CMake-based build system tracking issue

hebasto commented at 10:55 am on October 6, 2023: member

This issue will be updated to reflect the current state of CMake integration.

A brief historical context:

#25797 proposed a CMake-based build system with 100% feature parity to the Autotools-based one.
The reviewing process is happening in this repo as suggested in #27060 (comment).
The recent discussion at CoreDev – https://btctranscripts.com/bitcoin-core-dev-tech/2023-09/cmake/

How reviewing happens:

Pull requests are opened against the https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/tree/cmake-staging branch.
After reviewing and merging them, the staging branch get synced with the main branch from this repo.
This loop continues until all commits from #25797 get reviewed.

The planned chunks of work:

The root CMakeLists.txt and config/bitcoin-config.h files – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/5
Project-wide system introspections; the leveldb build target – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/6
The bitcoind build target – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/7
Cross-compiling support – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/10
Ccache support; libnatpmp, libminiupnpc, libzmq and systemtap-sdt optional packages support – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/13
Utility binaries, wallet functionality, bench_bitcoin and test_bitcoin – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/15
Handling different build configurations – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/18
Hardening, shared libraries – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/32
~~Build libbitcoinconsensus library – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/41~~ See #29189
Qt stuff – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/77
Guix builds – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/67
Building for fuzzing – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/43
multiprocess support – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/118
libbitcoin-kernel and bitcoin-chainstate – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/134
CI stuff – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/142
~~Building for Android~~ See #30049

The current minimum required CMake version is 3.13, which is the system package on Debian 10. Considering the timings of Debian 10 LTS EOL and integrating CMake into this repo, it seems reasonable to bump the minimum supported version up to 3.16, which is the system package on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Bump minimum supported CMake version from 3.13 up to 3.16 – https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/33

To hold the 100% feature parity, the current CMake-based build system implementation can autodetect an optional package and enable it as Autotools-based one does. However, it was suggested to make all optional package opt-in by default. See:

https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/12#discussion_r1156251913
https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/12#discussion_r1157570678
https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/13#discussion_r1164377093
Make all optional package opt-in by default

Autotools vs CMake Feature Parity Table is available here.

To list CMake’s options, one might add the -LH option during configuring step.

Updated build docs:

Building Bitcoin Core with Visual Studio

hebasto commented at 10:59 am on October 6, 2023: member

cc @theuni @TheCharlatan

maflcko commented at 11:23 am on October 6, 2023: member

The current minimum required CMake version is 3.13, which is the system package on Debian 10. Considering the timings of Debian 10 LTS EOL and integrating CMake into this repo, it seems reasonable to bump the minimum supported version up to 3.16, which is the system package on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Buster Backports has 3.18: https://packages.debian.org/buster-backports/cmake

maflcko commented at 11:26 am on October 6, 2023: member

Also, on a general note, it would be good to have a “cheat sheet” table for each configure option to list the corresponding cmake option. Maybe also one auto-generated and enforced with a script, to check equality, similar to https://github.com/curl/curl/pull/11964

hebasto commented at 12:00 pm on October 6, 2023: member

Also, on a general note, it would be good to have a “cheat sheet” table for each configure option to list the corresponding cmake option. Maybe also one auto-generated and enforced with a script, to check equality, similar to curl/curl#11964

Thanks! It is available here. It has been added to the top post.

hebasto commented at 10:20 pm on October 17, 2023: member

The next PR to review is https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/32.

hebasto commented at 0:06 am on October 18, 2023: member

The current minimum required CMake version is 3.13, which is the system package on Debian 10. Considering the timings of Debian 10 LTS EOL and integrating CMake into this repo, it seems reasonable to bump the minimum supported version up to 3.16, which is the system package on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Buster Backports has 3.18: packages.debian.org/buster-backports/cmake

The CMake minimum required version has been bumped up to 3.16 in https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/33.

ajtowns commented at 12:11 pm on October 30, 2023: contributor

libbitcoin-kernel and bitcoin-chainstate should be on this list too?

hebasto commented at 12:56 pm on October 30, 2023: member

libbitcoin-kernel and bitcoin-chainstate should be on this list too?

Sure. Added.

hebasto commented at 10:10 am on November 29, 2023: member

The new Building Bitcoin Core with Visual Studio doc has been added to the issue description.

paulocoutinhox commented at 9:25 am on December 13, 2023: none

+1

hebasto commented at 3:07 pm on January 8, 2024: member

Heads up: here are suggestions regarding the current features that are not expected being ported to the CMake-based build system:

fanquake referenced this in commit b3b19be20d on Jan 9, 2024

hebasto commented at 5:32 pm on March 9, 2024: member

Next one: Add MULTIPROCESS option.

Sjors commented at 10:27 am on April 22, 2024: member

What’s next?

It would be useful to have a link to build instructions too, not just the cheat cheat (or just add the standard mkdir build, cmake .. incantations to the cheat cheat).

In noticed that in your hebasto/cmake-staging branch the macOS instructions still assume autotools.

hebasto commented at 10:46 am on April 22, 2024: member

@Sjors

What’s next?

It would be useful to have a link to build instructions too, not just the cheat cheat (or just add the standard mkdir build, cmake .. incantations to the cheat cheat).

In noticed that in your hebasto/cmake-staging branch the macOS instructions still assume autotools.

WIP :)

Your testing and reviewing https://github.com/hebasto/bitcoin/pull/163 will be much appreciated!

hebasto commented at 11:12 pm on May 20, 2024: member

The main part of the #28607#issue-1929913410 has all checkboxes checked.

Thanks to all reviewers and testers!

Keeping working :)

hebasto commented at 7:58 am on October 15, 2024: member

Closing. See #30454.

hebasto closed this on Oct 15, 2024

DashCoreAutoGuix referenced this in commit 09fdb24501 on Jul 30, 2025

DashCoreAutoGuix referenced this in commit 6a8f8a8c6e on Aug 7, 2025

bitcoin locked this on Oct 15, 2025

CMake-based build system tracking issue #28607