Maven-like dependency management for C++? [closed]

Answer 1

Try scons, you will be hooked. Make is outdated, difficult and expensive to maintain.

Answer 2

You can create NuGet package for used libraries and use NuGet for dependency management.

See also, NuGet for C++

Answer 3

There is a number of tools sitting on top of SCons, providing higher-level functionality similar to that of Autotools which are trying to make the developers life easier (e.g. WAF, SNOCS). Unfortunately, SCons itself has the major drawback - longer compilation time for the large projects.

I can recommend to try out SNOCS (which is a SCons reversed) for those of you looking for an easy dependency management and choosing compilation options in the single command (compiler, x86/x64, Debug/Release, static/shared libraries, test/install targets, etc.).

SNOCS also tries to tackle the long compilation time problem by storing the projects configuration output in the separate files, which allows the consequent builds to skip configuration phase altogether and go straight to the building phase (last feature is under construction now)

CMake's configuration becomes tedious in a larger solutions, so the build system maintenance takes a large fraction of the developer time. Luckily as Martijn already mentioned there is biicode which "uses CMake to generate your project with its dependencies".

Answer 4

Initial Answer: I would suggest using CMake. It is a multi-platform make file generator (generates Visual Studio or Eclipse CDT projects as well).

http://www.cmake.org/

I did really good experience with it. The best thing I like about it was the ability to produce generic project structure. So you can generically include sub-projects look-up for unit tests etc. without changing the script every time.

They have also lots of modules on how to find pre-installed build libraries, required for the project (like Boost, QT etc.)

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Update: In the mean time there was some effort to introduce package management for C++. Some projects worth looking at:

• conan.io integrates with major build tools:
  • CMake
  • Visual Studio
  • Makefile
  • XCode
  • ...
• cpm based on CMake (Note CPM is not being actively maintained.)
• Buckaroo

Note as pointed out by @RAM in the comments cpm is no longer actively maintained.

Answer 5

I recommend the following high-level build systems:

• Maven Nar Plugin: Using Maven for C/C++ projects
• Gradle cpp plugin: It is an easier way, but it is currently incubating, here the main features and a roadmap.
• Conan is more C++ approach, it is multi-platform and it supports most common C++ build systems.

Answer 6

I recommend to use the mother of all build dependency systems: make.