GitHub - adembudak/CMakeForImGui: CMake build support for Dear ImGui

CMake build support for Dear ImGui. It can build and install the library, backends and examples.

This work proposed for the Dear ImGui upstream: ocornut/imgui#8896

Building

cmake -D IMGUI_SOURCE_DIR=path.to.imgui -S . -B build

Setting IMGUI_SOURCE_DIR variable on configuration step is mandatory. An example usage might be like this:

cmake -G 'Ninja Multi-Config' -D IMGUI_SOURCE_DIR=imgui -S . -B build
cmake -D IMGUI_ENABLE_FREETYPE=ON -D DearImGui_Backend_SDL2=ON -D DearImGui_Backend_OpenGL3=ON -S . -B build # Options in imconfig.h, like IMGUI_ENABLE_FREETYPE, can be specified
cmake --build build --config Release
cmake --install build --config Release

The commands above assume the dependencies of the backend are installed on the host system. One can visit the project site of used backend and get the source and then follow the build instructions. Another option is using a package manager. There are several ways to manage dependencies of and build C++ software. The vcpkg used on this repository.

vcpkg install
cmake -G 'Ninja Multi-Config' -D VCPKG_MANIFEST_MODE=ON -D IMGUI_SOURCE_DIR=imgui -S . -B build --toolchain $VCPKG_ROOT/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake

Note that this will not install some platform dependencies like DirectX libraries on Windows, Windows App SDK needs to installed for it or Metal framework on macOS, Xcode needs to be installed.

CMake presets file can also be used:

cmake --list-presets # list available presets
cmake --preset Default
cmake --build --preset Default --config Debug
cmake --install build --config Debug

Following backend options are available:

All backend options are OFF by default and all the configuration macros on imconfig.h can be passed as CMake command line with -D variable.

Example programs set as dependent options corresponding to their used backends:

cmake_dependent_option(Example_SDL2_OpenGL3 "" OFF "DearImGui_Backend_SDL2 AND DearImGui_Backend_OpenGL3" OFF)

The Example_SDL2_OpenGL3 option will be available only when used backends are ON. The same is true for all the other examples and they're OFF by default.

Libraries and examples can be installed by setting Install and Install_examples options ON, respectively. An uninstall custom target is also provided to remove the artifacts where they are installed.

Usage

All the include paths are kept as is. This repo demonstrates how to build programs as a client of the library:

# project setup
# ...

find_package(DearImGui CONFIG REQUIRED)
# ...
target_link_libraries(tgt PUBLIC ImGui::Backend_SDL2 ImGui::Backend_OpenGL3)

With pkg-config command

The build script can be used to generate a pkg-config file:

cmake -D Pkg-config=ON -S . -B build

This generates a dearimgui.pc file in build directory which can be installed and used:

c++ -o out main.cpp $(pkg-config --cflags --libs dearimgui)

Alternative approaches

Some alternative designs are also considered:

• On single-target branch all the targets are (ImGui itself and backends) linked with a single Unofficial::DearImGui::imgui target rather than a target per backend.
• On pre.v1.80 it's tried to add support Dear ImGui versions before v1.80.
• On thirdparties-as-components branch some thirdparty projects can be specified as COMPONENTS option of find_package().

These branches differentiated too much from the main at this point.

• On CMakeForImGuiThirdParties repository it's shown how thirdparty ImGui software benefit from this work.

License

This code licensed under MIT license. The projects it depends have their own licenses and should be reviewed in accordance with their respective licenses.

Help needed

Any kind of feedback, review or input is appreciated and welcome...