TCPM: (the) Cmake Preset Matrix

TCPM is a CMakePresets.json transformation tool that generates presets for the cartesian product of a set of parameters. For example, given two toolchains :

"toolchain": [
    "gcc",
    "clang"
],

and two different c++ language standards:

"standard": [
    "cpp-20",
    "cpp-23"
],

the tcpm tool will generate four (4) configuration presets:

{
    "name": "configure-gcc-cpp-20"
},
{
    "name": "configure-gcc-cpp-23"
},
{
    "name": "configure-clang-cpp-20"
},
{
    "name": "configure-clang-cpp-23"
},

If you added a third parameter list with two items then TCPM would generate eight (8) configurations, the cartesian product producing \(|A| \times |B| = |A| * |B|\) items.

TCPM also provides a template language to allow generation of various preset fields like "cacheVariables". These templates, called “shapes” in the json, are given contextual tokens to use in string expansion and, for more complex logic, the pQuery DSL embedded in TCPM allows procedural expansion of fields based on the state of a presets document at the time a given preset is generated.

There’s a lot more to it, of course, and TCPM provides a complete JSON transformation language for presets json in in addition to other features. To get started we reccommend starting with the Try Me exercise.