software catalog

content/software/cmake.md

@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+---
+title: "CMake"
+category: "Languages and runtimes"
+tagline: "The cross-platform build system generator most C and C++ projects use."
+source: "pacman"
+package: "cmake"
+command: "cmake"
+website: "https://cmake.org/"
+code: "https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake"
+---
+
+## What it is
+
+CMake describes how to build a C or C++ project in a `CMakeLists.txt` file, then generates the build files for whatever tool does the compiling, such as make or Ninja. The same project builds on Linux, macOS and Windows.
+
+## Why it's here
+
+- **The common standard.** Most open-source C and C++ projects build with it.
+- **Needed for installs.** Some Python and Rust packages run CMake to compile their native parts.
+
+## On CoreDesktop
+
+CMake is installed from pacman. CoreDesktop includes it, with [Clang](/software/clang/), because Hermes Agent's Matrix support builds python-olm, which needs it; when `update` updates Hermes, it tells CMake how to build python-olm's older build files. `update` keeps CMake current with the rest of the pacman packages.
+
+```
+cmake -B build && cmake --build build
+```