marvelgao / cpp-boilerplate

A small c++ template with modern CMake

C++/CMake modern boilerplate

This is a template for new projects, gives a good CMake base and a few dependencies you most likely want in your project. It also set ups some basic CI builds. It uses "modern" CMake, ie 3.x paradigms, and should be a good starting point for both people willing to learn it and those that want to update/upgrade their CMakeLists.txt ! If you disagree with some pieces of advice given here, please discuss it with me by opening a Github Issue ! Enhancements are always welcome.

Usage

If you want to bootstrap a new project you only need to :

• If you don't already have your git repository setup
  • Simply copy/paste the folder (without the .git folder) and run the createBoilerPlate.sh file. This will create an initial git commit and add the required submodules.
• Hack CMakeLists.txt and CTestConfig.cmake to change the project name
• Ready to go !

The CI providers used and that might need some setup :

• Travis CI, for GCC / Clang on Linux/MacOS
• AppVeyor, for MSVC on Windows
• Codecov.io, for the codecoverage reports
• CDash, for test and coverage reports using CTest. Can also be used to build nightlies.

Requirements :

• CMake 3.8.2 (Not needed for all scripts)
• Git (for the submodules)
• Any of the CI providers listed above if needed.

Some features/notes :

• Scripts lying in the cmake/ folder can be copy/pasted for use in any CMake project

• Uses c++14

• CopyDllsForDebug.cmake script : A small wrapper around fixup_bundle to copy DLLs to the output directory on windows

• LTO.cmake script : Easier link time optimization configuration (should work on all CMake 3.x versions) as it used to be painful to setup.

• Warnings.cmake script : A wrapper around common warning settings

• Basic unit-testing using doctest

• Coverage.cmake : Test coverage script to add a 'Coverage' build type to CMake

• Generating the documentation through TravisCI requires that you setup a Github Token, see https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/deployment/pages/ .

• The lgtm.com website already knows about cmake and can build most of the projects without any special configuration. A sample configuration is in this project to show how to tag files and disable unneeded warnings. The external folder is automatically recognized and files are tagged as library.

  FAQ

Q: I'm new to this CMake stuff, where do I start ?

A: I would suggest reading CGold which covers this way better than I could.

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Q: Why can't I link some new libraries I put inside the external folder ?

A: By default targets are not at the GLOBAL scope, which means your CMakelists.txt might not see it. In this case you can either add an alias/imported library or use find_package/library as you would if the library was not in your buildtree.

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Q: Should I always put my dependencies in the folder external

A: Absolutely not ! It is a great place for small libraries, but you probably don't want to have to rebuild big libs every time. For those, you can use a package manager such as Hunter or simply rely on find_package/library.

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Q: I don't understand why you made the choice of XXXXXX here ?

A: Open a new issue !

External dependencies (using submodules)

Those dependencies can be easily removed by changing the external/CMakelists.txt and cleaning main.cpp.

• libfmt In my opinion the best formating library
• spdlog A logging library based on libfmt
• doctest A test library not as heavy as the others