Cmake is a build system for C++ projects. It is an alternative to autotools.

Installing

Downloading

You can either visit http://www.cmake.org and download the binary, or you can use wget:

$ wget http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.8/cmake-2.8.2.tar.gz

and untar it using tar:

$ tar xvzf cmake-2.8.2.tar.gz

Cmake is straightforward to install. It is intended to replace autotools, but it still uses autotools to build it - but a little differently.

You can configure it by running:

$ ./bootstrap --prefix=/path/to/cmake/build

Then you can type make and make install, and you're good to go. Don't forget to add /path/to/cmake/build/bin to your $PATH!

An explanation of how the find_package() function works is here: http://www.itk.org/Wiki/CMake:How_To_Find_Libraries

Professor James Sutherland's presentation on using CMake, part of the 2010 Scientific Computing Summer Workshop, is here: File:CMake Sutherland.pdf

This presentation contains an example of a "Hello World" program built with CMake.