Basic familiarity with C++ and Unix-like systems is assumed throughout the book. Although Unix knowledge isn’t a strict requirement, it will prove helpful in fully understanding the examples given in this book.

This book targets CMake 3.26, but most of the techniques described should work from CMake 3.15 (features that were added after are usually highlighted). Some chapters have been updated to CMake 3.28 to cover the latest features.

Preparation of the environment to run examples is covered in Chapters 1-3, but we specifically recommend using the Docker image provided with this book if you’re familiar with this tool.

Download the example code files

The code bundle for the book is hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Modern-CMake-for-Cpp-2E. We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://packt.link/gbp/9781805121800.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. For example: “Mount the downloaded WebStorm-10*.dmg disk image file as another disk in your system.”

A block of code is set as follows:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.26)
project(Hello)
add_executable(Hello hello.cpp)

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.26)
project(Hello)
add_executable(Hello hello.cpp)
add_subdirectory(api)

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

cmake --build <dir> --parallel [<number-of-jobs>]
cmake --build <dir> -j [<number-of-jobs>]

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see on the screen. For example: “Select System info from the Administration panel.”