Adding multiple executables in CMake

by

My suggestion is to tackle this in two phases:

  1. Build a library from the .cpp and .h files, using add_library
  2. Iterate through all your .cxx files and create an executable from each, using add_executable and foreach

Build the library

This could be something as simple as

file( GLOB LIB_SOURCES lib/*.cpp )
file( GLOB LIB_HEADERS lib/*.h )
add_library( YourLib ${LIB_SOURCES} ${LIB_HEADERS} )

Build all the executables

Simply loop over all the .cpp files and create separate executables.

# If necessary, use the RELATIVE flag, otherwise each source file may be listed 
# with full pathname. RELATIVE may makes it easier to extract an executable name
# automatically.
# file( GLOB APP_SOURCES RELATIVE app/*.cxx )
file( GLOB APP_SOURCES app/*.cxx )
foreach( testsourcefile ${APP_SOURCES} )
    # I used a simple string replace, to cut off .cpp.
    string( REPLACE ".cpp" "" testname ${testsourcefile} )
    add_executable( ${testname} ${testsourcefile} )
    # Make sure YourLib is linked to each app
    target_link_libraries( ${testname} YourLib )
endforeach( testsourcefile ${APP_SOURCES} )

Some warnings:

  • file( GLOB ) is usually not recommended, because CMake will not automatically rebuild if a new file is added. I used it here, because I do not know your sourcefiles.
  • In some situations, source-files may be found with a full pathname. If necessary, use the RELATIVE flag for file(GLOB ...).
  • Manually setting the source-files requires a change to CMakeLists.txt, which triggers a rebuild. See this question for the (dis-)advantages of globbing.
  • I generated the testname using a string( REPLACE ... ). I could have used get_filename_component with the NAME_WE flag.

Concerning “general” CMake info, I advise you to read some of the broad “CMake Overview” questions already asked here on stackoverflow. E.g.:

More Related Contents:

  1. Using CMake with multiple compilers for the same language
  2. CMake output/build directory
  3. CMake ExternalProject_Add() and FindPackage()
  4. How do I tell CMake to use Clang on Windows?
  5. CMake Error: “add_subdirectory not given a binary directory”
  6. How to properly add include directories with CMake
  7. How to build Qt for Visual Studio 2010
  8. How to detect C++11 support of a compiler with CMake
  9. Building multiple executables with similar rules
  10. How to disassemble a binary executable in Linux to get the assembly code?
  11. OS specific instructions in CMAKE: How to?
  12. How to create a shared library with cmake?
  13. Override compile flags for single files
  14. CMake unable to determine linker language with C++
  15. CMake: include library dependencies in a static library
  16. CMake linking against shared library on windows: error about not finding .lib file
  17. Libraries in /usr/local/lib not found
  18. Visual Studio 2010 not autolinking static libraries from projects that are dependencies as it should be supposed to
  19. In CMake, how can I test if the compiler is Clang?
  20. How to use c++20 modules with CMake?
  21. cmake include header into every source file
  22. How to build cmake ExternalProject while configurating main one?
  23. Handling header files dependencies with cmake
  24. How to handle a transitive dependency conflict using Git submodules and CMake?
  25. How do I iterate over all CMake targets programmatically?
  26. cmake – Global linker flag setting (for all targets in directory)
  27. C++ Build Systems – What to use? [closed]
  28. How to implement readlink to find the path
  29. OpenCV GTK+2.x error – “Unspecified error (The function is not implemented…)”
  30. How to use dylib in Mac OS X (C++)

Leave a Comment