dd-star

What is dd-star?

dd-star is a template providing some building infrastructure for C++ projects that are structured like a star: a core project creating libraries and tools used by all the satellite projects to build further libraries and programs.

Who develops dd-star?

dd-star is being developed by me, Dario Domizioli. I have used it for a few of my C++ projects and I thought I'd share it with the world in case it could be useful to other people.

Why use dd-star?

Most C++ projects are quite complex, and accordingly require a complex build system, especially if they are intended to be multi-platform. There is a large number of building tools available as either free / open software or commercial software, and dd-star does not try to compete with those.

dd-star is just a template that focuses on one particular use case, which happens to be the one I often use for my projects. It is designed specifically for that use case, it has minimal dependencies, and it supports UNIX systems.

dd-star does not try to be a solution for everything or everyone. If your use case is similar to mine, you'll hopefully find dd-star very useful. If not, there is no reason why dd-star should appeal to you.

What are the features of dd-star?

Licensed under the permissive Apache 2.0 License.
Supports Linux and MacOSX.
Minimal external dependencies: just make, python, git and a compiler.
GNU Make-based build system.
Minimal effort required to write project Makefiles (a few boilerplate lines).
Auto-discovery of source files, headers, unit tests and system tests.
Baked-in support for CATCH-based unit tests.
Baked-in support for system tests.
Baked-in support for Doxygen-based documentation, if doxygen is available.
Packages the final product in a standard directory structure.

What are the requirements of dd-star?

Operating System

Linux or MacOSX

Technically, I think any UNIX-like system is suitable as an operating system in which to use dd-star. However, I have only tested Linux (Ubuntu and SuSE) and MacOSX 10.

Compiler

GCC 4.8 (or later), or Clang 3.4 (or later)
A C++ standard library that supports the C++11 standard

The build system will prefer Clang if both compilers are available. If none is found, it will use whatever is defined in $CC, $CXX and $LD, however these might not be compatible with the Clang or GCC flags.

Tools

GNU Make 3.81 or later
Python 2.7
Git
[optional] Doxygen 1.8.x or later, for generating documentation

I think Python 3.x should be OK too, but I have not tested it.

... and that's it.

How to work with a dd-star based project.

You can start from a clone of dd-star. Go to that directory and type make. A help message will explain which targets are available for handling the default projects.

make everything will always build all projects (core and satellites).

make reset will clean all projects.

You can then just start playing with it, adding projects and files. It's that simple.

Full guidance for working with dd-star is provided in GUIDE.md.

hhexo/dd-star