Generic rule from makefile to CMake

In CMake you can always declare your own compiler language. So in your case you can e.g. do:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)

project(MakeBarFromFoo NONE)

set(
   CMAKE_FOO_COMPILE_OBJECT 
       "make_bar_from_foo <SOURCE> <OBJECT>"
)

file(GLOB SRCS "*.foo")
add_library(my_rule OBJECT ${SRCS})
set_source_files_properties(${SRCS} PROPERTIES LANGUAGE FOO)

Then you can simply work with it as you would with other object library targets. But you will only get things like the .bar extension if you enable_language(FOO) (and that requires more work, see below).

Examples delivered with CMake itself are ASM or RC compilers.

---

The enable_language(FOO) Version

This needs four more files you could put in e.g. your project’s CMake folder:

CMake\CMakeDetermineFOOCompiler.cmake

# Find the compiler
find_program(
    CMAKE_FOO_COMPILER 
        NAMES "make_bar_from_foo" 
        HINTS "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}"
        DOC "FOO compiler" 
)
mark_as_advanced(CMAKE_FOO_COMPILER)

set(CMAKE_FOO_SOURCE_FILE_EXTENSIONS foo;FOO)
set(CMAKE_FOO_OUTPUT_EXTENSION .bar)
set(CMAKE_FOO_COMPILER_ENV_VAR "FOO")

# Configure variables set in this file for fast reload later on
configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/CMakeFOOCompiler.cmake.in
               ${CMAKE_PLATFORM_INFO_DIR}/CMakeFOOCompiler.cmake)

CMake\CMakeFOOCompiler.cmake.in

set(CMAKE_FOO_COMPILER "@CMAKE_FOO_COMPILER@")
set(CMAKE_FOO_COMPILER_LOADED 1)
set(CMAKE_FOO_SOURCE_FILE_EXTENSIONS @CMAKE_FOO_SOURCE_FILE_EXTENSIONS@)
set(CMAKE_FOO_OUTPUT_EXTENSION @CMAKE_FOO_OUTPUT_EXTENSION@)
set(CMAKE_FOO_COMPILER_ENV_VAR "@CMAKE_FOO_COMPILER_ENV_VAR@")

CMake\CMakeFOOInformation.cmake

# This file sets the basic flags for the FOO compiler
if(NOT CMAKE_FOO_COMPILE_OBJECT)
    set(CMAKE_FOO_COMPILE_OBJECT "<CMAKE_FOO_COMPILER> <SOURCE> <OBJECT>")
endif()
set(CMAKE_FOO_INFORMATION_LOADED 1)

CMake\CMakeTestFOOCompiler.cmake

# For now just do nothing in here
set(CMAKE_FOO_COMPILER_WORKS 1 CACHE INTERNAL "")

---

Then your CMakeLists.txt file just looks like this:

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)

project(MakeBarFromFoo NONE)

list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/CMake")
enable_language(FOO)

file(GLOB SRCS "*.foo")
add_library(my_rule OBJECT ${SRCS})