CMake News

Kitware Launches Developer Blog

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Kitware launched its first developer blog today which will be penned by Kitware's Research and Development Team and Corporate Leadership. The blog was designed to help our user community and those with an interest in specific Kitware toolkits, products or people, keep up with our current thoughts and interests.

Our team is free to write about whatever topic they'd like (of course, without violating any legal agreements). So what you see on the blog may not necessarily represent the views of Kitware as a whole, and you may even see dissenting opinions in the comments posted by other Kitware employees. Comments have been enabled so that you can interact with the posts as they go live. We encourage our readers to provide suggestions and engage in a dialogue with us and each other through the Kitware blog. While we do allow negative feedback, we will remove any spam, profanity, or excessively

CMake 2.8.0 Now Available

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500

CMake 2.8.0 was released in September 2009. This version of CMake fixes many open issues and provides some exciting new features.

The official CMake GUI is now Qt-based, and is distributed with CMake on Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX. The GUI provides for quick searching of CMake options, and the ability to have options with lists of defined options. The ccmake executable will still be available for command line use on supported systems.

There is a "--build" option for the cmake executable that can be used to build any CMake build tree from the command line, regardless of the generator used. A new External project module can be used to create custom targets to drive download, update/patch, configure, build, install and test steps of an external project.

The new CMake has support for Visual Studio 2010. It also has significant improvements for the Eclipse project generator. All targets are now available in Eclipse and system include directories and predefined macros are now detected for

ITK 3.16 Released

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400

ITK 3.16 was released on September 15, 2009. The main changes in this release include the continued addition of classes for managing labeled images contributed on an Insight Journal article by G. Lehmann. These added classes were the remaining components of a 70+ class label map morphology module. These classes provide for the efficient representation of label maps and for conversion between current ITK label images and the efficient storage format. Details are available from "Label Object Representation and Manipulation with ITK", which can be read in the January Source or on the Insight Journal (http://hdl.handle.net/1926/584). These new classes can be found in the Code/Review Directory and can be enabled by setting the CMake variable

CMake 2.6.4 Released

Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400

The CMake team is pleased to announce the release of CMake 2.6.4. This release is available for download on CMake.org. The documentation for 2.6.4 can be found here.

If you have any problems or find any bugs, please report them at www.cmake.org/Bug.

A full list of changes for the 2.6 release tree can be found here.

Some notable changes are:

Fix broken OSXX11 CPack generator
Fix #8843 ctest system information was not always correct on linux
Fix transitive linking of imported libraries
Fix CDash only submit with ctest_submit
Fix scope issue with CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_FILE and macros
Fix crash in include_directories #8704
Do not warn if LIBPATH is not set for nmake
No

CDash Now Scalable for Extremely Large Software Efforts

Mon, 04 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Kitware has been working with the Trilinos team (http://trilinos.sandia.gov) at Sandia National Labs to help them port to CMake/CTest/CDash. Trilinos is an extremely large software effort whose goal is to develop algorithms and enabling technologies for the solution of large-scale, complex, multi-physics engineering and scientific problems.

The project is composed of more than 40 active subprojects each of which needs to be seen as a single large entity and as individual projects by themselves. Prior to CDash 1.4, global and individual project views of this scale and size weren't possible. With the changes made to CDash and CTest, Trilinos developers are now able to receive dashboard emails for specific subprojects on which they are working. Additionally, CDash queries can now be saved and used as bookmarks.

The new subproject view in CDash 1.4 for the

CDash 1.4 Released

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400

CDash the open-source, web-based software testing server has had its third major release since October. CDash aggregates, analyzes and displays the results of software testing processes submitted from clients located around the world, conveying the state of a software system to continually improve its quality.

The main CDash server for open-source projects is now hosting 12+ projects.

The 1.4 release fixes more than 60 bugs and adds more than 20 new features including:

New XML parsing using SAX

Support for filters

Support for labels on builds, tests, coverage files

Introduction of models (MVC framework)

Nightly testing of CDash itself:
http://www.cdash.org/CDash/index.php?project=CDash

Support for subprojects (CMake/CTest CVS is required)
http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.6/CMakeChangeLog-2.6.3

Second Life Chooses CMake as its Build System

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Linden Labs (http://lindenlab.com/), maker of the popular 3-D virtual world Second Life, has chosen CMake as its new build tool. Linden Lab switched to CMake for building the Second Life viewer (starting with version 1.21)because CMake simplified the cross-platform makefile maintenance process and enabled the company to branch out further into open source development.

"A great technology choice that our community helped us make was moving to CMake, a cross-platform build tool, which makes it much simpler to maintain makefiles for many different platforms." The developer community found Linden's old configuration system limited and frustrating, and Lanphier credits the persistence of community member Callum Lerwick with leading to the CMake solution.

CMake has the advantage of generating per-platform build files. On Linux, it will generate Makefiles and KDevelop project files. On OS X, it will generate Makefiles and Xcode project files. On Windows, it will generate Makefiles (for nmake) and

CMake 2.6.2 Released

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

CMake 2.6.2 was released on September 25, 2008. This release mainly addresses compatibility issues and bug fixes for the 2.6 branch of CMake. Combined with 2.6.1, 2.6.2 addresses over 170 issues with 2.6.0. Some of the highlights are as follows:

Builds Second Life Viewer on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.

Many small changes to find modules so that CMake can find installed software more reliably.

The Mac OSX Framework creation support is complete

A -trace option was added to CMake to enable easier debugging of CMake projects.

Several documentation fixes.

Added a new tree-view to the Qt cmake-gui.

Allow CMakeImportBuildSettings to not match tools if CMAKE_OVERRIDE_COMPILER_MISMATCH is set.

Bug fix in NSIS CPack where CPACK_NSIS_MODIFY_PATH did modify the path.

For a full listing of the changes in 2.6.2 visit: In late October Kitware will launch the new ParaView (paraview.org) and CDash (cdash.org) websites. The new CMake (cmake.org) site went live at the beginning of September. Additionally, a brand new site for the new VTKEdge toolkit (vtkedge.org) will go live in late October as well. The new site design is focused on providing researchers and developers with streamlined access to information and will provide users with a multitude of resources to assist in development, creating easier access to licensing information, related publications, ways to get involved with the projects, and resources for development and support. Additionally, the new sites are uniformly designed so that users will find consistency when accessing information from project to project.

CMake 2.6.1 Released

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

CMake 2.6.1 was released on August 1, 2008.

http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.6/CMakeChangeLog-2.6.2

CMake 2.6 Released

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

CMake 2.6 is the first major release of CMake since 2.4 was released in May 2006. A brief list of the significant new features and bug fixes is provided below. In addition, an article on the CMake 2.6 release is included in the July edition of the Kitware Source.

Introduction of the cmake_policy command

New cross platform Qt-based GUI

Improved Fortran Support

Mac OSX Framework creation support

Project generators for Eclipse and CodeBlocks

Bullseye coverage support

Uses full paths for linking, and no longer separates into –L and –l CPack supports .deb and rpm creation

Cross compilation support

Enhanced find_package that can find project installed FooConfig.cmake files

New CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH environment variable to specify user search directories for find_xxx

Automatic project reload of project in Visual

CMake 2.6.0 Released

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

CMake 2.6.0 was released on May 6, 2008. This is the first major release of CMake in 2 years. It contains many bug fixes and new features. A short list of new features are as follows:

Visual Studio Auto-reload

Cross Compile support

Framework creation support on OSX

Compatibility policies incorporated

Documentation for variables

CDash submit support

Use full paths for linking to libraries on all platforms. No longer separate into -L and -l.

New qt based GUI cmake-gui

Project generators for Eclipse and CodeBlocks

CMake 2.4.8 Released

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

In January 2008, Kitware released CMake 2.4.8. This is expected to be the last CMake release in the 2.4.X branch. 2.4.8 has many bug fixes over 2.4.7. Some highlights are:

Visual Studio 9 support

CMakeSetup.exe works with Windows Vista with no elevation of permissions.

Improved FindQt4

Fixes to FindPkgConfig

Allow NODEFAULTLIBS to have more than one value

Suppress regeneration of makefiles during try compile avoid infinite. Loop in trycompile with some VS 2005 builds.

Allow for debug libraries in InstallRequiredSystemLibraries. cmake for vs8

Fix for cpack and messing up PATH with NSIS

Fix for exception handling flags in VS 2003 and up

Fix for kde4-config location

Fix for self extracting .sh files on solaris

Fix for version numbers on NetBSD

Add more search directories (install prefix and cmake location)

Include WindowsPaths in Windows.cmake not just W

KDE Adopts CMake

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

CMake, Kitware's open-source software process and build tool, is used throughout the world in a variety of software systems. KDE 4.0, a Linux desktop environment and one of the world's largest open-source software systems, was recently released across multiple computer platforms due in large part CMake's cross-platform capabilities.

On January 11, 2008 KDE 4.0.0 was officially released. This is the next cutting-edge version of KDE, consisting of the KDE libraries, the workspace (desktop, start panel, window manager), and applications (such as kOffice, kDevelop, etc.). One of the major features of KDE 4 is that it now runs natively on Mac OSX and on Windows, beyond the previous Linux platforms. Such cross-platform support is now possible in major part because KDE is now built using CMake, the cross-platform build, test, package and software process tool

For more information, watch this www.cmake.org/HTML/Download.html. Improvements since version 2.4.3 include the following.

• Support for Windows dll version numbers.
• Improved Find/Use wxWidgets.
• Improved FindJava and FindJNI.
• Added FILE_IS_NEWER to IF command.
• Added OPTIONAL to INSTALL command.
• Added SORT and REVERSE to LIST command.
• Added SYMBOLIC as a source file property.
• Much faster dependency scanning.
• Improved support for Visual Studio 8.
• Support for QNX.
• Added APPEND option to ADD_CUSTOM_COMMAND.
• Added VERBATIM option to ADD_CUSTOM_COMMAND and ADD_CUSTOM_TARGET.
• Added EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL option for ADD_LIBRARY and ADD_EXECUTABLE.
• Improved FindKDE3 and FindKDE4.
• Improved FindRuby.
• Improved FindQt3 and FindQt4.
&bull

CMake 2.4.2 Released

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0400

The latest release of CMake is the 2.4 release. The 2.4 release branch has many new features to support KDE(www.kde.org), which has chosen CMake as its build system. In addition to improvements in the CMake build system, a new tool called CPack has been added to the CMake family. CPack is a tool to create release packages automatically. It is currently in beta and supports the Nullsoft installer on Windows, the Mac OSX installer, and several forms of compressed tar files. In future releases it will support RPMs and other Linux/UNIX distribution systems.

The changes for the CMake 2.4 branch are as follows. Changes in CMake 2.4.2:

• Run symlink command from correct directory for executable versions
• Fix for universal binaries and Xcode depend problem
• Changes to LIST command; see --help-command LIST
• Fix FindQT to be able to use full paths to source files
• Fix CPack ZIP on Windows command line problem
&bull

CMake 2.4 Released

Wed, 03 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

CMake Release 2.4 available in May 2006. This release as the following new features:

Visual Studio 2005 win64 support

Improved install support

Improved FIND_PROGRAM, FIND_LIBRARY, FIND_PATH, FIND_FILE

Improved support for finding/using OSX Frameworks

Multiple output support for custom commands

Color output in make with vt100 terminals CMAKE_COLOR_MAKFILE

Better variables for MSVC MSVC80

Library path order is preserved

Fix for text file busy in xcodebuild runs

Better bundle support on OSX

ctest -S scripts can run in new process with new environment

OSX universal binary support

Watcom support

MinGW and MSYS support

Visual studio 2005 manifest support

Better handling of RPATH, no longer put rpath in install tree

Fix OUTPUT_NAME

ctest captures output from vcexpress

cmake --help-module can give help fo

CMake 2.2 to be Released in September

Tue, 06 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

CMake Release 2.2 available in September 2005. This release as the following new features:

2.2.1 is a new beta and was merged with CVS on 9/06/05.

fix infinite loop problem in enable language/try compile

The makefile generator was redone to create fewer files.

Xcode 2.1 support added.

better support for add custom command with relative files as arguments

provided default update options if none are provided to ctest

For file removal if the file is a symlink treat it like a file and not a directory.

Better install directory for windows.

AIX compiler flag defaults.

Objc++ test has the correct case.

Language NONE fixed.

Java 1.5 searched now.

FindCurses cleaned up.

FindQt/FindQt3/FindQT4 enhanced.

UseSwig supports CMAKE_SWIG_OUTDIR

Modules/ProjectCompatibility.cmake file supported.

Modules/VTKCompatibility.cmake file

Kitware Releases Second Edition of Mastering CMake

Sat, 10 Jul 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Mastering CMake is now updated for Version 2.0. This book includes chapters on producing test dashboards and DART testing. A full reference of CMakes commands and variables with descriptions is included.

Kitware, Inc. is a leading software development company providing products and services in the areas of medical image analysis, visualization and 3D graphics, supercomputing, computer vision, open publication, and software quality process. Kitware is known for its advanced open source software tools such as the widely used Visualization Toolkit (VTK), Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit (ITK), and the CMake build management software. Established in 1998, Kitware is rapidly growing to support top research and development clients around the world; including such prestigious customers as the US National Labs (Sandia, Los Alamos, Livermore, and Argonne), the National Institutes of Health, the Army and Air Force Research labs, and a variety of academic, commercial and governmental resea

CMake 2.0 Released

Fri, 11 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0400

This new release includes:

A new platform independent install supporting pre install, post install, manifest, destdir..., and is much faster.

Add support for SWIG

Optional support for relative paths

INCLUDE and FIND_PACKAGE both check CMAKE_MODULE_PATH

IF command supports better expression support, like IF(A AND B AND C), and new tests EQUAL, STREQUAL.

MACRO's now support variable arguments

FOREACH supports a RANGE of values genertor

CMake supports an automatic pre-load cmake file in the source tree of a project.

New command GET_TARGET_PROPERTY can give you the build location of a target.

Loaded commands have a crash signal handler to detect crashes not caused by cmake.

GET/SET_DIRECTORY_PROPERTY/PROPERTIES commands so that we can change include directories and get all sorts of information.

VERBOSE build option for visual studio IDE generators.

FIND_LIBRARY and

Cross-Platform Software Development Using CMake

Thu, 30 Oct 2003 00:00:00 -0500

When looking through a large list of projects, one thing becomes apparent: a description of the build process always is stored in a group of files. These files can be simple shell scripts, Makefiles, Jam files, complex scripts based on projects like Autoconf and Automake or tool-specific files.

Recently another player came into the software building game, CMake. CMake is not directly a build process, because it uses native build tools, such as Make or even Microsoft Visual Studio. With support for numerous platforms, in-source and out-of-source builds, cross-library dependency checking, parallel building and simple configuration of header files, it significantly reduces the complexity of cross-platform software development and maintenance processes.

Build Systems

CMake 1.8 Released

Wed, 13 Aug 2003 00:00:00 -0400

For this release, the custom commands have been rearchitected to use a more understandable signature. The old signature should still work. ctest has been enhanced and can produce testing dashboards compatible with Dart in many cases. A new FILE command has been added that supports reading, writing, and globbing of files. A new help target is created for all Makefiles so you can do nmake help (or make help) Command line options (-D) for cmake no longer require the type of the argument. The on-line help for cmake has been significantly improved. Run cmake --help for more information. Support for windows paths and filenames that include &. Support for files with multiple "." in them for nmake. More Modules report results to CMakeOutput.log and CMakeError.log. The performance of dependency tracing and analysis in CMake has been significantly improved. Both ccmake and CMakeSetup have some minor GUI improvements. And of course a number of minor bug fixes and enhancements.

CMake 1.6 Released

Wed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:00 -0500

This release includes a number of new features to help make project management easier.

Version 1.6 includes TRY_COMPILE and TRY_RUN which can be used to test for features of the compiler or system that you are on. The MACRO command allows repeated CMakeLists code to be encapsulated into a macro. If you need to perform very complex operations the LOAD_COMMAND command allows you to write your own CMake command using a C API that can be compiled and loaded into CMake as part of the configuration process. Version 1.6 includes a wxWindows based GUI for use on MacOSX.

This version includes a number of enhancements, bug fixes, and new features. The Modules directory includes a number of new tests and macros that can be used in your projects.

The CMake Build Manager

Wed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:00 -0500

CMake is an open-source, cross-platform C/C++ build manager that supports platform inspection and user-customized builds.

By William Hoffman and Ken Martin, Dr. Dobb's Journal
Jan 01, 2003
URL:http://www.ddj.com/cpp/184405251

Many software projects ship with both a UNIX makefile (or Makefile.in) and a Microsoft Visual Studio workspace, requiring you to constantly keep both build systems up to date and consistent with each other. Targeting additional build systems (Borland or CodeWarrior, for instance) requires even