Creating a binary

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create executables with the qiBuild framework

Requirements

We assume you have followed the Getting Started tutorial.

Basic CMake

Every CMake project should begin with something like:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.6.4)
include(qibuild.cmake)
project(foo)

The first line is required by the CMake standards.

The second line includes the qibuild.cmake file that you just copied from qibuild sources.

Don’t worry, the file will be automatically updated whenever the source changes.

The project() call is good practice, and is used by several IDEs.

Adding an executable

To add an executable, simply call qi_create_bin. The first argument is the name of the executable, followed by the sources of the executable.

The paths of the sources are relative to the path where the CMakeLists is found, so you should create the main.cpp right next to the CMakeLists

qi_create_bin(foo main.cpp)

If you are on UNIX, the executable will end up in build/sdk/bin/foo If you are using Visual Studio, the executable will be in:

  • build/sdk/bin/foo_d.exe (if you chose to build in debug)

or in

  • build/sdk/bin/foo.exe (if you chose to build in release)

Note

To run directly the foo executable from Visual Studio, simply right-click on the foo project and select Choose as start up project, then press F5 as usual. If you try to run the ALL project which is selected by default, you will get an error message because the ALL project does not correspond to any executable.