QuickStart.md

Quick Start

Having all requirements set, here you can find how to quickly build and run the application.

Table of contents

• TL;DR
• Build
• Execute
  • macOS
  • Windows
  • Linux
• Distribution
• Tests

TL;DR

Important

Workflow presets are only available in CMake version 3.25 and up.

The quickest way possible to get an actual distributable from zero is using the available CMake workflows. For Linux and Windows:

cmake --workflow --preset dist

And for macOS with Xcode:

cmake --workflow --preset xcode-dist

Build

Usually available build modes are Debug, Release, and RelWithDebInfo.

To run a debug build:

cmake -GNinja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -B build/debug
cmake --build build/debug

To run a release build:

cmake -GNinja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -B build/release
cmake --build build/release

On macOS Xcode should be used as generator via -GXcode. For example creating a release build with XCode. It is also necessary to specify the Apple architecture via CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES, for example for a universal executable using the value x86_64;arm64".

# Using Xcode, create universal executable
cmake -GXcode -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES="x86_64;arm64" -B build/xcode
cmake --build build/xcode --config Release

Execute

When not running through an IDE like CLion, the built application can be run by directly executing the generated binary.

macOS

To run a debug build:

./build/debug/src/app/App.app/Contents/MacOS/App

To run a release build:

./build/release/src/app/App.app/Contents/MacOS/App

To run a debug build created with Xcode:

./build/xcode/src/app/Debug/App.app/Contents/MacOS/App

To run a release build created with Xcode:

./build/xcode/src/app/Release/App.app/Contents/MacOS/App

Windows

To run a debug build:

build/debug/src/app/App.exe

To run a release build:

build/release/src/app/App.exe

Linux

To run a debug build:

./build/debug/src/app/App

To run a release build:

./build/release/src/app/App

Distribution

To bundle the application and create a distribution package CPack is used. Before executing CPack a release build needs to be generated.

cpack --config build/release/CPackConfig.cmake

Tests

On any generated build tests can be executed by using CTest, e.g. a Debug build:

ctest --test-dir build/debug

Preview

Here a preview of the app running on macOS, Windows, and Linux (Ubuntu), in that order.

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