This project aims to facilitate the conversion of Visual Studio projects to CMake projects. The goal is to give to a Python script, a .vcxproj file, and output a CMakeLists.txt.

Note : Actually, it's only works with c/c++ projects.

You may have Python3 installed and lxml module :

sudo apt-get install python3

pip install lxml

Go to Python Releases for Windows and download latest release. Install and follow instruction of setup.

Once Python installed, try to install lxml : pip install lxml

If installation of lxml fails, download binaries you need here and run :

pip install <lxml-file.whl>

That must be work. If no, try again in Administrator elevated terminal.

After install prerequisites, just run the script as below.

The file.vcxproj is of course required:

./cmakeconverter.py -p <path/to/file.vcxproj>

Script provides other option to facilitate conversion of your Visual Studio project :

• -o : define output of the geenrated CMakeLists.txt.
• -a : add cmake code from file (file.cmake is working too). Be sure your code is valid. Please read CMake 3.5 Official Documentation to know more.
• -D : replace folder dependencies found in .vcxproj by other. Usefull for those who have other CMake project in other folders.
• -O : add possibility to define output of artefacts produces by CMake.
• -i : include additional directories if set "True". Default "False".

Full Example :

./cmakeconverter.py \
> -p ../project/platform/msvc/vc2015/mylib.vcxproj \
> -a additional_code.txt \
> -o ../project/platform/cmake/mylib/ \
> -D ../../../external/zlib/platform/cmake/:../../../external/g3log/platform/cmake/
> -O ../../build/x64/\${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}/
> -i True

Cmakeconverter try to have the most information as possible in your file.vcxproj ! However, it's recommended to read and test generated CMakeLists.txt before using in production.

Actually, you have to place your generated CMakelists.txt in the same directory of your .vcxproj file, because he keep relative path of your project. Script make some incremental variable to keep the maximum of your source, but maybe you don't want to have all sources inside.

That's why you have the variable for your project (like PROJECT_NAME) in head of CMakeLists.txt. You can easily change this variable after.

After these lines, you have MACRO and FLAGS definitions of project (like UNICODE for example). You can if needed add other MACRO like that : -DYOUR_MACRO or -DYOUR_FLAGS.

Dependencies are other projects you have set in your .vcxproj like shared or static libraries. You have an option call BUILD_DEPENDS who attempt to link with them.

If ON (default), he tries to find in another folder platform/cmake/your_lib/ to build other CMakeLists.txt. This is a conventional directory structure and you can override this with -D option of script.

If OFF, he tries to link library (.so or .dll) in a folder call dependencies/libname/build. This folder can also be change if needed.

Flags are needed for compilation, mainly for Windows, to make compilation working. On Linux, flags are usually set properly but script add minimum to use.

file function add all your files to your project. In case of failing compilation, maybe you have to verify if all files are properly include !

After script get all information, he create your library (STATIC or SHARED) or your executable. If needed, he had dependencies too.

At end of file, you have directives to link your artefact with other project (external libraries).

Once you have verify CMakeLists.txt, copy it in your .vcxproj folder and run the following command :

cd ../to/root/project
mkdir build && cd build
# Generate Makefile
cmake ../path/to/cmakelist
# Build project
cmake --build .

You can add the following options to your cmake command :

# To link dependencies already compile
-DBUILD_DEPENDS=OFF
# To give target Debug. If not set Release will be default.
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

Generators : you can specify which Makefile you want generate, during makefile generation :

-G"NMake Makefiles"

Please refer to Cmake Generators for further details.