Cmake Setup

🛠 Setting up CMake Doesn't Have to Be Hard!

In the folder that houses your (main) test.cpp, create a file called CMakeLists.txt and copy the following into it:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.10)
project(test)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)

# Define a source root
set(SRC_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/../src)

# Include headers
include_directories(${SRC_DIR})

# Add the executable
add_executable(test
    test.cpp
    ${SRC_DIR}/serial/readTerminal.cpp
    ${SRC_DIR}/serial/usbserial.cpp
)

# Link system libs and static archive
target_link_libraries(test
    modbus
    pthread
    ${SRC_DIR}/synergy/libsynergy.a
)

---

Line-by-Line Explanation

• cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.10)
  Ensures you're using at least version 3.10 of CMake.

• project(test)
  Names your project. It can be anything.

• set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
  Forces the compiler to use C++17 standard.

• set(SRC_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/../src)
  Defines a reusable variable SRC_DIR that points one level up to your src/ directory.

• include_directories(${SRC_DIR})
  Adds all subfolders inside src/ to your include path so your #include "serial/usbserial.h" style headers resolve.

• add_executable(test ...)
  This tells CMake to build an executable called test using the listed .cpp files.

• ${SRC_DIR}/serial/readTerminal.cpp and ${SRC_DIR}/serial/usbserial.cpp
  These are source files outside the local folder — pulled in for compilation.

• target_link_libraries(test ...)
  Links your test binary against:

  • modbus: for Modbus communication
  • pthread: for POSIX threading
  • ${SRC_DIR}/synergy/libsynergy.a: your in-house static library

---

🚀 Build & Run

Make a build/ folder if it doesn’t exist: mkdir -p build and cd build into it

cmake ..
make
./test

• cmake .. makes all the cmake files into the current folder
• build actually compiles everything down into an executable file

You cannot use ~/Desktop etc in CMake. Yep I know. Use the full path

In VScode make sure that you have a c_cpp_properties.json setup. It should look something like this:

{
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Linux",
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceFolder}/**",
                "${workspaceFolder}/../XT7_RT/src"
            ],
            "defines": [],
            "compilerPath": "/usr/bin/gcc",
            "cStandard": "c11",
            "cppStandard": "c++17",
            "intelliSenseMode": "linux-gcc-arm"
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}

The recursive search for intellesense doesn't usually work? "${workspaceFolder}/../XT7_RT/src" manually directs it to the right place so that your .h includes work.