C++ Project Template

A template repository designed for medium to large C++ projects with multiple subprojects/executables. Includes

• CMake build system
• Automatic semantic versioning
• spdlog logging library
• Google Test framework
• Clang-format and clang-tidy
• Multiple target executables for main program, installer, auto-updater, tester, etc.
• Doxygen documentation

Prerequisites

• Modern C/C++ compiler
• git 2.17+ installed
• CMake 3.13+ installed
• Clang tools 7.0+ namely clang-format and clang-tidy
• Python 3.6+ for tools
• Doxygen 1.8.17+ for documentation generation

Recommended IDE is VSCode with the following extensions

• C/C++ language support
• Clang-Format integration
• CMake language support
• CMake Tools
• Code Spell Checker
• Doxygen Documentation Generator

Building

Dependencies

On Windows I recommend using vcpkg

• spdlog logging library
• Google Test framework

Git Clone

Clone the repository

> mkdir workspace
> cd workspace
> git clone https://github.com/WattsUp/CppProjectTemplate myProject

Manually Building

Configure the project with default compiler and compile

> cmake . -B build
> cmake --build build

Building in VSCode

1. Open the project folder in VSCode with the recommended extensions
2. Open the CMake Tools tab
3. Select Configure All Projects, select appropriate compiler
4. Click Build All Projects

Folder Structure

• bin Binary folder, output directory for executables, add runtime resources here (icons, etc.)
• common Common code shared amongst projects: logging, utilities, etc.
• docs Documentation folder
• docs\www Documentation webpage root folder, ignored, clone of repository's gh-pages branch
• include Public include folder for libraries
• libraries Third party libraries
• tools Helper code such as check coding conventions script

Projects

• installer-win Self-extracting installer executable which sets up directories, variables, etc.
• project-fractal Application to draw a fractal to the console
• project-library Library to add two numbers together

Adapting

1. Clone the repository, see Git Clone. (Or download manually)
2. Run the python script tools/SetupProject.py from the top level folder. It will guide you through the process. The script checks for all software dependencies (prompts for their installation), modifies top-level project name, modifies targets, resets the git repository to an initial commit, and tags the commit v0.0.0. The only dependency is the ability to run python scripts.

Note: Target names cannot have spaces in CMake. To have spaces in the output files uncomment the following in ./CMakeLists.txt and duplicate as needed:

set_target_properties([TargetNoSpaces] PROPERTIES OUTPUT_NAME "Target With Spaces")

Documentation branch

The docs/www folder contains the documentation branch of this repo (gh-pages for GitHub). Once the repository has a remote, clone that branch into that folder and use it to build a documentation website.

git clone [URL] -b gh-pages docs/www

Known issues

• Updates to resource files are not detected by the generator. Perform a clean build if those change. Always perform a clean build for release.