moderncpp-project-template

This repository aims to represent a template for Modern C++ projects, including static analysis checks, autoformatting, a BDD/TDD capable test-suite and packaging

Requirements

• a modern C++17 compiler (gcc-8, clang-6.0, MSVC 2017 or above)
• cmake 3.15+
• conan 2.0+ (optional)
• cppcheck (optional)
• clang-format (optional)

Features

• CMake-based project management, including dependencies
• Conan support for dependency management in CMake, completely optional
• Additional tools such as clang-format and cppcheck
• Support for shared/static libraries, including generation of export information
• Basic CPack configuration for redistributables
• GitHub Actions

Repository layout

The repository layout is pretty straightforward, including the CMake files to build the project, a conanfile where are declared examples of dependencies, a suppression list for cppcheck and the C++ source code:

-- conanfile.txt                - the main `conan` configuration file listing dependencies
-- cppcheck_suppressions.txt    - optional list of suppressions for cppcheck
-- CMakeLists.txt               - the main `CMake` Project configuration file
-- .dockerignore                - files to be excluded by Docker
-- .gitignore                   - files to be excluded by git
+- `cmake/`                     - CMake modules
  | -- clang-format.cmake       - CMake target definitions for clang-format
  | -- compiler-options.cmake   - Common compiler options for major platforms/compilers
  | -- cpack.cmake              - Packaging configuration with CPack
  | -- dependencies.cmake       - Project dependencies, CMake-Style
+- `project/`                   - the whole C++ project
  | -- .clang-format            - the formatter rules for the C++ project
  | -- CMakeLists.txt
  | +- `helloapp/`              - your application files (including CMakeLists.txt, sources)
  | +- `hellolib/`              - your library files (including CMakeLists.txt, sources
+- `build/`                     - working directory for the build

Available CMake Options

• BUILD_TESTING - builds the tests (requires doctest)
• BUILD_SHARED_LIBS - enables or disables the generation of shared libraries
• BUILD_WITH_MT - valid only for MSVC, builds libraries as MultiThreaded DLL

If you activate the BUILD_TESTING flag, you need to perform in advance a conan install step, just to fetch the doctest dependency. Another dependency (OpenSSL) is used in this project as a demonstration of including a third-party library in the process, but it is totally optional and you can activate it only if you run conan in advance.

How to build from command line

The project can be built using the following commands:

cd /path/to/this/project
mkdir -p build # md build (on Windows)
cd build
conan install .. --output-folder=. --build=missing
cmake -DBUILD_TESTING=TRUE -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=TRUE -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
cmake --build .
cmake --build . --target format
cmake --build . --target package

How to build the project using a Docker Environment

Linux/gcc

docker run --rm -it -v $(pwd):/project madduci/docker-cpp-env:latest "mkdir -p build && cd build && conan install .. && cmake -DBUILD_TESTING=TRUE -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=TRUE .. && cmake --build ."

Windows/msvc

docker run --rm -it -v $(pwd):/home/wine/.wine/drive_c/project madduci/docker-wine-msvc:17.8-2022

and then:

md project/build
cd project/build
conan install --output-folder .  .. 
cmake -G "Ninja" -DBUILD_TESTING=TRUE  ..
cmake --build .