CMake coding Standard

In order to make RobWork more streamlined, maintainable and avoid errors, follow the standard below

1. General Formating Rules

1.1. Lowercase cmake commands

All native CMake Commands must be in lower case.

#YES
find_package(foo REQUIRED)
#NO
FIND_PACKAGE(foo REQUIRED)

1.2. Lowercase macros

All RobWork Macros must be in all lowercase, and named appropriately with rw, rws, rwhw or rwsim infront of the macro.

1.3 Uppercase variables

All variables must be in all uppercase

1.4. Indentation

Indent all code correctly, i.e. the body of

if/else/endif
foreach/endforeach
while/endwhile
macro/endmacro
function/endfunction

Use 4 spaces for indenting

1.5. End Commands

To make the code easier to read, use empty commands for endforeach(), endif(), endfunction(), endmacro() and endwhile(). Also, use empty else() commands.

For example, do this:

if(FOOVAR)
   some_command(...)
else()
   another_command(...)
endif()

and not this:

if(BARVAR)
   some_other_command(...)
else(BARVAR)
   another_command(...)
endif(BARVAR)

1.6. Keep lists sorted

Whenever using a list of items where the order doesn’t matter (i.e. in find_package(COMPONENTS …), or files which should be build or installed) keep them alphabetically sorted. This improves readability when looking for specific items. (There are exceptions which require a specific custom order like the list of projects inside a stack).

2. Conditions and Variables

2.1 Always quote variable that represent a string:

set(myvar "foo")
if("${myvar}" STREQUAL "bar")
# ...
endif()

2.2 Do not quote variable that are booleans:

set(mybvar ON)
set(mybvar OFF)
if(${myvar})
# ...
endif()

2.3 Use if(DEFINED varname) to check if a variable is set:

if(DEFINED myvar)
#  ...
endif()

2.4 Use if(varname) to check it a variable has a non-empty value:

if(myvar)
#  ...
endif()

2.5 Path Variables

When storing paths in variables or CACHE, do NOT have the cmake variables end up with a slash:

# YES:
set(MY_PATH "path/to/foo")
set(MY_OTHER_PATH "${_my_path}/${_my_var}")
# NO:
set(MY_PATH "path/to/foo/")
set(MY_OTHER_PATH "${_my_path}${_my_var}")   # wrong: this is ugly

2.6 Path Names

Any CACHE Variable that stores a path, should be given the type PATH or FILEPATH

3. Robwork CMake setup

3.1 Module naming

Modules are named with prefix sdu, ie. sdurw, sdurws, sdurwhw and sdurwsim. sub-modules are named module_”nameOfSubModule”.

3.2 File header for targets

When a CMake file is compiling a sub-module the CMake file must include the following lines in the beginning of the file

SET(SUBSYS_NAME module_name )
SET(SUBSYS_DESC "A description of what this module is used for" )
SET(SUBSYS_DEPS dependency1 dependency2 ... )

3.5 Naming of project Variables and Macros

The Name of a project wide variable or macro must be named with the acronym of the project as prefix

#YES
set(RWS_NAME_OF_VARIABLE ...)
#NO
set(NAME_OF_VARIABLE ...)