Getting Started with CMake: A Simple C Language Example

Introduction: CMake is a powerful tool designed to build, test, and package software projects across different platforms. It simplifies the process of managing the build configuration, allowing developers to focus more on writing code rather than worrying about the intricacies of build systems. In this blog post, we’ll dive into creating a simple C language example using CMake, demonstrating its ease of use and flexibility.

Setting Up: Before we begin, make sure you have CMake installed on your system. You can download and install it from the official website or use your package manager if you’re on a Linux-based system.

Creating the Project Directory: Let’s start by creating a new directory for our project. Open your terminal and execute the following commands:

mkdir my_cmake_project
cd my_cmake_project

Creating Source Files: Inside your project directory, create a file named main.c

This file will contain our simple C program. You can use any text editor or IDE of your choice. Here’s a basic example of main.c :

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    printf("Hello, CMake!\n");
    return 0;
}

Writing the CMakeLists.txt: Next, we need to create a CMakeLists.txt

file in the root of our project directory. This file will contain instructions for CMake on how to build our project. Here’s a simple CMakeLists.txt for our example:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.0)

project(MyCMakeProject)

add_executable(my_cmake_example main.c)

Understanding the CMakeLists.txt:

  • cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.0): Specifies the minimum version of CMake required to build the project.
  • project(MyCMakeProject): Sets the name of the project.
  • add_executable(my_cmake_example main.c): Creates an executable named my_cmake_example from the main.c source file.

Building the Project: Now, it’s time to generate the build files using CMake. In your terminal, navigate to the project directory and execute the following commands:

cmake .

This command generates the necessary build files based on the CMakeLists.txt configuration.

cmake --build .

This command builds the project using the generated build files.

Running the Program: After successfully building the project, you can find the executable file named my_cmake_example in your project directory. Execute the following command to run the program:

./my_cmake_example

Conclusion: Congratulations! You’ve successfully created a simple C language example using CMake. This example demonstrates the basic usage of CMake for managing C projects. As your projects grow in complexity, you can leverage more advanced features of CMake to handle dependencies, compiler options, and other build configurations.