| name | software-cmake |
| description | CMake build system detection, configure/build/install flow via session_configure/session_build_install/session_build_annotated, CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH dftracer injection, and per-system/per-dependency lesson tagging. Load this skill for any project whose top level is CMakeLists.txt. |
| metadata | {"type":"software"} |
Detection
- Top-level
CMakeLists.txt with project(<name> ...). Check for a
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION ...) line to confirm the minimum version.
- Look for
option(...) declarations for project-specific toggles before
calling session_configure — an unrecognized -D flag name is silently
ignored by CMake rather than erroring, so read the options first.
find_package(<name> ...) / find_library(...) calls determine how a
dependency is located — CONFIG mode (a <Name>Config.cmake file) vs MODULE
mode (a Find<Name>.cmake script) vs pkg-config via
pkg_check_modules(...). Check which one dftracer or another dependency
needs BEFORE assuming -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=<prefix> alone is sufficient —
dftracer currently ships CMake config files but no .pc file, so
find_package(dftracer CONFIG) works but pkg_check_modules(dftracer)
does not.
Configure / build / install flow (via MCP tools)
session_configure(run_id, extra_cmake_flags="-DENABLE_TESTS=OFF ...")
session_build_install(run_id, jobs=<n>)
or for the annotated tree:
session_build_annotated(run_id, extra_cmake_flags="...")
session_configure runs cmake -S source -B build -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo <extra_cmake_flags>.session_build_annotated automatically appends
-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=<dftracer_install_prefix> when
session_install_dftracer was already called — you do not need to pass
this yourself.session_build_install runs make -j<jobs> then make install inside
build/ (or build_ann/ for the annotated tree) — this project uses the
Makefile generator, not Ninja, by default.- Re-running
session_configure on an existing build dir reconfigures in
place; no need to delete build/ first unless CMake's cache is corrupted
(symptom: stale CMakeCache.txt referencing a deleted compiler/prefix —
fix by deleting build/CMakeCache.txt specifically, not the whole tree).
Lessons are per-system and per-dependency, not universal
CMake itself is portable, but whether find_package resolves a dependency
via CONFIG or MODULE mode, which system paths are searched, and what a
missing dependency's exact error looks like varies by system and by the
dependency itself. Tag every lesson below with the (system, dependency)
pair it was observed on. Cross-link the system-specific half into the
relevant system-<system> skill when it's about the site rather than CMake
itself.
Lessons
(none recorded yet for this repo's sessions beyond what's captured per
workload-<app> skills for specific projects — e.g. h5bench's CMake quirks
live in workload-h5bench. Record a NEW cross-project CMake lesson here;
keep project-specific CMakeLists.txt quirks in that project's own skill.)
