Compile and build, from the bottom to the top

In ancient times

In the beginning , We only have one on hand gcc. No matter what you do, you have a shuttle , Call directly gcc To compile a project . When there are not many project documents, it can really meet the needs . But many people work together , When the project gets bigger , This method is extremely easy to cause confusion , And the workload is too large .

Feudal period

Then we have make and makefile. This is a fully automated solution , It can be based on the rules we define , Automatically compile and build . A project will have different functions , modular , Put all kinds of source code files in categories by type and other methods , Resource file , The temporary file . and makefile The job is to define the Compilation Rules of the whole project . These rules indicate which files need to be compiled first , Which can be post compiled . Besides ,makefile It can effectively describe the dependencies between project files and process commands , When only individual files are modified, only necessary processing needs to be performed , You don't have to recompile the whole project , Greatly improved development efficiency .
however make There are two problems . One is when the project is big ,makefile It will be very difficult to write and understand , Maintainability is not strong . The second is the problem of cross platform , Every time I change the platform , All need to be revised makefile.

the Republic of China era

Then there is CMake The era of the , Although it is in the period of the Republic of China in this article , but CMake It should be right now C/C++ The factual standard of how the project is built .CMake Is a cross platform compilation tool , My understanding is that it defines a compilation abstraction layer , Be able to generate all kinds of makefile/project For different platforms make Use . All we need to do is write it manually CMakeLists.txt file .

modern society

about Conan The cognitive , I think this is a higher level , Support different platforms / compiler / Building tools / Solution of construction mode . Although it is a package manager , But we can use its scripted operation to build packaging , Download upload package , Solve the problem of dependence .
Conan It needs to be used with various construction tools , However, these build scripts do not need to consider various specific configurations when implementing, such as Debug still Release,64 A still 32 position , Static library or dynamic link library , Even the package installation can be ignored ,Conan Can be completed with the help of scripts , Specific usage can refer to This blog . secondly ,Conan It also solves the problem of dependency , When building, it can automatically pull the corresponding dependency Library .