CMake in AimRT

AimRT uses native standard Modern CMake for building and relies on CMake FetchContent to manage dependencies.

Modern CMake

Modern CMake is the mainstream build approach for current C++ projects. It adopts an object-oriented construction philosophy, introducing concepts like Targets and properties, which encapsulate all parameter information including dependencies. This greatly simplifies dependency management and makes building large systems more organized and effortless. The AimRT framework utilizes Modern CMake for construction, where each leaf folder represents a CMake Target. When libraries reference each other, all subordinate dependencies are automatically handled.

Detailed usage of Modern CMake won’t be elaborated here. You may refer to other tutorials:

• CMake official website

• More Modern CMake

• Effective Modern CMake

• An Introduction to Modern CMake

AimRT’s Third-party Dependency Management Strategy

When you intend to reference/build AimRT from source, you need to understand its third-party dependency management strategy:

• AimRT uses CMake FetchContent to fetch dependencies. For detailed usage of CMake FetchContent, refer to the CMake official documentation.

• By default, AimRT downloads dependencies from their official sources. If you wish to use custom download URLs, examine the code in cmake/GetXXX.cmake and pass the -DXXX_DOWNLOAD_URL parameter during build to modify the download URL to your custom address.

• If your build environment lacks external network connectivity, you can download these dependencies offline. Then, reference the code in cmake/GetXXX.cmake and pass the -DXXX_LOCAL_SOURCE parameter during build to redirect the dependency search path to your specified local address.

• If the above methods still don’t meet your customization needs for dependency management, you can directly modify the code in cmake/GetXXX.cmake, as long as it introduces the CMake Targets required for AimRT’s build.

• Note: AimRT only validates the versions of third-party dependencies configured with default parameters. If you need to upgrade or downgrade these dependencies, ensure compatibility and stability yourself.

During the build process, most AimRT dependencies are downloaded from GitHub by default. Some dependencies like Boost are large in size. If download failures occur due to network issues, consider using the gitee mirror URLs provided by AimRT.

On Linux platforms, you can reference the url_cn.bashrc file to set alternative download addresses as environment variables AIMRT_DOWNLOAD_FLAGS. Users can add this environment variable during CMake generation to download from mirror addresses.

To use mirror download addresses, first execute source url_cn.bashrc, then add the AIMRT_DOWNLOAD_FLAGS environment variable during CMake generation:

# Set AIMRT_DOWNLOAD_FLAGS to download from mirror site
source url_cn.bashrc
# Add AIMRT_DOWNLOAD_FLAGS to cmake generate command
cmake -Bbuild ... $AIMRT_DOWNLOAD_FLAGS

AimRT’s CMake Options

The AimRT framework consists of its interface layer, runtime core, plus multiple plugins and tools. During build, you can configure CMake options to select partial or complete components for compilation. The detailed CMake options are as follows:

CMake Option Name	Type	Default	Description
AIMRT_BUILD_TESTS	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile tests
AIMRT_BUILD_PROTOCOLS	BOOL	ON	Whether to compile protocols provided by AimRT
AIMRT_BUILD_EXAMPLES	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile examples
AIMRT_BUILD_DOCUMENT	BOOL	OFF	Whether to build documentation
AIMRT_BUILD_RUNTIME	BOOL	ON	Whether to compile the runtime
AIMRT_BUILD_CLI_TOOLS	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile CLI tools
AIMRT_BUILD_PYTHON_RUNTIME	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile Python runtime
AIMRT_USE_FMT_LIB	BOOL	ON	Whether to use Fmt library (OFF uses std::format)
AIMRT_BUILD_WITH_PROTOBUF	BOOL	ON	Whether to use Protobuf library
AIMRT_USE_LOCAL_PROTOC_COMPILER	BOOL	OFF	Whether to use local protoc tool
AIMRT_USE_PROTOC_PYTHON_PLUGIN	BOOL	OFF	Whether to use Python version protoc plugin
AIMRT_BUILD_WITH_ROS2	BOOL	OFF	Whether to use ROS2 Humble
AIMRT_BUILD_NET_PLUGIN	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile Net plugin
AIMRT_BUILD_ROS2_PLUGIN	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile ROS2 Humble plugin
AIMRT_BUILD_MQTT_PLUGIN	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile MQTT plugin
AIMRT_BUILD_ZENOH_PLUGIN	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile Zenoh plugin
AIMRT_BUILD_ICEORYX_PLUGIN	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile Iceoryx plugin
AIMRT_BUILD_RECORD_PLAYBACK_PLUGIN	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile record/playback plugin
AIMRT_BUILD_TIME_MANIPULATOR_PLUGIN	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile time manipulator plugin
AIMRT_BUILD_PARAMETER_PLUGIN	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile parameter plugin
AIMRT_BUILD_LOG_CONTROL_PLUGIN	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile log control plugin
AIMRT_BUILD_TOPIC_LOGGER_PLUGIN	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile topic logger plugin
AIMRT_BUILD_OPENTELEMETRY_PLUGIN	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile OpenTelemetry plugin
AIMRT_BUILD_GRPC_PLUGIN	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile gRPC plugin
AIMRT_INSTALL	BOOL	ON	Whether to install AimRT
AIMRT_BUILD_PYTHON_PACKAGE	BOOL	OFF	Whether to compile aimrt-py wheel package

CMake Targets in AimRT

All referenceable non-protocol CMake Targets in AimRT are as follows:

CMake Target Name	Description	Required Macros
aimrt::common::util	Independent basic utilities (string, log, etc.)
aimrt::common::net	Independent network utilities (based on Boost ASIO/Beast)	AIMRT_BUILD_RUNTIME, AIMRT_BUILD_NET_PLUGIN or AIMRT_BUILD_GRPC_PLUGIN
aimrt::common::ros2_util	Independent ROS2-related basic utilities	AIMRT_BUILD_WITH_ROS2
aimrt::interface::aimrt_module_c_interface	Module development interface (C version)
aimrt::interface::aimrt_module_cpp_interface	Module development interface (C++ version)
aimrt::interface::aimrt_module_protobuf_interface	Protobuf-related module interface (based on C++ interface)	AIMRT_BUILD_WITH_PROTOBUF
aimrt::interface::aimrt_module_ros2_interface	ROS2-related module interface (based on C++ interface)	AIMRT_BUILD_WITH_ROS2
aimrt::interface::aimrt_pkg_c_interface	Package development interface
aimrt::interface::aimrt_core_plugin_interface	Plugin development interface	AIMRT_BUILD_RUNTIME
aimrt::interface::aimrt_type_support_pkg_c_interface	Type support interface
aimrt::runtime::core	Runtime core library	AIMRT_BUILD_RUNTIME