Development/CMake - KDE TechBase

Most KDE software uses CMake as a buildsystem. This page is the starting point for CMake-related documentation for KDE software.

You should be aware that there are two main development platforms that KDE software is based on: the older kdelibs4, and its replacement, the KDE Frameworks. Quite a bit of KDE software is in the process of transitioning from kdelibs4 to KDE Frameworks, and the way CMake is used is slightly different between the two.

Building a project with CMake

If you just want to build a CMake-based project on a UNIX system, the following recipe will do that:

   cd /path/to/project/source
   mkdir build
   cd build
   cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/where/to/install/to ..
   make
   make install

Don't forget to replace both paths. If you want an explanation of what this command does and how to make CMake behave differently, or you want to build on Windows or OS/X, see Development/CMake/Building.

Extra CMake Modules

KDE4 Specific CMake Documentation

CMake tutorial: An introduction to using CMake for KDE4

KDE's CMake FAQ: Some Frequently Asked Questions

KDE CMake modules API: Documentation for all CMake modules in kdelibs (generated from kdelibs svn)

Nightly dashboard builds for KDE: Describes the quality dashboard for KDE and how to set up Nightly builds for it

KDE4 CMake Buildtypes, macros and variables: Documentation for the buildtypes (debugfull, release, ...), macros and variables for building KDE4 software, provided by FindKDE4Internal.cmake (manually written)

Automoc4: Automoc4 documentation.

CMake for Python projects: How to integrate a Python project into the KDE4 cmake system.

Policies

Commit Policy for kdelibs/cmake/modules/: The files in kdelibs/cmake/modules/ are part of the public interface of KDE, some special policies apply to committing there.

Source compatiblity with CMake: This page discusses what has to be taken care of in order to stay source compatible on the CMake level.

Coding style for CMake files: Some guidelines how to write CMake scripts in KDE.

Changelog for KDE's CMake buildsystem

Changes in the buildsystem with KDE 4.5: What has changed in KDE 4.5 compared to KDE 4.4

Changes in the buildsystem with KDE 4.4: What has changed in KDE 4.4 compared to KDE 4.3

Changes in the buildsystem with KDE 4.3: What has changed in KDE 4.3 compared to KDE 4.2

Changes in the buildsystem with KDE 4.2: What has changed in KDE 4.2 compared to KDE 4.0/4.1

More Places to learn about CMake

Here are some good places to learn about CMake in general:

Also, consider joining the CMake mailing list.