CMake: Use variables from existing Makefile of 3rdparty library - makefile

I'm facing the following scenario:
Existing project which uses cmake
External 3rdparty library which only comes with Makefiles
The difference of my situation compared to existing questions is that I don't need to have cmake to build the 3rdparty library via the Makefile. Instead, the 3rdparty library provides a library.mk Makefile which has variables like LIB_SRCS and LIB_INCS containing all source and header files required to compile the library.
My idea is to include the library.mk into the project's CMakeLists.txt and then adding those $(LIB_SRCS) and $(LIB_INCS) to target_sources().
My question: How can I include library.mk into the existing CMakeLists.txt to get access to the $(LIB_SRCS) and $(LIB_INCS) for adding them to target_sources()? I'm looking for something like this:
include("/path/to/library.mk") # Somehow include the library's `library.mk` to expose variables to cmake.
add_executable(my_app)
target_sources(
my_app
PRIVATE
main.c
$(LIB_SRCS) # Add 3rd-party library source files
$(LIB_INCS) # Add 3rd-party library header files
)
Using include() does not work as the library.mk is not a CMake list/file.

Since you can't be sure that your target system will even have Make on it, the only option is to parse the strings out of the .mk file, which might be easy if the variables are set directly as a list of filenames, or really hard if they are set with expansions of other variables, conditionals, etc. Do this with FILE(STRINGS) cmake doc.
Your plan will only work if the Makefiles are trivial, and do not set important compiler flags, define preprocessor variables, modify the include directory, etc. And if they really are trivial, skip the parsing, and just do something like aux_source_directory(<dir> <variable>) to collect all the sources from the library directory.
You might also consider building and maintaining a CMakeLists.txt for this third-party library. Do the conversion once, and store it as a branch off of the "vendor" main branch in your version control system. Whenever you update, update the vendor branch from upstream, and merge or rebase your modifications. Or just store it in your existing project, referring to the source directory of the 3rd-party stuff.

Related

Scons: how to specify file dependency for 3rd party compile result?

It seem to me that scons targets are being generated not in declaration sequence. My problem is, I need to generate some code first, I'm using protoc to process a my.proto file into .h and .cc file, I need some pseudo code like this(what should the working code look like?)
import os
env=Environment(ENV=os.environ,LIBPATH='/usr/local/lib')
env.ShellExecute('protoc', '--outdir=. --out-lang=cpp', 'my.proto')//produces my.cc
myObj=Object('my.cc')//should wait until 'my.cc' is generated by protoc
Dependency(myObj, 'my.cc')
mainObj=Object('main.cpp')
My question is:
How to specify this ShellExecution of protoc in SConstruct/SConscript?
How to make sure that the compilation of 'main.cpp' depends on the existence of 'my.cc', in another word, wait until 'my.cc' is generated and then execute?
Your observations and assumptions are correct, SCons will not execute the single build commands in the order that you list them in the SConstruct files. It will run them based on the dependencies of the targets and source files in your build, either defined implicitly (header includes in C++, for example) or explicitly (via the Depends() method).
So you have to define and setup your dependencies correctly, such that SCons delivers the output that you want. For the special protoc case in your example, a special Builder exists that will help you to get the dependency graph right. It is available in our ToolsIndex, where also support for a variety of other languages and dialects can be found.
These special builders will emit the correct target nodes, e.g. when given a *.proto input file, and SCons is then able to automatically detect the dependency between the protoc input file and your main program if you say something like:
env=Environment(tools=['default','protoc'])
env.Protoc([], "test.proto")
env.Program('main', ['main.cpp'] + Glob('*.cc'))
The Glob('*.cc') will detect your *.cc files, coming out of the protoc Tool, and include them as dependencies for your final target main.
You can always write your own Builders and Emitters in SCons, which is the canonical way of making new tools/toolchains known to SCons dependency analysis. In the UserGuide, sect. "18 Writing Your Own Builders", and especially our ToolsForFools Guide you can find more infos about this.

Necessity of include_directories command in cmake project

I'm following a tutorial on CMake and I have problems understanding the necessity of using the 'include_directories' command at one point.
Let me explain the project first:
In my working directory I have:
- a main.cpp function, a CMakeLists.txt(the main one), a configuration file, a 'MathFunction' directory and a 'build' directory
In the MathFunction directory I have:
- a CMakeLists.txt file that will be invoked by the main one
- A file 'mysqrt.cxx' that contains the implementation of a function which will be used in 'main.cpp' application
- A 'MathFunctions.h' header file that contains the prototype of that function
In the CMakeLists from 'MathFunction' directory I'm creating a library using code from 'mysqrt.cxx' like this:
add_library(MathFunctions mysqrt.cxx)
This snippet is a part of my main CMake code:
# add the MathFunctions library?
#
if (USE_MYMATH)
include_directories ("${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/MathFunctions") # WHY DO WE NEED THIS
add_subdirectory (MathFunctions)
set (EXTRA_LIBS ${EXTRA_LIBS} MathFunctions)
endif (USE_MYMATH)
add_executable(Tutorial tutorial.cxx)
target_link_libraries (Tutorial MathFunctions)
Now I do not understand why I need too add that 'include_directories' command in order to use the library? Shouldn't it be enough that the last command 'target_link_libraries' links the already created executable and libraries togheter so there would be no need to also include_directories?
Thank you for reading and I'm sorry if I have not explained it very well but I hope you will understand what I mean :D
Command include_directories sets directories for header files (.h) to be searched. Linking (target_link_libraries) with a library basically specifies only a library file (.so, .dll or other type). As you see, these are different things.
When linking executable with a library target, CMake propagates (more precisely, "consumes") some properties of that library target to the executable. Among these properties there is INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES property, which adds include directories to the executable.
So, when a library target has INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES property correctly being set, you don't need to explicitly specify include directories for executable:
MathFunctions/CMakeLists.txt:
add_library(MathFunctions mysqrt.cxx)
# Among other things, this call sets INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES property.
target_include_directories(MathFunctions PUBLIC ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
CMakeLsits.txt:
add_executable(Tutorial tutorial.cxx)
# This also propagates include directories from the library to executable
target_link_libraries (Tutorial MathFunctions)
Note, that using simple
# This *doesn't* set INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES property.
include_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
in MathFunctions/CMakeLists.txt doesn't imply propagating include directories to the linked executable.

force object files in current directory even when subdir-objects is on

I have 2 libraries that share same source files:
# src/lib_mt/Makefile.am:
libppb_la_SOURCES = rphs_mt.c timer_mt.c
# src/sipplib/Makefile.am:
libsipp_a_SOURCES = ../lib_mt/rphs_mt.c ../lib_mt/timer_mt.c
Each source file compiled twice. First for lib_mt with -fPIC, second for sipplib without -fPIC.
Object files for each library created in corresponding directory.
Eventually subdir-objects becomes default. How to keep current behavior for these 2 source files? Some explicit rule maybe?
There is no way to disable that the moment it becomes the default. What you can do instead is migrate this to a non-recursive Automake buildsystem. At that point, it will know that there are different targets compiling the same source files with different flags (it requires AC_PROG_CC_C_O to be called in configure.ac.)
Alternatively, the hacky version is to create a src/sipplib/rphs_mt.c file that only contains
#include "../libmt/rphs_mt.c"
so that it is actually a separate build target.

CMake Hierarchical Project Management Without Abusing Libraries

I have a project where there's only a handful of logical groupings for generating static libraries. However for convenience I want to have the library's source code to be managed with more granular folders.
Currently the only way I know to do this in CMake without having a library for each folder is to just list files as you would normally in with their relative paths:
add_library(SystemAbstraction STATIC "Some/Path/File.cpp")
However I can see this getting unwieldy as the project grows in size with all the different paths.
I tried to see if I could have a CMakeLists.txt in each folder and just use a variable in the base CMakeLists.txt when adding library dependencies. But it seems that add_subdirectory doesn't also import variables?
For expanding the scope of a variable inside a subdirectory, use the PARENT_SCOPE option of set. For example, you can test that if you have
# CMakeLists.txt
set(SRCS main.c)
add_subdirectory(foo)
message(${SRCS})
in the root directory and
# foo/CMakeLists.txt
set(SRCS ${SRCS} foo.c PARENT_SCOPE)
in a subdirectory then it will print main.c foo.c, i.e., the variable is correctly imported into the base CMakeLists.txt.
An option would be to use the object library feature of CMake. You still can but doesn't need to organise your CMake script into subdirectories:
add_library(lib1 OBJECT <srcs>)
add_library(lib2 OBJECT <srcs>)
...
add_library(mainlib $<TARGET_OBJECTS:lib1> $<TARGET_OBJECTS:lib2>)
You can set different compile flags for each object library:
target_include_directories(lib1 PRIVATE incl-dir-for-lib1)
target_compile_definitions(lib2 PRIVATE def-for-lib2)
You still need to set link libraries on your main library:
target_link_libraries(mainlib PRIVATE deps-of-lib1 deps-of-lib2)
Related documentation: Object Libraries

Can CMake build subprojects (with benefits)?

I have some huge project that is being compiled in CMake.
It is developed for quite a long time, have 8000+ source/header files (over 500Mbytes, over 500 CMakefile.txt files).
They use directory structure like this
PROJECT_NAME
src
/ subdir_name
/ other_dir_name
/ some_different_dir
/ MY_SPECIFIC_DIR <---
/ yet_another_dir
build
and build it out-source, like this:
name#host:~/PROJECT_NAME/build> cmake ../src
name#host:~/PROJECT_NAME/build> make all
then it's build as one BIG binary (details are not important).
I cannot touch anything else, just content of MY_SPECIFIC_DIR - it's source and CMake files.
So, I have source code in MY_SPECIFIC_DIR tweak CMakefile.txt files somehow and would like to build it like this:
name#host:~/PROJECT_NAME/build_specific> cmake ../src/MY_SPECIFIC_DIR
name#host:~/PROJECT_NAME/build_specific> make all
This should build things in MY_SPECIFIC_DIR into single binary with some few links to other subprojects. But also (obviously) don't change anything about how whole project is compiled.
My question is:
Is my desired setup
posible
using CMake?
Can I somehow test in CMakeFile.txt that it is root project and build it in different way then when it is builded as a whole?
Unless, I have to resort to different means and use standard make for this.
I don't know CMake so I'm hoping for YES/NO anwer, preferable even for technique how to achieve this. And then learn the CMake and do it.
Also, I must use CMake version 2.6.
Thanks
Basic concept is to use
if (CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR STREQUAL CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR)
... code for stand-alone app
else()
... what was in this file before
endif()

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