Handling OpenCL with CMake 3.1 and higher

CMake-logoThere has been quite some “find OpenCL” code for CMake around. If you haven’t heard of CMake, it’s the most useful cross-platform tool to make cross-platform software.

Put this into CMakeLists.txt, changing the names for the executable.

#Minimal OpenCL CMakeLists.txt by StreamHPC

cmake_minimum_required (VERSION 3.1)

project(GreatProject)

# Handle OpenCL
find_package(OpenCL REQUIRED)
include_directories(${OpenCL_INCLUDE_DIRS})
link_directories(${OpenCL_LIBRARY})

add_executable (main main.cpp)
target_include_directories (main PUBLIC ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
target_link_libraries (main ${OpenCL_LIBRARY})

Then do the usual:

  • make a build-directory
  • cd build
  • cmake .. (specifying the right Generator)

Adding your own CMake snippets and you’re one happy dev!

Cmake 3.7

CMake 3.7 makes it even easier! You can do the following:

find_package(OpenCL REQUIRED)
add_executable(test_tgt main.c)
target_link_libraries(test_tgt OpenCL::OpenCL)

This automatically sets up the include paths and target library to link against. No need to use the ${OpenCL_INCLUDE_DIRS} and ${OpenCL_LIBRARIES} any more.

(Thanks Matthäus G. Chajdas for improving this!)

Getting CMake 3.1 or higher

  • Ubuntu/Debian: Get the PPA.
  • Other Linux: Get the latest tar.gz and compile.
  • Windows/OSX: Download the latest exe/dmg from the CMake homepage.

If you have more tips to share, put them in the comments.

Related Posts

Kabul - An Afghan National Police (ANP) students study basic logistics training at the Afghan Ministry in Interior (MOI) August 1, 2010. The Afghan MOI is providing the first ever computer based logistics training for ANP personnel. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Staff Sergeant Matt Davis)

Updated: OpenCL and CUDA programming training – now online

...  or replaced if time is getting too limited. Day 1: OpenCL/CUDA Foundations This is close to our standard OpenCL crash ...