CppProjectTemplate_VSCodeCMakeTools

Universal template of C++ project, was made to rapid start the new C++ project, easy debug and profile it.
Configured over MS C/C++ Extension Pack extension.

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Main tasks

• CMake: Clean - run cmake.clean command + remove all Valgrind reports
• CMake: Configure and Build - configure and run cmake.build command
• CMake: Configure and Rebuild - configure and run cmake.cleanRebuild command
• CMake: Configure with Conan Install - install conanfile.txt and run cmake.configure command
• CppRunCurrentFile: Run/Debu - build, run & debug currently opened .cpp source file
• LiveProcMon: Start Monitoring - start real-time monitoring of the target process (by default taken from cmake.launchTargetPath)
• LiveProcMon: Stop Monitoring - stop monitoring
• Valgrind: Show Memcheck Report - show profiler's report (check for memory leaks)
• Valgrind: Show Cachegrind Report - show profiler's report (check for chache missings)
• Valgrind: Show Callgrind Report - show profiler's report (check for tree of calls and theirs performing times)

Shortcuts (in status bar)

• Debug
• LiveProcMon: Start Monitoring
• LiveProcMon: Stop Monitoring
• Valgrind: Show Memcheck Report
• Valgrind: Show Cachegrind Report
• Valgrind: Show Callgrind Report
• CppRunCurrentFile: Run/Debug

Features

• uses CMake to manage the project, configured to use extension ms-vscode.cmake-tools
• uses Conan, automatically downloads packages from conanfile.txt before building the project
• easy to make and show Valgrind reports
• LiveProcMon feature checks resources consumption of the launched application, easy to configure, strart and stop:
• easy access to cppreference (via hotkey Ctrl+Shift+A) to get description of specified data type, method, etc
• enabled auto linting (with clang-tidy)
• enabled auto formatting (with clang-format)
• automatically applies name of directory as name of a project/library
• automatically finds and adds needed sources from certain folders, and includes them into the project's tree (described in Configure and Internal functions and variables description)
• automatically adds (if possible) Boost, Qt5/Qt6 libraries
• applies set of compiler's flags for extra safety: GCC, Clang or MSVC
• automatically finds and adds unit tests (don't use the dot symbol '.' in the name of test's source file!)
• for MSVC automatically copies MS Visual C++ runtime libs to target building directory

Basic project's stucture

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ_{[ PROJECT_FOLDER = PROJECT_NAME ]}
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- CMakeLists.txt
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- src
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- main.cpp
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- test
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- lib
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- _{[ somelib ]}
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- CMakeLists.txt
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- include
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- src
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- test
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- thirdparty
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- _{[ thirdlib ]}
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- CMakeLists.txt
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- include
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- src
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ|- test

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HOW TO

1. Install

• 1.1. install gcc (e.g. apt install gcc gdb)
• 1.2. install clang (e.g. apt install clang clang-tidy clang-format lldb)
• 1.3. install python (e.g. apt install python3 python3-venv, do python3 -m venv ~/.local --system-site-packages and add ~/.local/bin to global PATH variable)
• 1.4. install cmake (e.g. pip install cmake)
• 1.5. install conan (e.g. pip install conan and do conan profile detect)
• 1.6. install ploting tools (e.g. pip install gprof2dot matplotlib pillow)

2. Configure

• 2.1. clone that repositoy to your local machine
• 2.2. current source directory is ./src. if needed, change main sources directory HERE
• 2.3. add some external libraries in CMakeLists.txt_a_Project_Libs.cmake
• 2.4. add source of uint tests to folder test or add/change you testing configuration in CMakeLists.txt_b_Project_Tests.cmake
• 2.5. change required libraries in conanfile.txt, the package manager will handle it automatically during first build
• 2.6. if needed, you can customize safety flags for your current compiler: GCC, Clang or MSVC
• 2.7. if neeeded, add HERE specific sources and includes of your current project (example you can see HERE)

3. Use

• 3.1. for the first time it will be proposed to choose sertain development kit via standard menu of CMake Tools (the same as >CMake: Select a Kit)
• 3.2. press F5 to build Debug version (variant selected by default in CMake Tools) and run debugging process (by default using LLDB, can be changed in launch.json)
• 3.3. use additinal tasks for profiling:
  • LiveProcMon: Start Monitoring to check resources consumption at real-time
  • Valgrind: Show Memcheck Report, Valgrind: Show Callgrind Report and Valgrind: Show Cachegrind Report to get profiler's reports
  • CppRunCurrentFile: Run/Debug to compile and run currently snippet (e.g. single .cpp file located in folder test_cpp_snippets)

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Internal functions and variables description

• function get_sources_from_dir( SOURCES_DEST_VAR INCLUDES_DEST_VAR TARGET_FOLDER_PATH ) - scans TARGET_FOLDER_PATH (non-recursive globbing) and adds C++ files by the mask into variables: SOURCES_DEST_VAR (list of source files) and INCLUDES_DEST_VAR (list of include paths). examples of usage you can find HERE and HERE
• variable OUTPUT_NAME - the name of the current target name (target executable file name). usually it the same as varibale PROJECT_NAME, but for Qt6 application it different: app${PROJECT_NAME}. example of usage you can find in CMakeLists.txt_z_Utils_Qt.cmake
• variable SAFETY_FLAGS - contains the list of the compiler's flags (GCC, Clang or MSVC)

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Used extensions

• required
  • ms-vscode.cpptools-extension-pack - support of C++ intellisense, refactoring, sources colorization, etc.
  • xaver.clang-format - code formatter
  • vadimcn.vscode-lldb - support of LLDB debugger
  • tintinweb.graphviz-interactive-preview - visualize charts, required for Callgrind reports
  • ryuta46.multi-command - support of custom commands
  • rioj7.command-variable - advanced variables substitution
  • ArturoDent.launch-config - allows to launch debugging with specific configuration
• additional
  • Gruntfuggly.activitusbar - debugging and profiling shortcuts in status bar
  • matepek.vscode-catch2-test-adapter - a better unit tests explorer for GTests (but has no support of Boost.UnitTest)
  • Guyutongxue.cpp-reference - easy access to cppreference
  • krosf.vscode-valgrind - colorization of Valgrind reports
  • CFXS.BuildOutputColorizerIAR - colorization of output
  • SR-team.vscode-autohide-fork - autohide bottom panel with terminal
  • jiapeiyao.tab-group - grouped tabs
  • Blackboxapp.blackbox - AI helper
  • liangruliu.customize-toolbar - code folding/unfolding buttons in editor's toolbar
  • hediet.vscode-drawio - draw.io diagrams right in VSCode

Tested on

• Linux (GCC,Clang)
• Windows (Clang,MinGW,MSVC)

Notes:

• Valgrind reports feature currently available for Linux only
• LiveProcMon feature currently available for Linux only

Links

• used in template of "Qml Multilingual Application"
• used in demo "Simple Custom Qml Item Qt6 Cmake"