msaf1980/cproject

cproject - The CMake project initializer (but not only, can be extended to any templated projects)

cproject is an CMake project initializer that generates CMake projects

Features

• Be simple to use
  [TODO] The script allows you to just mash enter to get you a correctly set up project for an executable. You want a header-only library? Choose h when prompted. Static/shared library? Just choose s when prompted. Simple and correct!
• Create [FetchContent][1] ready projects
  [TODO] This is important, because in the near feature this might allow CMake to consume other projects in a trivial fashion similar to other languages.
• Cleanly separate developer and consumer build configurations This ties into the previous point as well, but developers and consumers of a project have different needs, and separating targets achieves that goal. A developer should be able to run tests (with or without profile/sanitizer), add warning flags, run benchmarks, etc., while a consumer, generally only wants to build the library or the executable itself.
• Use modern CMake (3.14+)
• Make usage of tools easy
  [TODO] Code coverage (gcov), code linting and formatting (clang-format), static analysis (clang-tidy) and dynamic analysis (sanitizers, valgrind) are all very helpful ways to guide the developer in creating better software, so they should be easy to use.
• [TODO] Integrate with package managers (conan, vcpkg, CPM, cget).

Non-goals

• Allow to modify project structure with add custom targets. Default project structure is from 'Modern Cmake' book

- project
  - .gitignore
  - README.md
  - LICENCE.md
  - CMakeLists.txt
  - cmake
    - FindSomeLib.cmake
    - something_else.cmake
  - include
    - project
      - lib.hpp
  - src
    - CMakeLists.txt
    - lib.cpp
  - apps
    -  CMakeLists.txt
    - app.cpp
  - tests
    - CMakeLists.txt
    - testlib.cpp
  - docs
    - CMakeLists.txt
  - extern
    - googletest
  - scripts
    - helper.py

• Generate files and show tips for websites other than GitHub
  [TODO] While I understand the people who are against GitHub (and by proxy Microsoft), it's by far the most used website of its kind, the files and messages specific to it are small in number, and they are easily adapted for any other service.

Install

Make sure you have these programs installed:

• Python 3.6 or newer
• CMake 3.14 or newer
• git
• clang-tidy (optional)
• cppcheck (optional)
• Doxygen < 1.9 (optional)
• LCOV (optional)
• clang-format 12 (optional)
• codespell (optional)
• Package managers: Conan or vcpkg (optional)

---

NOTE

Some of these tools can be used on Windows as well if you want to use Visual Studio, but you have to install these addins:

• https://clangpowertools.com/
• https://github.com/VioletGiraffe/cppcheck-vs-addin

---

This package is available for download from [PyPI][16]. You can install this package using pip:

[TODO]

pip install  cproject

clang-tidy

[TODO]

[clang-tidy][5] is a static analysis tool that helps you spot logical errors in your code before it is compiled. This script gives you the option to inherit the clang-tidy preset in your dev preset, enabling the CMake integration for this tool.

CI will always run clang-tidy for you, so it is entirely optional to install and use it locally, but it is recommended.

For Windows users, if you wish to use clang-tidy, then you must install [Ninja][6] and set the generator field in your dev preset to Ninja. The reason for this is that only [Makefiles and Ninja][7] are supported with CMake for use with clang-tidy. For other generators, this feature is a no-op.

cppcheck

[TODO]

[cppcheck][8] is a static analysis tool similar to clang-tidy, however the overlap in what they detect is minimal, so it's beneficial to use both of them. This script gives you the option to inherit the cppcheck preset in your dev preset, enabling the CMake integration for this tool.

CI will always run cppcheck for you, so it is entirely optional to install and use it locally, but it is recommended.

For Windows users, if you wish to use cppcheck, then you must install [Ninja][6] and set the generator field in your dev preset to Ninja. The reason for this is that only [Makefiles and Ninja][9] are supported with CMake for use with cppcheck. For other generators, this feature is a no-op.

Doxygen

[Doxygen][11] is a tool to generate documentation from annotated source code.

The generated projects will have a dox target in developer mode, which can be used to build the documentation into the <binary-dir>/docs/html directory.

After Doxygen is installed, please make sure the doxygen executable exists in the PATH, otherwise you might get confusing error messages.

[TODO] This documentation can be deployed to GitHub Pages using the docs job in the generated CI workflow. Follow the comments left in the job to enable this.

LCOV

[LCOV][13] is a tool to process coverage info generated by executables that were instrumented with GCC's gcov. This coverage info can be used to see what parts of the program were executed.

The generated projects will have a coverage-zero and coverage targets in developer mode if the COVERAGE variable is enabled. The reason why a separate target is used instead of CTest's built-in coverage step is because it lacks necessary customization. This target should be run after the tests and by default it will generate a report at <binary-dir>/coverage.info and an HTML report at the <binary-dir>/coverage_report directory, old report save in <binary-dir>/coverage_report.old directory.

In example, Ninja is used (not required)

mkdir _build
cd _build
cmake -D COVERAGE=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DBUILD_TESTING=ON -G Ninja ..
cmake --build .
cmake --build . --target coverage-zero
ctest
cmake --build . --target coverage

[TODO] For Windows users, you may use a similar tool called [OpenCppCoverage][17], for which there is an example script in the generated cmake directory. This script is left as an example, because the Linux VM launches and runs faster in GitHub Actions and so it is used for coverage submission.

clang-format

[clang-format][14] is part of the LLVM tool suite similar to clang-tidy. It's a code linter and code formatter, which can be used to enforce style guides.

Two targets are made available to check and fix code in developer mode using the format-check and format-fix targets respectively.

NOTE: the project generates files that are formatted according to clang-format 12. Newer or older versions may format the project differently.

codespell

[codespell][15] is a tool to find and fix spelling errors mainly in source code.

Two targets are made available to check and fix spelling errors in developer mode using the spell-check and spell-fix targets respectively.

Package managers

[TODO] The -p flag can be used to select a package manager for the project. Arguments for the flag can be:

• none: no package manager integration (default)
• conan: [Conan][21] integration
• vcpkg: [vcpkg][22] integration

Make sure to read the generated HACKING document to see what needs to be done to fetch dependencies.

Usage

• cproject [-s TEMPLATE_DIR] list [PROJECT_TYPE]
  This command will list projects with addons and targets. For example list all CMake projects

  cproject list cmake

• cproject [-s TEMPLATE_DIR] new [-t TEMPLATE] [-T TARGET] [-a ADDON [-a ADDON2 ..]] project_dir[:project_name]
  Generate a project (with optional addons). If project_name not set, dir basename is used For example create CMake project with executable target and tests with catch2 (> 3.0.0)

  cproject new -t cmake -a bin_cpp -a catch3 -a test_catch3_cpp app/test

• cproject [-s TEMPLATE_DIR] addon [-p PROJECT_DIR] [ADDON ..] Add addons to existing project. For example append to CMake project tests with catch2 (> 3.0.0)

  cproject addon -p app/test catch3 test_catch3_cpp

• cproject --help Shows the help screen for more flags and switches.