qiBuild design

qiBuild source code is divide into two loosely-coupled components.

qiBuild CMake framework

The CMake framework is composed of two parts:

• A bunch of files containing nice wrappers for CMake functions, aim to simplify authoring of CMakeLists files, which constitutes the qiBuild CMake API
• A set of -config.cmake files, written because upstream CMake modules files are missing or not correct. You can learn about about this config files by following the Writing a custom -config.cmake module file tutorial.

But of course, the main feature of the qiBuild CMake framework is to allow you to easily manage dependencies between projects.

For a more detailed description of how this works, please read the qiBuild CMake framework design section.

qiBuild command line tools

First note that the qibuild command line tools are absolutely not necessary use the qiBuild CMake framework.

The qibuild tools are all written in Python.

The Porting a CMake project to qiBuild guide never uses the qibuild command line, for instance.

The coupling between the Python command line tools and the CMake framework is very loose.

qibuild command line only generates small bits of CMake code:

• A dependencies.cmake in the build directory, which is only useful if your project depends on library not found on your system, or if the qibuild CMake framework is not installed on your system. (And this file is simply NOT included if it does not exist)
• A CMake toolchain file when using toolchains. (more on this later)

For a more detailed description of the qibuild features and how the are implemented, please read the qiBuild Python framework design section.