C++ and CMake

Pin CMake for a C++ project and run its configure, build and clean steps as tasks. A C or C++ compiler must already be installed, for example through your operating system's development tools; installing CMake does not install a compiler.

Build a CMake project

The tasks use CMake's build interface, so they work with any generator, such as Make or Ninja:

mise.toml

[tools]
cmake = "4"

[tasks.configure]
description = "Configure the CMake build"
run = "cmake -S . -B build"

[tasks.build]
description = "Build the project"
alias = "b"
depends = ["configure"]
run = "cmake --build build"

[tasks.clean]
description = "Clean compiled targets and keep the CMake configuration"
alias = "c"
run = "cmake --build build --target clean"

For a runnable example, add a CMakeLists.txt and a source file next to mise.toml. cmake_minimum_required states the oldest CMake the project supports; the [tools] entry picks the one you build with:

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.20)
project(hello LANGUAGES CXX)
add_executable(hello main.cpp)

main.cpp

#include <iostream>

int main() {
    std::cout << "Hello from CMake\n";
}

Run mise run build, then ./build/hello. The build task configures the build directory before it compiles. Add build/ to .gitignore.

With a single-configuration generator such as Unix Makefiles, the program is build/hello. Multi-configuration generators, such as Visual Studio or Ninja Multi-Config, put it in a configuration subdirectory; build one configuration with mise run build -- --config Debug and look in that generator's output path.

After the first build, mise run clean removes compiled targets with the generator's clean target and keeps the build configuration. See CMake's command-line reference for generator selection and build options.