Building Modules with CMake

If you haven’t follow the initial example in Hello, Cyclus! [C++], you should get the Cycstub repo by either cloning the repository or by downloading the zip file (see Hello, Cyclus! [C++] for further instructions).

The Cycstub repo provides a number of critical tools for building your own module:

  • install.py: a basic installation script

  • cmake: a directory of CMake modules (e.g. finding Cyclus and its dependencies on your system)

  • cmake/UseCyclus.cmake: a CMake module that defines important Cyclus module build/install macros

  • CMakeLists.txt: a generic CMake driver that will work for most build configurations out of the box

  • src/CMakeLists.txt: a starter file that determines how the module build is executed (utilizing the macros in UseCyclus.cmake)

The remaining portion of this page covers the various features provided in UseCyclus.cmake and their use in the src directory’s CMakeLists.txt file.

Using UseCyclus

UseCyclus.cmake defines the following macros for building and installing Cyclus modules:

  • USE_CYCLUS: informs the build system of the source files related to an archetype implementation and its tests, if tests exist

  • INSTALL_CYCLUS_MODULE: install a collection of archetypes that all belong to the same module

  • INSTALL_CYCLUS_STANDALONE: install an archetype as a standalone module

UseCyclus Vocabulary

The UseCyclus.cmake macro suite uses the following terms:

  • lib_root: The root name for the to-be-installed library (e.g., MyAgent for a standalone install or my_module for a module install).

  • src_root: The common prefix for all source files required to implement and test an archetypes. For example if your src_root is my_agent, the macro suite will be aware of the following files:

    • my_agent.cc

    • my_agent.h

    • my_agent_tests.cc

    • my_agent_tests.h

  • lib_dir: The install directory relative the Cyclus library installation directory. For example, if lib_dir is blank (i.e. “”), the module will be installed in $CYCLUS_INSTALL_PREFIX/lib/cyclus/; if lib_dir is something else, e.g. my_module_dir, the module will be installed in $CYCLUS_INSTALL_PREFIX/lib/cyclus/my_module_dir/. The value of $CYCLUS_INSTALL_PREFIX can be queried by

    $ cyclus --install-path

  • test_driver: (optional) A custom GTest test driver. This is an advanced feature which will not be needed by most archetype developers.

UseCyclus Macro Arguments

Each UseCyclus.cmake macro has arguments included in the above vocabulary listing:

  • USE_CYCLUS:

    USE_CYCLUS(lib_root src_root)

  • INSTALL_CYCLUS_STANDALONE:

    INSTALL_CYCLUS_STANDALONE(lib_root src_root lib_dir [test_driver])

  • INSTALL_CYCLUS_MODULE:

    INSTALL_CYCLUS_MODULE(lib_root lib_dir [test_driver])

Examples

Standalone Installation

Through the hello_world example, three standalone modules are installed using a src/CMakeLists.txt file that looks something like

INSTALL_CYCLUS_STANDALONE("TutorialFacility" "tutorial_facility" "tutorial")
INSTALL_CYCLUS_STANDALONE("TutorialInst" "tutorial_inst" "tutorial")
INSTALL_CYCLUS_STANDALONE("TutorialRegion" "tutorial_region" "tutorial")

This setup will install three shared object libraries in $CYCLUS_INSTALL_PREFIX/lib/cyclus/tutorial:

  • libTutorialFacility.so (*nix) or libTutorialFacility.dylib (mac)

  • libTutorialInstitution.so (*nix) libTutorialInstitution.dylib (mac)

  • libTutorialRegion.so (*nix) libTutorialRegion.dylib (mac)

and three unit test executables in $CYCLUS_INSTALL_PREFIX/bin:

  • TutorialFacility_unit_tests

  • TutorialInstitution_unit_tests

  • TutorialRegion_unit_tests

Module Installation

A valid criticism of the hello world standalone approach is that a lot of libraries and executables are generated for three modules that are grouped together. We can do better!

What if we wanted to install one module named helloworld? Specifically, we would want:

  • a single shared object library in $CYCLUS_INSTALL_PREFIX/lib/cyclus/tutorial named libhelloworld.so (*nix) or libhelloworld.dylib (mac)

  • a single unit test executable in $CYCLUS_INSTALL_PREFIX/bin named helloworld_unit_tests

where both incorporate the TutorialFacility, TutorialInstitution, and TutorialRegion archetypes.

Such behavior is pretty simple to achieve. We first must call UseCyclus on each of our source file roots to inform the build system of their presence and follow up with a call to INSTALL_CYCLUS_MODULE:

USE_CYCLUS("helloworld" "tutorial_facility")
USE_CYCLUS("helloworld" "tutorial_inst")
USE_CYCLUS("helloworld" "tutorial_region")
INSTALL_CYCLUS_MODULE("helloworld" "tutorial")