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Awesome CMake

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

Your contributions are highly welcome (first see CONTRIBUTING.md).

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.

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

Community

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]
Oranges - Ben Vining’s library of CMake modules and toolchains [GPL]

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]
version-from-git - Bake git information into your binary. [MIT]