CMake Primer

What does CMake do?

It manages the build process of a project.

What's a build process?

A build process involves taking your source code, which is written in a high level language like C or C++ and transforming it into an executable program or library that can be run by the machine

Sweet! So what does CMake do again?

CMake helps automate and organize this process by generating platform-specific build files (like Makefiles or Visual Studio Project files) based on a configuration descrbed in a CMakeLists.txt This means that CMake allows developers to write a single set of build instructions that can be used on different operating systems and with various build tools.

What's in a CMakeLists.txt?

This file contains instructions on how to build the project, such as which source files to include, compiler options and dependencies

Our CMakeLists.txt has these 3 lines:

  cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.20.0)
  project(Hello) -> naming our project
  add_executable(Hello_cmake hello.cpp) -> here, Hello is the name of our executable that will be generated and hello.cpp is the source file

Those are the basics. The CMake docs should be able to help you figure out your specific needs