CMake Configuration Step

Once paths.cmake is created, it’s time for CMake configuration step.

Create a build folder. I usually create two-level build paths: ./build/<build-specific-folder>, e.g. ./build/msvc10-amd64, ./build/make-x86, ./build/netbeans etc. But to keep things shorter, I will use ./build in the snippets below:

cd axl
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..

If all the required paths have been configured properly, you should see something like this.

Sample Linux output:

AXL CMake:
    Invoked from:        /home/vladimir/Projects/ioninja/axl/CMakeLists.txt
    dependencies.cmake:  /home/vladimir/Projects/ioninja/axl/dependencies.cmake
    settings.cmake:      /home/vladimir/Projects/ioninja/axl/settings.cmake
    paths.cmake:         /home/vladimir/Projects/paths.cmake
    Target CPU:          amd64
    Build configuration: Debug

Sample Windows output:

AXL CMake:
    Invoked from:        C:/Projects/repos/ioninja/axl/CMakeLists.txt
    dependencies.cmake:  C:/Projects/repos/ioninja/axl/dependencies.cmake
    paths.cmake:         C:/Projects/repos/ioninja/paths.cmake
    Target CPU:          amd64
C/C++:
    C Compiler:          C:/Develop/msvs/msvs2010/VC/bin/x86_amd64/cl.exe
    C flags (Debug):     /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W3 /EHsc /GR /D_DEBUG /Ob0 /Od /RTC1 /MTd /Zi
    C flags (Release):   /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W3 /EHsc /GR /O2 /Ob2 /D NDEBUG /MT /Zi
    C++ Compiler:        C:/Develop/msvs/msvs2010/VC/bin/x86_amd64/cl.exe
    C++ flags (Debug):   /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W3 /EHsc /GR /D_DEBUG /Ob0 /Od /RTC1 /MTd /Zi
    C++ flags (Release): /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W3 /EHsc /GR /O2 /Ob2 /D NDEBUG /MT /Zi
    C/C++ definitions:   UNICODE;_UNICODE
Dependency path definitions:
    7Z_EXE:              c:/Program Files/7-Zip/7z.exe
    DOXYGEN_EXE:         c:/Develop/doxygen/doxygen-1.8.11-x86/doxygen.exe
    DOXYREST_CMAKE_DIR:  C:/Projects/repos/ioninja/doxyrest/build/msvc10-amd64/cmake
    EXPAT_INC_DIR:       c:/Develop/expat/expat-2.1.0/lib
    EXPAT_LIB_DIR:       c:/Develop/expat/expat-2.1.0/build/msvc10-amd64/$(Configuration)
    LIBSSH2_INC_DIR:     c:/Develop/libssh2/libssh2-1.4.4/include
    LIBSSH2_LIB_DIR:     c:/Develop/libssh2/libssh2-1.4.4/lib/amd64/$(Configuration)
    LIBUSB_INC_DIR:      c:/Develop/libusb/libusb-1.0.19/include
    LIBUSB_LIB_DIR:      c:/Develop/libusb/libusb-1.0.19/x64/$(Configuration)/lib
    LUA_INC_DIR:         c:/Develop/lua/lua-5.2.1/include
    LUA_LIB_DIR:         c:/Develop/lua/lua-5.2.1/lib/amd64/$(Configuration)
    LUA_LIB_NAME:        lua52
    OPENSSL_INC_DIR:     c:/Develop/openssl/openssl-win64-1.0.1h/include
    OPENSSL_LIB_DIR:     c:/Develop/openssl/openssl-win64-1.0.1h/lib/vc/static
    PCAP_INC_DIR:        c:/Develop/winpcap/winpcap-4.1.2/include
    PCAP_LIB_DIR:        c:/Develop/winpcap/winpcap-4.1.2/lib/x64
    PDFLATEX_EXE:        c:/Program Files (x86)/MiKTeX 2.9/miktex/bin/pdflatex.exe
    QT_CMAKE_DIR:        e:/Develop/qt/qt-5.3.2/build/amd64/qtbase/lib/cmake
    QT_DLL_DIR:          e:/Develop/qt/qt-5.3.2/build/amd64/qtbase/lib
    RAGEL_EXE:           c:/Develop/ragel/ragel-6.7/ragel.exe
    SPHINX_BUILD_EXE:    c:/Develop/Python3/Scripts/sphinx-build.exe
Lua paths:
    Includes:            c:/Develop/lua/lua-5.2.1/include
    Library dir:         c:/Develop/lua/lua-5.2.1/lib/amd64/$(Configuration)
    Library name:        lua52
Pcap paths:
    Includes:            c:/Develop/winpcap/winpcap-4.1.2/include
    Libraries:           c:/Develop/winpcap/winpcap-4.1.2/lib/x64
LibUSB paths:
    Includes:            c:/Develop/libusb/libusb-1.0.19/include
    Libraries:           c:/Develop/libusb/libusb-1.0.19/x64/$(Configuration)/lib
OpenSSL paths:
    Includes:            c:/Develop/openssl/openssl-win64-1.0.1h/include
    Libraries:           c:/Develop/openssl/openssl-win64-1.0.1h/lib/vc/static
Expat paths:
    Includes:            c:/Develop/expat/expat-2.1.0/lib
    Libraries:           c:/Develop/expat/expat-2.1.0/build/msvc10-amd64/$(Configuration)
QT paths:
    Core CMake files:    e:/Develop/qt/qt-5.3.2/build/amd64/qtbase/lib/cmake/Qt5Core
    Gui CMake files:     e:/Develop/qt/qt-5.3.2/build/amd64/qtbase/lib/cmake/Qt5Gui
    Widgets CMake files: e:/Develop/qt/qt-5.3.2/build/amd64/qtbase/lib/cmake/Qt5Widgets
    Network CMake files: e:/Develop/qt/qt-5.3.2/build/amd64/qtbase/lib/cmake/Qt5Network
doxyrest:                NOT FOUND, adjust AXL_IMPORT_DIR_LIST in dependencies.cmake (optional)
Configuring done

After that you can optionally run:

cmake-gui .

This will launch a GUI client for CMake and allow you to fine-tune CMake configuration variables. For example, you may want to turn precompiled headers ON or OFF, change C++ RTTI settings, for make-based builds change configuration from Debug to Release or vice versa and so on.

You can also use cmake-gui all along for the whole CMake configuration process, without doing command line cmake step.