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  1. <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
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  10. <font size=5>CMake </font> is an extensible, open-source system that
  11. manages the build process in an operating system and compiler independent
  12. manner. Unlike many cross-platform systems, CMake is designed to be used
  13. in conjunction with the native build environment. Simple configuration
  14. files placed in each source directory (called CMakeLists.txt files) are
  15. used to generate standard build files (e.g., makefiles on Unix and
  16. projects/workspaces in Windows MSVC) which are used in the usual
  17. way. CMake can compile source code, create libraries, generate wrappers,
  18. and build executables in arbitrary combinations. CMake supports in-place
  19. and out-of-place builds, and can therefore support multiple builds from a
  20. single source tree. CMake also supports static and dynamic library
  21. builds. Another nice feature of CMake is that it generates a cache file
  22. that is designed to be used with a graphical editor. For example, when
  23. CMake runs, it locates include files, libraries, and executable, and may
  24. encounter optional build directives. This information is gathered into
  25. the cache, which may be changed by the user prior to the generation of
  26. the native build files. (The following figure is the CMake cache GUI in
  27. the Windows MSVC environment.)
  28. <div align="center">
  29. <img src="/CMake/Art/CMakeGUI.jpg" width=400 height=276
  30. border=0 alt="">
  31. </div>
  32. <P>
  33. CMake is designed to support complex directory hierarchies and
  34. applications dependent on several libraries. For example, CMake supports
  35. projects consisting of multiple toolkits (i.e., libraries), where each
  36. toolkit might contain several directories, and the application depends on
  37. the toolkits plus additional code. CMake can also handle situations where
  38. executables must be built in order to generate code that is then compiled
  39. and linked into a final application. Because CMake is open source, and has
  40. a simple, extensible design, CMake can be extended as necessary to support
  41. new features.
  42. <P>
  43. Using CMake is simple. The build process is controlled by creating one or
  44. more CMakeLists.txt files in each directory (including subdirectories)
  45. that make up a project. Each CMakeLists.txt consists of one or more
  46. commands. Each command has the form COMMAND (args...) where COMMAND is
  47. the name of the command, and args is a white-space separated list of
  48. arguments. CMake provides many pre-defined commands, but if you need to,
  49. you can add your own commands. In addition, the advanced user can add
  50. other makefile generators for a particular compiler/OS combination.
  51. (While Unix and MSVC++ is supported currently, other developers are
  52. adding other compiler/OS support.) You may wish to study the
  53. <a href="/CMake/HTML/Examples.html">examples</a> page to see more
  54. details.
  55. <h3>The Origins of CMake</h3> CMake was created in response to the need
  56. for a powerful, cross-platform build environment for the Insight
  57. Segmentation and Registration Toolkit (ITK) funded by NLM as part of the
  58. Visible Human Project. It was influenced by an earlier system called
  59. <b>pcmaker</b> created by Ken Martin and other developers to support the
  60. <a href="http://public.kitware.com/vtk.html">Visualization Toolkit
  61. (VTK)</a> open source 3D graphics and visualization system. To create
  62. CMake, Bill Hoffman at Kitware incorporated some key ideas from pcmaker,
  63. and added many more of his own, with the thought to adopt some of the
  64. functionality of the Unix
  65. <b>configure</b> tool. The initial CMake implementation was mid-2000,
  66. with acclerated development occuring in early 2001. Many improvements
  67. were due to the influences of other developers incorporating CMake into
  68. their own systems. For example, the
  69. <a href="http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~vxl/">VXL</a> software community
  70. adopted CMake as their build environment, contributing many essential
  71. features. Brad King added several features in order to support the CABLE
  72. automated wrapping environment and
  73. <a href="http://public.kitware.com/GCC_XML">GCC-XML</a>, and
  74. GE Corporate R&D required support of their testing infrastructure
  75. (the <a href="http://public.kitware.com/Insight/Testing/HTML/TestingResults/Dashboard/MostRecentResults-Nightly/Dashboard.html">quality dashboard</a>).
  76. Other features were added to support the transition of VTK's
  77. build environment to CMake, and to support ParaView, a parallel
  78. visualization system to support the
  79. <a href="http://www.acl.lanl.gov/">Advanced Computing Lab</a> at Los Alamos
  80. National Laboratory.
  81. <h3>How Do I Learn CMake?</h3> CMake is a young and rapidly growing
  82. system. It has already seen extensive use in very large software systems
  83. such as VTK, VXL, and ITK, and is therefore, quite
  84. stable. Unfortuneately, the pace of development has outstripped the pace
  85. of documentation. As a result, the best way to learn about CMake is to
  86. study existing CMake installations, and to rely on the CMake mailing
  87. list. There is some existing documentation, but until later in 2001 the
  88. documentation should be treated with caution. Please go to the
  89. <a href="/CMake/HTML/Documentation.html">documentation</a> for more
  90. information. Also, see the <a href="/CMake/HTML/Examples.html">example</a>
  91. found here.
  92. </div>
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