some scientific libraries. [BSD2]
• cgcmake – CMake modules for common applications related to computer graphics. [MIT]
• FindMathematica – CMake module for Mathematica. [MIT]
• extra-cmake-modules – KDE‘s extra modules and scripts for CMake. [BSD3]
• FindICU.cmake – CMake module to find International Components for Unicode (ICU) Library. [BSD2]
• FindTBB – CMake find module for Intel Threading Building Blocks. [MIT]
• FindWiX – CMake module for building Windows Installer packages with WiX toolset. [BSD3]
• FindIDL – CMake module for building IDL files with MIDL and generating CLR DLL using Tlbimp. [MIT]
• cmake-modules – hanjianwei‘s CMake module collection. [MIT]
• YCM – Extra CMake Modules for Yet Another Robot Platform and friends. [BSD3]
• CMakeCM – CMake Community Modules. [NO LICENSE]
• Metabench – CMake module for compile-time microbenchmarks. [BOOST]

Utility Scripts

These provide a wide range of functionality – from dealing with compiler flags to using tools. Some also contain modules.

• cotire – Cotire (compile time reducer) is a CMake module that speeds up the build process of CMake based build systems by fully automating techniques as precompiled headers and unity builds for C and C++. [MIT]
• ucm – For managing compiler/linker flags, collecting sources, precompiled headers, unity builds and others. [MIT]
• cmakepp – Enhancement Suite for the CMake Build System. [MIT]
• sugar – CMake tools and examples: collecting source files, warnings suppression, etc. [BSD2]
• DownloadProject – CMake module for downloading an external project’s source at configure time. [MIT]
• buildem – Modular CMake-based system that leverages ExternalProject to simplify builds. [LICENSE]
• coveralls-cmake – Coveralls JSON coverage generator and uploader for CMake. [MIT]
• compatibility – Improved version of cmake-compile-features. [LICENSE]
• cmake-modules – LibFindMacros development repository and other cool CMake stuff. [LICENSE]
• GreatCMakeCookOff – This is a repository of useful and less than useful CMake recipes. [MIT]
• cppcheck-target-cmake – Per-target CPPCheck for CMake. [MIT]
• clang-tidy-target-cmake – Add clang-tidy checks to a target using CMake. [MIT]
• cmake-unit – Unit testing framework for CMake. [MIT]
• cmake-header-language – CMake macro to determine the language of a header file. [MIT]
• tooling-cmake-util – Utility and common library for all polysquare CMake tools. [MIT]
• iwyu-target-cmake – CMake integration for include-what-you-use. [MIT]
• sanitizers-cmake – CMake module to enable sanitizers for binary targets. [MIT]
• cmake-precompiled-header – Visual Studio and GCC precompiled header macro. [LICENSE]
• CMakePCHCompiler – CMake precompiled headers via custom compiler extension – with reuse support! [MIT]
• CMake-codecov – Enables code coverage and generates coverage reports with CMake targets. [GPL]
• cmake-get – Get dependencies in config or script mode. [NO LICENSE]
• ixm – Make CMake less painful when trying to write Modern Flexible CMake. [MIT]
• CMakeCooking – Flexible development environments for CMake projects with external dependencies
  . [APACHE2]

Toolchains

• dockcross – Cross compiling toolchains in Docker images. [MIT]
• android-cmake – CMake toolchain file and other scripts for the Android NDK. [BSD3]
• ios-cmake – Toolchain file and examples using CMake for iOS development. [BSD3]
• qt-android-cmake – For building and deploying Qt based apps on Android without QtCreator. [LICENSE]
• mingw-w64-cmake – CMake-based MinGW-w64 Cross Toolchain – to build Windows binaries of mpv. [ISC]
• cmake-avr – CMake toolchain for AVR. [LICENSE]
• arduino-cmake – This is the CMake project settings for the Arduino platform. [MPL]
• polly – Collection of CMake toolchain files and scripts for cross-platform build and CI testing. [BSD2]
• toolchains – For cross-compiling with CMake. They are meant to be mainly used on ArchLinux. [NO LICENSE]
• cmake – Collection of CMake toolchain files, mostly for static linking. [APACHE2]
• Arduino-CMake-Toolchain – CMake toolchain for all official and 3rd party Arduino platforms. [MIT]

Examples / Templates

• cmake-init – Template for reliable, cross-platform C++ project setup using CMake. [LICENSE]
• android-cmake – Examples of using ruslo/hunter package manager for an Android application. [BSD2]
• hunter-simple – Example of downloading/installing dependencies using ruslo/hunter package manager. [BSD2]
• package-example – Config mode of find_package (examples for this Stack Overflow question). [NO LICENSE]
• minimal_cmake_example – Minimal CMake example, that covers dependencies and packaging. [CC0-1.0]
• cmake-example – Example project which demonstrates various CMake features. [BSD3]
• cmake-examples – Useful CMake examples in a tutorial format. [MIT]
• mini-cmake-qt – Minimal CMake template for Qt 5 projects. [LICENSE]
• BASIS – CMake BASIS makes it easy to create sharable software and libraries that work together. [BSD2]
• cpp-boilerplate – Template that aims to be a reference for modern CMake and CI. [MIT]
• how-to-export-cpp-library – An OS-agnostic template project for exporting either shared, static or header-only C++ library, sporting ctest and CI support, written in plain CMake with line-by-line tutorial comments. [MIT]
• modern-cmake-sample – Best practices and proper usage of CMake by using targets. [NO LICENSE]
• CMakeInstallExample – Installation example for a C++ project (Windows) with Cmake. [NO LICENSE]
• cpp14-project-template – A C++14 template with CI, tests, code coverage, docs and static analysis integration. [CC0-1.0]
• cmake_templates – Templates for creating C++ libraries and executables (including conan). [NO LICENSE]
• cmake_snippets – Short copy-pasteable CMake snippets. [BSD3]
• cmake-cookbook – A huge CMake cookbook full of recipes. [MIT]
• cpp-template – A template C++ repository, using CMake and Catch. [NO LICENSE]
• pitchfork – A set of conventions for native C and C++ projects. [MIT]
• cmake-examples – A collection of as simple as possible, modern CMake projects. [MIT]
• cpp-project – Boiler plate for C++ projects – tests, CI, coverage, docs. [UNLICENSE]
• ModernCppStarter – A template for modern C++ projects using CMake, CI, code coverage, clang-format, reproducible dependency management, tests using doctest and much more. [UNLICENSE]

Other

• autocmake – Using a autocmake.yml file Autocmake composes CMake building blocks into a CMake project and generates CMakeLists.txt as well as a setup script, which serves as a front-end to CMakeLists.txt. [BSD3]
• UseLATEX – Collection of CMake macros to simplify building LaTeX files. [BSD3]
• scikit-build – Improved build system generator for CPython C extensions. [MIT]
• node-cmake – CMake-based build system for node.js native modules. [ISC]
• cmake-font-lock – Advanced syntax coloring support for CMake scripts inside Emacs. [GPL]
• autovala – Program that automatically generates CMake configuration files for your Vala project. [GPL]
• catkin – CMake-based build system that is used to build all packages in Robot Operating System (ROS). [BSD3]
• suitesparse-metis-for-windows – CMake scripts for painless usage of SuiteSparse+METIS. [BSD3]
• osg-3rdparty-cmake – CMake scripts for building OpenSceneGraph third party libraries. [MIXED LICENSE]
• cmake-d – CMake for D2. [MIT]
• cmakeprojectmanager2 – Enhanced CMake Project Manager plugin for Qt Creator. [NO LICENSE]
• cmake-lint – Check for coding style issues in CMake files. cmakelint requires Python. [APACHE2]
• git-cmake-format – Integrate clang-format into your CMake project hosted in a git repository. [LICENSE]
• configure-cmake – configure-cmake is an autotools-style configure script for CMake-based projects. [CC0-1.0]
• cmake-ast – Python module to reduce a CMake file to an AST. [MIT]
• cmake-checks-cache – CMake checks cache helper modules. [MIT]
• cmake_check – Static analysis (linter) for the CMake language (e.g. to enforce modern CMake rules). [MIT]
• cmake-language-server – CMake Language Server Protocol Implementation. [MIT]
• cmake-maven-plugin – CMake integration for Maven builds. [APACHE2]