Re: cmake support

[Bruno Haible]

Hi,

Andrew Pennebaker wrote:
> Could we improve how gnulib integrates with downstream projects, to make it
> easier to work with different build tools? In particular, would be helpful
> for gnulib to easily work with cmake projects.
> 
> In my case, I have an application that needs openat(), and I already have a
> complex cmake configuration that would be difficult to rewrite in terms of
> autotools.

I don't think we will spend time to make gnulib-tool generate cmake
configurations.
  1. Because the GNU build system is based on Autotools.
  2. Because many people say that cmake is a horror to use. [1][2]

But gnulib-tool by design creates a subdirectory, and you can yourself
  - add a simple configure.ac to that subdirectory, as outlined in the
    documentation [3],
  - integrate this subdirectory with cmake through an 'ExternalProject' [4].

If, during this process, you encounter pain points that require (small)
gnulib-tool changes, please come back to us and report them.

Bruno

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/4flb8z/fighting_through_a_cmake_hell/
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/7yps20/its_time_to_do_cmake_right/
[3] https://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual/html_node/Initial-import.html
[4] 
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5971921/building-a-library-using-autotools-from-cmake