CMake: how best to build multiple (optional) subprojects?

Question

Imagine an overall project with several components:

• basic
• io
• web
• app-a
• app-b
• app-c

Now, let\'s say web

Answer 1

I ended up doing what I outlined in my question, which is to check in an empty directory (containing a .gitignore file which ignores everything) and tell CMake to GLOB any directories (which are put in there by the user). Then I can just say cmake myrootdir and it does find all the various components. This works more or less OK. It does have some side drawbacks though, such as that some third-party tools like BuildBot expect a more traditional project structure which makes integrating other tools with this sort of arrangement a little more work.