Volkan/README.md

CMake module-system demo

A minimal C++20 project showing a per-module CMake setup: each module owns a tiny, self-contained CMakeLists.txt, the root CMakeLists.txt discovers modules automatically, three ways to bring in third-party code (vendored, installed, or fetched) stay out of your warnings and your compile database, every module gets its own browsable documentation via a pinned Doxygen that's entirely opt-in (never required just to build), Ninja itself is pinned and fetched the same way with a graceful fallback if it's unavailable, and every output path is configured in one place.

Layout

CMakeLists.txt                 project setup, options, install(), discovery -- edit by hand
Configuration.cmake             all output-path configuration -- edit to relocate anything
cmake/BuildHelpers.cmake        module macros + discovery mechanism -- edit rarely
cmake/Dependencies.cmake        vendoring / installed-library / FetchContent helpers -- edit rarely
cmake/Documentation.cmake       per-module Doxygen integration -- only ever LOOKS for a pinned Doxygen
cmake/DoxygenPin.cmake          shared version/URL/hash parameters for the pinned Doxygen
cmake/FetchDoxygen.cmake        standalone downloader (run via `cmake -P`, not during normal configure)
cmake/NinjaPin.cmake            shared version/URL/hash parameters for the pinned Ninja
cmake/FetchNinja.cmake          standalone downloader (run via `cmake -P`, not during normal configure)
cmake/HotReload.cmake           hot_reload_enable_patchable_functions() -- see source/HotReload/README.md
source/Core/CMakeLists.txt      library module "core_lib" (SHARED), depends on fmt
source/HelloApp/CMakeLists.txt  executable module "hello_exe", depends on vendored tiny_ansi
source/FarewellApp/CMakeLists.txt  executable module "farewell_exe", depends on vendored tiny_case
source/HotReload/CMakeLists.txt library module "hotreload_lib" (STATIC) -- see source/HotReload/README.md
source/examples/HotReloadDemo/  worked example: a host + two builds of one hot-reloadable plugin
source/examples/HotReloadLiveDemo/  interactive: a persistent host + one plugin file you edit yourself
vendor/tiny_ansi/               header-only vendored dependency (no build of its own)
vendor/tiny_case/               vendored dependency with its own CMakeLists.txt
scripts/setup.sh, setup.bat     one-time: fetch pinned Ninja + Doxygen, check tooling, activate git hook
scripts/build.sh, build.bat     configure + build -- prefers a pinned Ninja, falls back gracefully
scripts/run.sh, run.bat         run a module by its CMake target name
scripts/install.sh, install.bat install this project's own artifacts only
scripts/docs.sh, docs.bat       build documentation for every module (or one) -- needs setup.sh first
scripts/refactor.sh, refactor.bat  auto-fix formatting/naming across this project's own code
.clang-format, .clang-tidy      C++ style guide tooling (see "Code style & tooling" below)
.editorconfig, .gitattributes   -- same
.gitignore                      Visual Studio template + a block auto-synced from Configuration.cmake
c-api/.clang-tidy               naming override template for a C API subtree -- now also applied for
                                 real at source/HotReload/src/c-api/ and source/HotReload/include/hot_reload/
.githooks/pre-commit            formatting/lint pre-commit hook
cpp-style-guide.md, TOOLING.md  the style guide itself + tooling docs

Everything generated -- the build tree, install output, docs, and reserved packaging output -- lives under one out/ directory (see "Output paths" below); nothing under out/ is source-controlled.

Each module's CMakeLists.txt is (conventionally) a couple of lines:

# source/Core/CMakeLists.txt
add_dependency(fmt
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/fmtlib/fmt.git
    GIT_TAG        11.0.2
    FIND_PACKAGE_ARGS NAMES fmt
)
add_lib_module(core_lib TYPE SHARED OUTPUT_NAME "demo_core" DEPENDS fmt::fmt)

A module declares its own dependencies in its own CMakeLists.txt -- same "minimal tool intervention" principle as module registration: nothing to add in the root file.

Output paths (Configuration.cmake)

Every generated path is a cache variable, overridable with -D<NAME>=... at configure time instead of editing any file:

Variable	Default	What it controls
OUT_DIR	out/	Root of everything generated; override this to relocate all of the below at once
INSTALL_OUTPUT_DIR	out/install	Root of the cmake --install tree, one subdirectory per DIST_TARGET
DIST_OUTPUT_DIR	out/dist	Reserved for packaged/archived output (e.g. a future CPack integration) -- not populated by this project yet, but created and ready
DOCS_OUTPUT_DIR	out/docs	Root of generated Doxygen documentation, one subdirectory per module
TOOLCACHE_DIR	.cache/tools	Where downloaded, pinned build tools (currently Ninja and Doxygen) are cached -- kept outside OUT_DIR so rm -rf out/ doesn't force a re-download
COMPILE_COMMANDS_DESTINATION	compile_commands.json	Where compile_commands.json is copied to after every build (see "compile_commands.json / clang tooling" below)
RUNTIME_OUTPUT_SUBDIR	bin	Subdirectory (inside whatever the build dir is) for executables/.dll/.so
LIBRARY_OUTPUT_SUBDIR	bin	Subdirectory for shared-library artifacts (kept alongside executables so $ORIGIN RPATH resolves them)
ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_SUBDIR	lib	Subdirectory for static/import-library artifacts

The build directory itself (CMAKE_BINARY_DIR, where CMakeCache.txt lives) isn't a Configuration.cmake variable -- it's fixed by whatever you pass to -B when configuring. scripts/build.sh/build.bat default to out/build, so the resulting layout is:

out/
  build/                          CMAKE_BINARY_DIR -- out/build/bin, out/build/lib during normal builds
  install/<DIST_TARGET>/{bin,lib} what `cmake --install` / scripts/install.sh populates
  dist/                           reserved for future packaging output
  docs/<module>/html/, docs/index.html   generated documentation

Example -- build into a different location entirely:

cmake -G Ninja -S . -B /tmp/my-build -DOUT_DIR=/tmp/my-out
cmake --build /tmp/my-build

.gitignore stays in sync automatically

Configuration.cmake is the single source of truth for every path above -- .gitignore doesn't hardcode its own copy of them. Every configure, a marked block near the bottom of .gitignore is regenerated from the current value of each path variable:

# >>> Configuration.cmake generated paths -- BEGIN (do not edit by hand; edit Configuration.cmake and reconfigure) >>>
.cache/tools/
compile_commands.json
out/
out/dist/
out/docs/
out/install/
# <<< Configuration.cmake generated paths -- END <<<

Change OUT_DIR (or any of the others, permanently in Configuration.cmake or per-configure with -D...=...) and this block updates to match on the next configure -- nothing to keep in sync by hand. Everything outside the block is untouched: .gitignore ships based on GitHub's VisualStudio.gitignore template, and that content is never rewritten. A path is only added if it resolves inside the repo -- pointing TOOLCACHE_DIR somewhere else entirely just omits it, since .gitignore has nothing useful to say about a location outside the repository it lives in. The file is only rewritten when the computed block actually differs from what's already there, so a normal reconfigure doesn't spuriously touch its contents or mtime.

Three ways to bring in a dependency (cmake/Dependencies.cmake)

Helper	For	Example
add_vendor_header_only(NAME [INCLUDE_DIR <dir>])	A buildless header-only drop under vendor/<NAME>/include	vendor/tiny_ansi/
add_vendor_subdirectory(SUBDIR)	A vendored dependency with its own CMakeLists.txt, under vendor/<SUBDIR>	vendor/tiny_case/
add_dependency(NAME <FetchContent_Declare args>)	An installed package (FIND_PACKAGE_ARGS ...) with a fetch-from-source fallback	fmt in source/Core/

All three are safe to call more than once for the same name (e.g. two modules that need the same dependency) and mark the dependency's headers SYSTEM, so -Wall -Wextra -Wpedantic//W4 -- which we only ever apply per-target inside our own module macros, never globally -- doesn't fire on code you don't control. Their targets are also dropped from compile_commands.json (see below).

add_dependency is CMake's native find-then-fetch integration: it tries find_package() first (an already-installed apt/vcpkg/conan copy) via FIND_PACKAGE_ARGS, and only downloads + builds from source if nothing is found. Omit FIND_PACKAGE_ARGS to always fetch. Requires network access the first time a dependency isn't already installed.

A module DEPENDS on whatever target the chosen path defines (fmt::fmt, tiny_case, tiny_ansi, ...) exactly like depending on another module -- add_lib_module/add_exe_module don't need to know or care which of the three supplied it.

Documentation (automatic per module, pinned Doxygen, entirely opt-in)

Every module registered via add_lib_module/add_exe_module/ add_test_module/add_example_module gets its own Doxygen documentation target for free -- nothing to add to a module's own CMakeLists.txt. This project uses a pinned Doxygen (currently 1.16.1, see DOXYGEN_PINNED_VERSION in cmake/DoxygenPin.cmake) -- it deliberately never looks for or uses a system-installed doxygen, so every machine building this project generates identical output regardless of what (if anything) is on PATH.

Building the project never needs Doxygen. cmake/Documentation.cmake only ever looks for an already-fetched pinned Doxygen under .cache/tools/ (TOOLCACHE_DIR) -- it never downloads anything itself during a normal configure, so scripts/build.sh has no Doxygen/network dependency at all. Fetching it is a separate, explicit, one-time step:

scripts/setup.sh    # see "Setup" below -- fetches the pinned Doxygen once

Until you've run that, scripts/docs.sh prints a clear message instead of building anything -- everything else (the actual C++ project) builds completely normally either way:

Documentation isn't set up yet (or ENABLE_DOXYGEN=OFF). Run scripts/setup.sh (or setup.bat) once to fetch the pinned Doxygen, then reconfigure.

Once set up:

scripts/docs.sh                # build docs for every module, prints where to open it
scripts/docs.sh core_lib        # build docs for just one module (docs_<target>)

scripts\docs.bat
scripts\docs.bat core_lib

Output goes to out/docs/<module>/html/index.html (a sibling of out/build/, not nested inside it -- see "Output paths" above), plus a landing page at out/docs/index.html linking to every module. Documentation is not built as part of a normal scripts/build.sh -- it's opt-in, the same way tests and examples are.

Writing docs for a module is just normal Doxygen comments in that module's headers -- e.g. source/Core/include/core/Greeting.hpp:

/// Builds a greeting for @p name.
///
/// @param name  the person (or thing) being greeted.
/// @return a formatted greeting string, e.g. "Hello, Ale! (from demo_core)".
std::string makeGreeting(const std::string& name);

Even with zero comments, a module's docs are still generated and useful -- file lists, function/class signatures, and (if Graphviz is installed on your system -- this one enhancement, unlike Doxygen itself, is still detected rather than pinned, since it's optional) call graphs are produced regardless, since DOXYGEN_EXTRACT_ALL is on by default. Comments just make it richer. Drop a README.md in a module's own directory and it's automatically used as that module's Doxygen main page.

Configuring it -- nothing is required, but everything is overridable:

# Disable entirely (docs targets print a message instead of building):
cmake -S . -B out/build -DENABLE_DOXYGEN=OFF

# Pin a different Doxygen version (also update the two SHA256 hashes in
# cmake/DoxygenPin.cmake to match that release's assets -- a stale hash
# fails scripts/setup.sh loudly, on purpose, rather than silently
# accepting an unexpected file -- then re-run scripts/setup.sh):
cmake -S . -B out/build -DDOXYGEN_PINNED_VERSION=1.17.0

# Any Doxyfile tag can be set as a CMake variable, e.g. stricter output:
cmake -S . -B out/build -DDOXYGEN_WARN_IF_UNDOCUMENTED=YES -DDOXYGEN_QUIET=NO

A single module can opt out with NO_DOCS:

# some/internal/module/CMakeLists.txt
add_lib_module(internal_only TYPE STATIC NO_DOCS)

Vendored and fetched dependencies (cmake/Dependencies.cmake) are never auto-documented -- same reasoning as their compile_commands.json exclusion, it isn't your code.

compile_commands.json / clang tooling

CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS is on by default, and every build copies compile_commands.json from the build directory to the project root so clangd/clang-tidy/IWYU find it without extra configuration (CMake only ever writes it into the build directory; most editors look for it at the repo root). Vendored and fetched dependencies are excluded from it, so it only reflects code this project actually owns. The project also builds cleanly with clang directly:

cmake -G Ninja -S . -B out/build -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++ -DDIST_TARGET=linux-x64-clang
cmake --build out/build

Code style & tooling

This project follows cpp-style-guide.md (tabs, Allman braces, PascalCase file names, camelCase functions/variables, m_/s_/g_ member/static/global prefixes -- see the file itself for the full rules and rationale), enforced by the tooling described in TOOLING.md:

File	Enforces
.clang-format	All formatting: tabs, Allman braces, pointer alignment, include order, line length
.clang-tidy	Naming conventions and a subset of language-feature rules, for this project's own C++ code
c-api/.clang-tidy	A template naming override (snake_case) for a C API subtree, if/when this project has one -- see below
.editorconfig	Baseline tabs/whitespace for editors that don't run clang-format live
.gitattributes	Forces LF line endings for source files on every OS
.githooks/pre-commit	Runs clang-format + clang-tidy on staged files before each commit; warns and skips (never blocks) if a tool isn't installed

Fixing violations automatically, instead of hunting them down by hand:

scripts/refactor.sh              # every file under source/ and c-api/ by default
scripts/refactor.sh source/Core  # just one file or directory

scripts\refactor.bat
scripts\refactor.bat source\Core

Runs clang-format -i (always) and clang-tidy --fix (if compile_commands.json exists -- build once first if it doesn't) across the given scope. The pre-commit hook only checks; this is the "just fix it" counterpart -- review the result with git diff afterward, same as any auto-formatter. This is exactly how this project's own code (source/) was brought into compliance when the toolkit was integrated -- see the renames noted further down.

With no argument, only source/ and c-api/ are ever scanned -- out/, .cache/, vendor/, and .git/ are never walked, so this can't accidentally spend minutes reformatting/analyzing a fetched dependency's entire source tree (verified against out/build/_deps/fmt-src/ specifically, since that's what triggered this exact problem before the fix). Passing an explicit scope takes it as given: refactor.sh still excludes vendor/out/.cache/.git defensively if your scope happens to overlap with them; refactor.bat does not (its Windows batch equivalent of that filter turned out to be unreliable to verify, so it was removed rather than shipped uncertain -- pick a scope that doesn't overlap with those directories, which is the normal case anyway, e.g. source\Core).

One-time setup per clone to activate the hook -- scripts/setup.sh / setup.bat does this for you (see "Setup" below) along with fetching the pinned Doxygen and checking for clang-format/clang-tidy; the two commands it runs for the hook specifically are:

chmod +x .githooks/pre-commit
git config core.hooksPath .githooks

clang-tidy needs compile_commands.json to resolve #includes -- this project already generates and copies it to the repo root on every build (see above), so as long as you've built at least once, the hook's clang-tidy check works with no extra setup.

Two adjustments made when integrating the toolkit into this specific project (not part of the toolkit as provided -- see TOOLING.md in this repo for the toolkit's own documentation of everything else):

• vendor/ is excluded from the pre-commit hook's staged-file check (git diff ... ':!vendor/*'). Vendored code (cmake/Dependencies.cmake) isn't this project's code, so it isn't held to this style guide -- same reasoning as its compile_commands.json and warning-flag exclusions elsewhere in this project.
• .clang-tidy gained one option, LocalConstantCase: camelBack. The style guide's own text says only global/static const/constexpr values are "constants" for naming purposes -- everything else stays under the camelCase Local Variables rule. Without this option, a plain local const (e.g. const std::string name = ...; inside a function) silently fell through to the general PascalCase constant rule instead, which would have flagged completely ordinary code. Verified against a small isolated test file: with the fix, a local const is accepted in camelCase while a static const/constexpr still correctly requires PascalCase.

c-api/.clang-tidy is included as a template, positioned exactly as the toolkit ships it (c-api/.clang-tidy) -- this project doesn't currently have a C API (Part II) surface. If you add one, move this file to that subtree's root (c-api/, public-include/, wherever your extern "C" headers live); clang-tidy always uses the closest .clang-tidy file up the directory tree, so files under that directory automatically pick up the C API's snake_case naming instead of this project's camelCase.

This project's own code was reformatted and renamed to comply when the toolkit was integrated -- e.g. Greeting.hpp/.cpp (was greeting.h/ .cpp) and makeGreeting/makeFarewell (was make_greeting/ make_farewell) in source/Core/. main.cpp in each app module became Main.cpp for the same reason (PascalCase file names) -- the style guide doesn't call out an entry-point exception, so none was assumed; rename back to lowercase if you'd rather treat that specific convention as an exception.

How module discovery works

The root CMakeLists.txt calls _discover_module_subdirectories() on three roots, in this order:

Root	What it holds
source/*	library AND app/executable modules, side by side
source/tests/*	test modules
source/examples/*	example modules

(source/tests and source/examples aren't picked up by the first call -- they have no CMakeLists.txt directly inside them, only their own children do.)

Any immediate child directory that contains its own CMakeLists.txt gets add_subdirectory()'d automatically (vendor/ is not one of these roots -- vendored dependencies are opted into explicitly by the modules that need them, not auto-built by default). This uses CONFIGURE_DEPENDS, so the next build reconfigures on its own after you add or remove a module directory -- no manual cmake re-run needed. A module may DEPENDS on a module discovered later in this list; order doesn't affect linking (CMake resolves target names across the whole project at generate time -- verified, not assumed).

Requirements

CMake >= 3.25, a C++20 compiler (GCC/Clang/MSVC), git (for FetchContent's GIT_REPOSITORY-based dependencies like fmt), and network access the first time you configure (for fmt, cached afterward under out/build/_deps). Notably not in this list: Ninja and Doxygen are both pinned and fetched automatically (see "Setup" below), not system dependencies, and scripts/build.sh warns rather than fails if Ninja isn't available at all (see "Build" below). Graphviz is optional for Doxygen call graphs, and clang-format/ clang-tidy are optional for the pre-commit hook and scripts/refactor.sh (see "Code style & tooling" above) -- both are detected, not pinned, since they're editor/workflow tools rather than part of the build itself. scripts/setup.sh (below) checks for both and prints install guidance if either is missing.

Setup

Optional, and separate from building (see "Requirements", "Build", and "Documentation" above) -- run once per clone, or any time you want to pick up a newer pinned version after bumping NINJA_PINNED_VERSION or DOXYGEN_PINNED_VERSION:

scripts/setup.sh

scripts\setup.bat

Does four things, each independent of the others:

1. Fetches the pinned Ninja (cmake/FetchNinja.cmake) -- used by scripts/build.sh/build.bat if present (see "Build" below); not required, a system Ninja works fine too.
2. Fetches the pinned Doxygen (cmake/FetchDoxygen.cmake) -- needed for scripts/docs.sh, not for building the project.
3. Checks for clang-format/clang-tidy on PATH and prints OS-appropriate install guidance if either is missing (never auto-installs -- that would need assumptions about your package manager and elevated privileges this script shouldn't assume it has).
4. Activates the pre-commit hook for this clone, if it's a git repository (git config core.hooksPath .githooks).

Safe to re-run any time -- each step is a no-op if there's nothing to do (e.g. the pinned Ninja/Doxygen are already cached).

Build

scripts/build.sh            # Release (default)
scripts/build.sh Debug       # or Debug / RelWithDebInfo / MinSizeRel

scripts\build.bat
scripts\build.bat Debug

Picks a generator in this order, each falling back to the next:

1. A pinned Ninja, if scripts/setup.sh/setup.bat has fetched one -- passed to CMake explicitly via -DCMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM=... so it's used even if a different Ninja also happens to be on PATH (same "always the pinned copy" preference as Doxygen -- see "Documentation" above).
2. A system Ninja, if one is on PATH and no pinned copy was found.
3. CMake's own default generator for the platform, if neither Ninja is available anywhere -- scripts/build.sh/build.bat print a warning and continue rather than fail. (CMakeLists.txt separately warns too, once CMake reports which generator it actually picked -- this is the pre-existing "This project targets Ninja" message, unrelated to this script.)

Verified concretely, not assumed: with neither a pinned nor a system Ninja present anywhere, scripts/build.sh still successfully configures, builds, and produces working binaries -- it just uses whatever CMake's default generator is for the platform (Unix Makefiles on Linux, typically NMake or a Visual Studio generator on Windows) instead.

Run

scripts/run.sh hello_exe
scripts/run.sh farewell_exe -- Ale
scripts/run.sh              # no args: lists available targets

scripts\run.bat hello_exe
scripts\run.bat farewell_exe -- Ale

run.sh/run.bat resolve the CMake target id (not the binary's OUTPUT_NAME) to the actual binary via a manifest CMake generates at configure time, so these scripts never need editing when a module is added, removed, or renamed.

Install

scripts/install.sh

scripts\install.bat

Always use the install script (or pass --component demo yourself if calling cmake --install directly). A vendored/fetched dependency's own CMakeLists.txt usually has install() rules of its own with no component tag; installing without --component would also run those, typically dumping files under CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX (e.g. /usr/local). Tagging this project's own install(TARGETS ...) calls with COMPONENT demo and always filtering on it is what keeps cmake --install scoped to just this project's own artifacts.

Adding a module

1. Create a directory under the right root (see the discovery table above).
2. Add a CMakeLists.txt inside it with one add_lib_module / add_exe_module / add_test_module / add_example_module call, plus any add_vendor_*/add_dependency calls it needs.
3. Add your .cpp/.h files inside that same directory.
4. Rebuild (scripts/build.sh) -- no other file needs touching.

# source/MyTool/CMakeLists.txt
add_exe_module(my_tool_exe OUTPUT_NAME "my-tool" DEPENDS core_lib)

scripts/run.sh my_tool_exe picks it up automatically once it's built, and scripts/docs.sh my_tool_exe documents it automatically too -- both with zero edits anywhere outside source/MyTool/.