<![CDATA[current status: writing a build system in cmake]]>current status: writing a build system in cmake

not "something that builds a project and is also implemented in implemented in cmake"

no, it is "something that is implemented in cmake and can be used to implement a build system that is in turn used as a part of a build system (also in cmake)"

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/1722cdf7-3a65-448e-b416-171a78de4e78/current-status-writing-a-build-system-in-cmakeRSS for NodeFri, 15 May 2026 02:46:40 GMTMon, 11 May 2026 19:55:15 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Tue, 12 May 2026 07:05:49 GMT]]>@whitequark

What happens if we remove all the abstractions? That will make everything simpler!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/david_chisnall/statuses/116560334013769451https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/david_chisnall/statuses/116560334013769451Tue, 12 May 2026 07:05:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Tue, 12 May 2026 01:03:47 GMT]]>@whitequark
Having called out to tsort from a GNUmakefile to order library builds, I'm taking emotional damage from this thread.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://bsd.network/users/guenther/statuses/116558910403195832https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://bsd.network/users/guenther/statuses/116558910403195832Tue, 12 May 2026 01:03:47 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Tue, 12 May 2026 01:00:00 GMT]]>@asmw @whitequark to some extent, cmake is a natural consequence of the fact that every platform is almost actively hostile to the idea that 3rd party developers also target other platforms

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/JamesWidman/statuses/116558895517958839https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/JamesWidman/statuses/116558895517958839Tue, 12 May 2026 01:00:00 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Tue, 12 May 2026 00:08:02 GMT]]>@whitequark someone wrote a raytracer and PNG encoder in CMake sooo

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/nicolas17/statuses/116558691209957042https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/nicolas17/statuses/116558691209957042Tue, 12 May 2026 00:08:02 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 23:30:19 GMT]]>@pikhq @whitequark there are a lot of people for whom build systems are just not on their radar. I don’t understand them in the least, but I have definitely observed them in action.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/c0dec0dec0de/statuses/116558542873032533https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/c0dec0dec0de/statuses/116558542873032533Mon, 11 May 2026 23:30:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 23:24:16 GMT]]>@whitequark I have described the Linux kernel's build system as "a build system implemented in GNU make," so, seems normal.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/nelhage/statuses/116558519127687246https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/nelhage/statuses/116558519127687246Mon, 11 May 2026 23:24:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 23:18:10 GMT]]>@whitequark self-awareness is not always online

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/c0dec0dec0de/statuses/116558495101991240https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/c0dec0dec0de/statuses/116558495101991240Mon, 11 May 2026 23:18:10 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 23:14:04 GMT]]>@whitequark I mean very minimal. Like it fetched the bits I needed. “God, why are these binary files just a sha hash? Oh, and there are files over here with those hashes as names, fine, let’s do this.”

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/c0dec0dec0de/statuses/116558479023644538https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/c0dec0dec0de/statuses/116558479023644538Mon, 11 May 2026 23:14:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 23:10:01 GMT]]>@whitequark ah, the fingerprints of an engineer who is very capable, but doesn’t bother to read the docs or think about alternatives…
I’ve reimplemented a git LFS client without knowing that’s what I was doing.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/c0dec0dec0de/statuses/116558463052299421https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/c0dec0dec0de/statuses/116558463052299421Mon, 11 May 2026 23:10:01 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 21:48:15 GMT]]>@arcterus @aismallard aaa

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116558141560054838https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116558141560054838Mon, 11 May 2026 21:48:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 21:48:07 GMT]]>@recursive ninja files are basically what makefiles should have been, easily parsable, mostly declarative dependency graph descriptions without the bewildering mass of features that accumulates if you also try to shoehorn an UI into it

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116558141059317835https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116558141059317835Mon, 11 May 2026 21:48:07 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 21:47:11 GMT]]>@aismallard@woem.space @whitequark@social.treehouse.systems

cmake with classes

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://wafrn.vaguely.art/fediverse/post/e538c8aa-e192-4edf-af31-12e0b42928cehttps://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://wafrn.vaguely.art/fediverse/post/e538c8aa-e192-4edf-af31-12e0b42928ceMon, 11 May 2026 21:47:11 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 21:46:59 GMT]]>@recursive oh yeah ninja is excellent. not just the software but the specification, which is one of the few emergent ones that are just good somehow

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116558136593082233https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116558136593082233Mon, 11 May 2026 21:46:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 21:46:32 GMT]]>@whitequark coworkers of mine several years ago changed our forked 'premake' (some lua thing) from generating makefiles to ninja files, and it seemed like a decent thing to target with automatic generation

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/recursive/statuses/116558134777925944https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/recursive/statuses/116558134777925944Mon, 11 May 2026 21:46:32 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 21:44:06 GMT]]>@recursive my solution to this was to use kati, google's make with a ninja backend

technically this probably caused some sort of staleness somewhere in the system but it was so much faster when i needed rapid iteration that it was totally worth it

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116558125227637739https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116558125227637739Mon, 11 May 2026 21:44:06 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 21:24:34 GMT]]>@whitequark The culture of "it's nearly free to fork and exec" is wild. Got us autoconf too, I guess

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/recursive/statuses/116558048438788659https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/recursive/statuses/116558048438788659Mon, 11 May 2026 21:24:34 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 21:18:11 GMT]]>@whitequark a load bearing WHAT again?!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.tchncs.de/users/ppxl/statuses/116558023328515537https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.tchncs.de/users/ppxl/statuses/116558023328515537Mon, 11 May 2026 21:18:11 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 21:09:25 GMT]]>@whitequark@social.treehouse.systems c²make

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://woem.space/objects/91587291-baee-4eb7-814c-66c99ce5e3f1https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://woem.space/objects/91587291-baee-4eb7-814c-66c99ce5e3f1Mon, 11 May 2026 21:09:25 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 20:43:37 GMT]]>@whitequark I like Shake because it's very good about using the ability of Haskell to create ad-hoc declarative DSLs to give an user a very declarative toolkit while having an escape hatch *right there*. But I have used little of the alternatives either, I rarely have to fiddle around in the bowels of complex build processes and I'm very glad about that.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.chaosfield.at/users/dequbed/statuses/116557887434419530https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.chaosfield.at/users/dequbed/statuses/116557887434419530Mon, 11 May 2026 20:43:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 20:39:39 GMT]]>@dequbed I haven't used shake but I did use ocamlbuild and the other thing I forget the name of, and it was somewhat preferable to some of the makefiles

dune (a declarative ocaml build system) is way better though

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116557871785502909https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whitequark/statuses/116557871785502909Mon, 11 May 2026 20:39:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 20:32:36 GMT]]>@whitequark oh lmao I think I know what you're talking about, and I think I touched that rot13 monstrosity at one point

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaosfurs.social/users/lambda/statuses/116557844098430532https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaosfurs.social/users/lambda/statuses/116557844098430532Mon, 11 May 2026 20:32:36 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 20:31:26 GMT]]>@whitequark This is why I really enjoy the sentiment behind shake. Because sometimes when it comes to build systems the “simplest” solution means giving the developer access to all of Haskell and telling her to go nuts 😄

(Not saying shake is a good general solution for build systems. It very much isn't. But it beats the bundle of legacy makefiles that could legally drink in most of europe 9 times of 10)

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.chaosfield.at/users/dequbed/statuses/116557839480226617https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.chaosfield.at/users/dequbed/statuses/116557839480226617Mon, 11 May 2026 20:31:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 20:27:33 GMT]]>@whitequark the lua interpreter, for example, 450 lines of Makefile. and that's plenty enough to cross compile, build on a wide array of OSes, and even target microcontrollers like on my Nintendo DS. Good example of a simple project with a simple Makefile

xD

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://with.iridium.ink/users/artemis/statuses/01KRCBJF2V1A9Z5R633NYXA0K6https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://with.iridium.ink/users/artemis/statuses/01KRCBJF2V1A9Z5R633NYXA0K6Mon, 11 May 2026 20:27:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to current status: writing a build system in cmake on Mon, 11 May 2026 20:24:13 GMT]]>@whitequark or i suppose a more accurate way of looking at it, is it seems the Makefile complexity scales with project complexity, and if it is not doing that then there is probably something fragile about it you're not seeing

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://with.iridium.ink/users/artemis/statuses/01KRCBCC71WKDEACHVHQ3NH68Khttps://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://with.iridium.ink/users/artemis/statuses/01KRCBCC71WKDEACHVHQ3NH68KMon, 11 May 2026 20:24:13 GMT