11 Integrated development environments (IDEs) may want to integrate with CMake to
12 improve the development experience for CMake users. This document lays out the
13 recommended best practices for such integration.
18 Many IDE vendors will want to bundle a copy of CMake with their IDE. IDEs that
19 bundle CMake should present the user with the option of using an external CMake
20 installation instead of the bundled one, in case the bundled copy becomes
21 outdated and the user wants to use a newer version.
23 While IDE vendors may be tempted to bundle different versions of CMake with
24 their application, such practice is not recommended. CMake has strong
25 guarantees of backwards compatibility, and there is no reason not to use a
26 newer version of CMake than what a project requires, or indeed, the very latest
27 version. Therefore, it is recommended that IDE vendors that bundle CMake with
28 their application always include the very latest patch version of CMake
29 available at the time of release.
31 As a suggestion, IDEs may also ship a copy of the Ninja buildsystem alongside
32 CMake. Ninja is highly performant and well-supported on all platforms that
33 support CMake. IDEs that bundle Ninja should use Ninja 1.10 or later, which
34 contains features needed to support Fortran builds.
39 CMake supports a file format called ``CMakePresets.json``, and its
40 user-specific counterpart, ``CMakeUserPresets.json``. This file contains
41 information on the various configure presets that a user may want. Each preset
42 may have a different compiler, build flags, etc. The details of this format are
43 explained in the :manual:`cmake(1)` manual.
45 IDE vendors are encouraged to read and evaluate this file the same way CMake
46 does, and present the user with the presets listed in the file. Users should be
47 able to see (and possibly edit) the CMake cache variables, environment
48 variables, and command line options that are defined for a given preset. The
49 IDE should then construct the list of appropriate :manual:`cmake(1)` command
50 line arguments based on these settings, rather than using the
51 :option:`--preset= <cmake --preset>` option directly. The
52 :option:`--preset= <cmake --preset>` option is intended only as a convenient
53 frontend for command line users, and should not be used by the IDE.
55 For example, if a preset named ``ninja`` specifies ``Ninja`` as the generator
56 and ``${sourceDir}/build`` as the build directory, instead of running:
58 .. code-block:: console
60 cmake -S /path/to/source --preset=ninja
62 the IDE should instead calculate the settings of the ``ninja`` preset, and then
65 .. code-block:: console
67 cmake -S /path/to/source -B /path/to/source/build -G Ninja
69 In cases where a preset contains lots of cache variables, and passing all of
70 them as :option:`-D <cmake -D>` flags would cause the command line length limit
71 of the platform to be exceeded, the IDE should instead construct a temporary
72 cache script and pass it with the :option:`-C <cmake -C>` flag.
74 While reading, parsing, and evaluating the contents of ``CMakePresets.json`` is
75 straightforward, it is not trivial. In addition to the documentation, IDE
76 vendors may also wish to refer to the CMake source code and test cases for a
77 better understanding of how to implement the format.
78 :download:`This file <../../manual/presets/schema.json>` provides a
79 machine-readable JSON schema for the ``CMakePresets.json`` format that IDE
80 vendors may find useful for validation and providing editing assistance.
85 IDEs that invoke :manual:`cmake(1)` to run the configure step may wish to
86 receive information about the artifacts that the build will produce, as well
87 as the include directories, compile definitions, etc. used to build the
88 artifacts. Such information can be obtained by using the
89 :manual:`File API <cmake-file-api(7)>`. The manual page for the File API
90 contains more information about the API and how to invoke it.
91 :manual:`Server mode <cmake-server(7)>` was removed as of CMake 3.20 and
92 should not be used on CMake 3.14 or later.
94 IDEs should avoid creating more build trees than necessary, and only create
95 multiple build trees if the user wishes to switch to a different compiler,
96 use different compile flags, etc. In particular, IDEs should NOT create
97 multiple single-config build trees which all have the same properties except
98 for a differing :variable:`CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE`, effectively creating a
99 multi-config environment. Instead, the :generator:`Ninja Multi-Config`
100 generator, in conjunction with the :manual:`File API <cmake-file-api(7)>` to
101 get the list of build configurations, should be used for this purpose.
103 IDEs should not use the "extra generators" with Makefile or Ninja generators,
104 which generate IDE project files in addition to the Makefile or Ninja files.
105 Instead the :manual:`File API <cmake-file-api(7)>` should be used to get the
106 list of build artifacts.
111 If a Makefile or Ninja generator is used to generate the build tree, it is not
112 recommended to invoke ``make`` or ``ninja`` directly. Instead, it is
113 recommended that the IDE invoke :manual:`cmake(1)` with the
114 :option:`--build <cmake --build>` argument, which will in turn invoke the
115 appropriate build tool.
117 If an IDE project generator is used, such as :generator:`Xcode` or one of the
118 Visual Studio generators, and the IDE understands the project format used, the
119 IDE should read the project file and build it the same way it would otherwise.
121 The :manual:`File API <cmake-file-api(7)>` can be used to obtain a list of
122 build configurations from the build tree, and the IDE should present this list
123 to the user to select a build configuration.
128 :manual:`ctest(1)` supports outputting a JSON format with information about the
129 available tests and test configurations. IDEs which want to run CTest should
130 obtain this information and use it to present the user with a list of tests.
132 IDEs should not invoke the ``test`` target of the generated buildsystem.
133 Instead, they should invoke :manual:`ctest(1)` directly.
135 IDEs with CMake integration
136 ===========================
138 The following IDEs support CMake natively:
143 * `Vim`_ (via a plugin)
145 * `VSCode`_ (via a plugin)
147 .. _CLion: https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/
148 .. _KDevelop: https://www.kdevelop.org/
149 .. _QtCreator: https://www.qt.io/product/development-tools
150 .. _Vim: https://www.vim.org/
151 .. _Visual Studio: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/
152 .. _VSCode: https://code.visualstudio.com/
154 Additionally, CMake has builtin support for some IDEs:
156 * :ref:`IDE Build Tool Generators`:
157 Generate IDE native build systems such as Visual Studio or Xcode.
158 * :ref:`Extra Generators`:
159 Extend :ref:`Command-Line Build Tool Generators` to generate IDE
160 project files that hook into the command-line build system.
161 Superseded by the :manual:`File API <cmake-file-api(7)>`.