CMake & Conan

Introduction

CMake and Conan work together to streamline the build and dependency management process in C++ projects.

CMake is a Build System Generator, a tool that generates build files (like Makefiles or Visual Studio project files) from a CMakeLists.txt configuration. It handles:

  • Project structure
  • Compiler and linker settings
  • Build targets (executables, libraries)
  • Platform-specific configurations

Conan is a C++ Package Manager that manages external dependencies (libraries) for C++ projects. It:

  • Downloads and installs packages (like Boost, OpenSSL, etc.)
  • Handles versioning and compatibility
  • Can build packages from source if binaries aren’t available

How They Work Together

  1. Declare Dependencies in Conan: In a conanfile.txt or conanfile.py.
  2. Install Dependencies: conan install .
    • This generates a conanbuildinfo.cmake or uses the modern CMakeDeps generator.
  3. Integrate with CMake:
    • In CMakeLists.txt:
      include(${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/conanbuildinfo.cmake)
      conan_basic_setup()
    • Or with the newer CMakeDeps approach:
      find_package( REQUIRED)
      target_link_libraries(MyTarget PRIVATE ::)
  4. Build Project with CMake.