Why is Make not enough?

• Make knows about targets and dependencies
• Make does not know which compiler (options) we want and which environment we are on

About CMake

• Cross-platform
• Open-source
• Actively developed
• Manages the build process in a compiler-independent manner
• Designed to be used in conjunction with the native build environment
• Written in C++ (does not matter but if you want to build CMake yourself, C++ is all you need)
• CMake is a generator - this means it does not compile the code
• Not a replacement for Makefiles, rather a replacement for Autotools

Why CMake?

Separation of source and build path:

• Out-of-source compilation (possibility to compile several builds with the same source)

Portability:

• Really cross-platform (Linux, Mac, Windows, AIX, iOS, Android)
• CMake defines portable variables about the system
• Cross-platform system- and library-discovery

Language support:

• Excellent support for Fortran, C, C++, and Java, as well as mixed-language projects
• CMake understands Fortran 90 dependencies very well; no need to program a dependency scanner
• Excellent support for multi-component and multi-library projects

Supports modular code development:

• Makes it possible and relatively easy to download, configure, build, install, and link external modules

Provides tools:

• Generates user interface (command-line or text-UI or GUI)
• Full-fledged testing and packaging framework with CTest and CPack
• CTest can run sequential tests in parallel

Popular:

• CMake is used by many prominent projects: MySQL, Boost, VTK, Blender, KDE, LyX, Mendeley, MikTeX, Compiz, Google Test, ParaView, Second Life, Avogadro, and many more …

General:

• Not bound to the generation of Makefiles

Note to Python developers

One day you might need to implement low-level operations to your Python library in Fortran or C or C++ and then CMake can come in handy.