In recent years I have my own CMake generator “Treebeard” used to place larger amounts of files in a CMake library or project. The tool has now been tested and is usable without errors. I therefore now offer it here. It can be used for free for up to 20 files, above which a reasonable license is required to use it.
CMake is a fantastic project tool and is free to use! It offers a number of major advantages for the software developer:
- CMake is platform independent.
- CMake can be used for desktop or embedded software.
- CMake enables modular software development where modules are independently defined that can be used in different projects.
Treebeard is a tool that makes using CMake easier. It is not a replacement for CMake, and knowledge of the CMake commands and language structure is still necessary.
When importing external modules, the developer sometimes encounters the fact that manually configuring all paths in CMake is a difficult matter. It takes a lot of time to write a CMakeLists.txt file such that all source files and include paths can be used without errors.
Take the following example. Adjust that to the developer STMicroelectronics want to add the STM32L4 HAL driver to a CMake project. After downloading the driver from ST, the following folder structure will be visible:
The driver contains 238 files in total. How can these files be easily added as a CMake library? CMake offers the option of a “wildcard”, but this is an option that is not recommended! It is wiser to name all files manually as a basis for the “add_library …” command.
Treebeard makes it simple. Boombaard can import a directory structure based on a few selected files, as an entire directory or as a directory recursively - it then takes everything that is in the directory. Boombaard offers the option to filter by file type as well as to block certain types of files.
The generated CMakeLists.txt file will then look like this:
## Boombaard gegenereerd CMakelists add_library bestand
## Bestand gegenereerd op : 2020-09-14 10:58:53.
## (c)2001-2018 Copyright Kiwanda Embedded Systemen
set(LibNaam STM32L4xx_HAL_Driver)
# Het absolute pad voor dit bestand “CMakeLists.txt” is “HALLibraries/STM32Cube/Repository/STM32Cube_FW_L4_V1.16.0/Drivers/STM32L4xx_HAL_Driver/“
## Definieer de minimale cmake versie.
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.10)
## GemPath is een gemeenschappelijk pad dat gevonden wordt onder de bron, inclusief en bibliotheek paden.
set(GemPath0 ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/Inc)
set(GemPath1 ${GemPath0}/Legacy)
set(GemPath2 ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/Src)
set(GemPath3 ${GemPath2}/Legacy)
## SourcePath is een gemeenschappelijk pad voor de bronbestanden.
set(SourcePath0 ${GemPath3})
set(SourcePath1 ${GemPath2})
set(SourcePath2 ${GemPath1})
set(SourcePath3 ${GemPath0})
## Dit gedeelte geeft de include directories voor de bronbestanden aan.
set(AlleIncludeDirs ${SourcePath2} ${SourcePath3} )
include_directories(${AlleIncludeDirs})
## Geef een lijst van alle bronbestanden met de juiste paden.
set(SRCS0 stm32l4xx_hal_can.c )
set(Addition0Path ${SourcePath0})
foreach(FN ${SRCS0})
list(APPEND SRCS ${Addition0Path}/${FN})
endforeach(FN)
set(SRCS1 stm32l4xx_hal_adc_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_adc.c stm32l4xx_hal_can.c stm32l4xx_hal_comp.c stm32l4xx_hal_cortex.c
stm32l4xx_hal_crc_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_crc.c stm32l4xx_hal_cryp_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_cryp.c stm32l4xx_hal_dac_ex.c
stm32l4xx_hal_dac.c stm32l4xx_hal_dcmi.c stm32l4xx_hal_dfsdm_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_dfsdm.c stm32l4xx_hal_dma_ex.c
stm32l4xx_hal_dma.c stm32l4xx_hal_dma2d.c stm32l4xx_hal_dsi.c stm32l4xx_hal_exti.c stm32l4xx_hal_firewall.c
stm32l4xx_hal_flash_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_flash_ramfunc.c stm32l4xx_hal_flash.c stm32l4xx_hal_gfxmmu.c stm32l4xx_hal_gpio.c
stm32l4xx_hal_hash_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_hash.c stm32l4xx_hal_hcd.c stm32l4xx_hal_i2c_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_i2c.c
stm32l4xx_hal_irda.c stm32l4xx_hal_iwdg.c stm32l4xx_hal_lcd.c stm32l4xx_hal_lptim.c stm32l4xx_hal_ltdc_ex.c
stm32l4xx_hal_ltdc.c stm32l4xx_hal_mmc_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_mmc.c stm32l4xx_hal_nand.c stm32l4xx_hal_nor.c
stm32l4xx_hal_opamp_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_opamp.c stm32l4xx_hal_ospi.c stm32l4xx_hal_pcd_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_pcd.c
stm32l4xx_hal_pka.c stm32l4xx_hal_pssi.c stm32l4xx_hal_pwr_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_pwr.c stm32l4xx_hal_qspi.c
stm32l4xx_hal_rcc_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_rcc.c stm32l4xx_hal_rng_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_rng.c stm32l4xx_hal_rtc_ex.c
stm32l4xx_hal_rtc.c stm32l4xx_hal_sai_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_sai.c stm32l4xx_hal_sd_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_sd.c
stm32l4xx_hal_smartcard_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_smartcard.c stm32l4xx_hal_smbus.c stm32l4xx_hal_spi_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_spi.c
stm32l4xx_hal_sram.c stm32l4xx_hal_swpmi.c stm32l4xx_hal_tim_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_tim.c stm32l4xx_hal_tsc.c
stm32l4xx_hal_uart_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_uart.c stm32l4xx_hal_usart_ex.c stm32l4xx_hal_usart.c stm32l4xx_hal_wwdg.c
stm32l4xx_hal.c stm32l4xx_ll_adc.c stm32l4xx_ll_comp.c stm32l4xx_ll_crc.c stm32l4xx_ll_crs.c stm32l4xx_ll_dac.c
stm32l4xx_ll_dma.c stm32l4xx_ll_dma2d.c stm32l4xx_ll_exti.c stm32l4xx_ll_fmc.c stm32l4xx_ll_gpio.c stm32l4xx_ll_i2c.c
stm32l4xx_ll_lptim.c stm32l4xx_ll_lpuart.c stm32l4xx_ll_opamp.c stm32l4xx_ll_pka.c stm32l4xx_ll_pwr.c
stm32l4xx_ll_rcc.c stm32l4xx_ll_rng.c stm32l4xx_ll_rtc.c stm32l4xx_ll_sdmmc.c stm32l4xx_ll_spi.c stm32l4xx_ll_swpmi.c
stm32l4xx_ll_tim.c stm32l4xx_ll_usart.c stm32l4xx_ll_usb.c stm32l4xx_ll_utils.c )
set(Addition1Path ${SourcePath1})
foreach(FN ${SRCS1})
list(APPEND SRCS ${Addition1Path}/${FN})
endforeach(FN)
list(SORT SRCS)
add_library(${LibNaam} STATIC ${SRCS})
This library can now easily be added to a CMake project:
In addition to library files, Boombaard can also generate other CMake files:
- Project files to generate a desktop application.
- Include files, to be used with the CMake “include” command.
Boombaard can be downloaded for Mac OS X, MS Windows or Ubuntu Linux. The app is multilingual (Dutch, German or English) and can be found under downloads: