How to build a legacy C++ project with Apache Maven ?

POSTED ON August 8, 2016 By Jegan
Posted In Uncategorized

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Let’s say you have a legacy C/C++ project that is presently being compiled with make utility. Assuming you would like to mavenize your project with no or minimal change, here is a way you can achieve this with ease.

Let’s first create a simple C++ class header as below

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class Hello {
public:
   void sayHello();
};

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

class Hello {

public:

void sayHello();

};

Let’s go ahead and define the class in hello.cpp

#include "hello.h"

void Hello::sayHello() {
    cout << "Hello Maven from Cpp app ..." << endl;
}

#include "hello.h"

void Hello::sayHello() {

cout << "Hello Maven from Cpp app ..." << endl;

}

Let’s write the main function in main.cpp

#include "hello.h"

int main ( ) {
    Hello obj;
    obj.sayHello();
    return 0;
}

#include "hello.h"

int main ( ) {

Hello obj;

obj.sayHello();

return 0;

}

Now its time to create a Makefile

all: main.o hello.o
   g++ -o hello.exe main.o hello.o

main.o: main.cpp
   g++ -c main.cpp

hello.o: hello.cpp
   g++ -c hello.cpp

clean:
   rm -rf ./hello.exe *.o

all: main.o hello.o

g++ -o hello.exe main.o hello.o

main.o: main.cpp

g++ -c main.cpp

hello.o: hello.cpp

g++ -c hello.cpp

clean:

rm -rf ./hello.exe *.o

At this point your project home folder should look as below

You should be able to compile your project as below

Now let’s assume this is our legacy project which already works fine but you would like to build this legacy project with Maven moving forward.

Let’s create the pom.xml file in the project home as shown below

<project>
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

   <groupId>org.tektutor</groupId>
   <artifactId>tektutor-cpp-app</artifactId>
   <version>1.2.3</version>

   <build>
      <plugins>
          <plugin>
             <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
             <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
             <version>2.0.2</version>
             <executions>
                 <execution>
                      <id>default-compile</id>
                      <phase>none</phase>
                 </execution>
             </executions>
          </plugin>
          <plugin>
             <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
             <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin<artifactId>
             <version>1.5.0</version>
             <executions>
                 <execution>
                     <phase>compile</phase>
                     <goals>
                        <goal>exec</goal>
                     </goals>
                     <configuration>
                        <workingDirectory>source</workingDirectory>
                        <executable>make</executable>
                     </configuration>
                 </execution>
             </executions>
          </plugin>
       </plugins>
   </build>
</project>

<groupId>org.tektutor</groupId>

<artifactId>tektutor-cpp-app</artifactId>

<build>

<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>

<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>

<id>default-compile</id>

</execution>

</executions>

</plugin>

<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>

<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin<artifactId>

<phase>compile</phase>

<goals>

</goals>

<workingDirectory>source</workingDirectory>

</configuration>

</execution>

</executions>

</plugin>

</plugins>

</build>

</project>

With the above pom.xml in place, you should be able to compile the C++ project as below

Jegan

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