vcpkg-utility

A cross-platform C++20 command line tool template with dependency manager, powered by integration of cmake with vcpkg.

Usage

Make sure you are signed in to your GitHub account, then just click here to use template.

Motivation and goals

In the С++ world, now...

• When an idea comes up, you have to create manually CMakeLists.txt, README.md, a directories structure, or finish the project created by the IDE to a portable state.
• There is no dependency management without difficulties.
• There is no cross-platform build without Qt.
• These problems overlap, causing troubles for developers.

Therefore, vcpkg-utility is a template for creating and building cross-platform C++ projects with external dependencies. vcpkg-utility is a tool like start.your-technology.io sites for Java, .NET and Rust.

Features and benefits

• Full compatibility with existing technologies. No build configuration files are added except for the traditional CMakeLists.txt.
• Created projects are supported in CLion, Visual Studio, VS Code IDEs.
• Adding dependencies is done with one command through integration with vcpkg.
• A project with all dependencies can be built on different OS without configuration changes.

Build

We need cmake build system and vcpkg manager libraries. It's easy to install with system package manager, brew for example.

1. Install the dependencies:
   vcpkg install catch2 cli11 fmt
   (If you are using an IDE, you can stop at this step simply by setting CMake options as the result of vcpkg integrate install command)
2. Prepare the directory for building using the dependencies vcpkg:
   cmake `vcpkg integrate install | tail -1 | cut -d \" -f2` -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -G "Unix Makefiles" -B cmake-build-release
   On Windows, instead of the code in `` quotes, manually substitute the parameter obtained by calling vcpkg integrate install.
3. Putting together the directory and tests: cmake --build cmake-build-release --target all
   After that, the main self-executable utility will appear in the cmake-build-release directory under the name proj . The tests can be run by launching the test file located nearby.

This repository source code conventions

• The entry point must be located in the Main.cpp file for correct build script work.
• To initialize resources, we using modern parameter passing by value, rather than a constant link.
• Only the result of the compilation of * .cpp files in the src folder is included in the release assembly.
• The src folder contains the *.cpp and *.h project files together.
• The test folder contains the *.cpp and *.h project test files together.
• Each *.h file must define only one entity in the global namespace, whose name must match the file name.
• The contents of *.cpp files not declared in *.h file must be protected from external linkage from others compilation units by adding them to the anonymous namespace or adding the keyword static.