CMake Generator for Visual Studio Linux cross-platform

Question

I want to generate a Visual Studio Solution for a cross-platform Linux Project from a CMake Project.

The Visual Studio 2017 cross-platform workload works nicely, especially when it comes to debugging. I use it to target the WSL. Now I have an existing Linux CMake project that I want to develop on Windows and Visual Studio and build it on WSL. I just don't seem to see a way of generating an appropriate Solution for Visual Studio. Can anyone enlighten me?

Answer 1

There were already some queries to support the "Linux" project type by CMake, but I don't think that there is something implemented yet (looking at the code it's not able to generate the required project settings).

In those cases you can only work with include_external_msproject() command calls.

This would include an existing .vcproj file into your CMake generated solution like:

include_external_msproject(
    MyProject 
    ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/MyProject/MyProject.vcproj
)

---

So let's make a template of an existing Linux .vcxproj file like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" ToolsVersion="@CMAKE_MATCH_1@.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <ItemGroup Label="ProjectConfigurations">
    <ProjectConfiguration Include="Debug|x86">
      <Configuration>Debug</Configuration>
      <Platform>x86</Platform>
    </ProjectConfiguration>
    <ProjectConfiguration Include="Release|x86">
      <Configuration>Release</Configuration>
      <Platform>x86</Platform>
    </ProjectConfiguration>
  </ItemGroup>
  <PropertyGroup Label="Globals">
    <ProjectGuid>@_guid@</ProjectGuid>
    <Keyword>Linux</Keyword>
    <RootNamespace>@_target@</RootNamespace>
    <MinimumVisualStudioVersion>@CMAKE_MATCH_1@.0</MinimumVisualStudioVersion>
    <ApplicationType>Linux</ApplicationType>
    <ApplicationTypeRevision>1.0</ApplicationTypeRevision>
    <TargetLinuxPlatform>Generic</TargetLinuxPlatform>
    <LinuxProjectType>{D51BCBC9-82E9-4017-911E-C93873C4EA2B}</LinuxProjectType>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Import Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" />
  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|x86'" Label="Configuration">
    <UseDebugLibraries>true</UseDebugLibraries>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Release|x86'" Label="Configuration">
    <UseDebugLibraries>false</UseDebugLibraries>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Import Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Microsoft.Cpp.props" />
  <ImportGroup Label="ExtensionSettings" />
  <ImportGroup Label="Shared" />
  <ImportGroup Label="PropertySheets" />
  <PropertyGroup Label="UserMacros" />
  <ItemGroup>
    <ClCompile Include="@_sources@" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
  </ItemGroup>
  <Import Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Microsoft.Cpp.targets" />
  <ImportGroup Label="ExtensionTargets" />
</Project>

And create a new add_linux_executable() command using this:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)

project(ConfigureVCXProjForLinux)

function(add_linux_executable _target)
    if (CMAKE_GENERATOR MATCHES "Visual Studio ([0-9]*)")
        foreach(_source IN LISTS ARGN)
            get_filename_component(_source_abs "${_source}" ABSOLUTE)
            file(TO_NATIVE_PATH "${_source_abs}" _source_native)
            list(APPEND _sources "${_source_native}")
        endforeach()
        file(TO_NATIVE_PATH "${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_FILE}" _list_file_native)
        list(APPEND _sources "${_list_file_native}")

        string(
            UUID _guid 
            NAMESPACE "2e4779e9-c831-47b0-b138-3745b2ed6ba9" 
            NAME ${_target}
            TYPE SHA1
            UPPER
        )

        configure_file(
           "LinuxTemplate.vcxproj.in" 
            "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${_target}.vcxproj" 
            @ONLY
        )

        include_external_msproject(
            ${_target}
            "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${_target}.vcxproj"
            TYPE "8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942"
            GUID "${_guid}"
        )
    endif()
endfunction()

file(WRITE "main.cpp" [=[
    #include <iostream>

    int main()
    {
        std::cout << "Hello Linux !" << std::endl;
    }
]=])
add_linux_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} "main.cpp")

Note the template replacements:

• @CMAKE_MATCH_1@ for the Visual Studio version number
• @_target@ for the project RootNamespace
• @_sources@ for ever source file you have given ``add_linux_executable()` as an argument
• @_guid@ a unique GUID for the project

This would still require one template per whatever compilation options you choose. But using templates makes this approach somewhat more flexible.