Software Alternatives & Reviews

CMake VS SCons

Compare CMake VS SCons and see what are their differences

CMake logo CMake

CMake is an open-source, cross-platform family of tools designed to build, test and package software.

SCons logo SCons

SCons is an Open Source software construction tool—that is, a next-generation build tool.
  • CMake Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-09-21

We recommend LibHunt CMake for discovery and comparisons of trending CMake projects.

  • SCons Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-21

CMake

Categories
  • Front End Package Manager
  • JavaScript Package Manager
  • JS Build Tools
  • Package Manager
Website cmake.org
Details $-

SCons

Categories
  • Front End Package Manager
  • JavaScript Package Manager
  • JS Build Tools
  • Package Manager
Website scons.org
Details $

CMake videos

CMake for Dummies

More videos:

  • Review - CppCon 2017: Mathieu Ropert “Using Modern CMake Patterns to Enforce a Good Modular Design”
  • Review - Hunter, a CMake driven package manager for C/C++ projects - Daniel Friedrich - Lightning Talks

SCons videos

Review Scons Bañados Dia %

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CMake and SCons)
Front End Package Manager
JavaScript Package Manager
JS Build Tools
58 58%
42% 42
Continuous Integration
68 68%
32% 32

User comments

Share your experience with using CMake and SCons. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CMake should be more popular than SCons. It has been mentiond 51 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

CMake mentions (51)

  • Top 7 C++ Tools to explore in 2024 if it's not already the case.
    CMake stands for "Cross-platform Make" and is an open-source, platform-independent build system. It's designed to build, test, and package software projects written in C and C++, but it can also be used for other languages. Here's an overview of CMake and its features:. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • My first Software Release using GitHub Release
    When doing research for this lab exercise I looked at both vcpkg and conan. Both are package managers that would automate the installation and configuration of my program with its dependencies. However, when it came to releasing and sharing my program my options were limited. For example, the central public registry for conan packages is conan-center, but these packages are curated and the process is very... - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • A little help for a C++ newbie
    Install the CMake program using your system package manager, e.g. Sudo apt-get install cmake. Source: 7 months ago
  • Questions Regarding working with Mingw_w64, MSYS2, and CMake on Windows
    Oh I just assumed it was talking about the one from cmake.org since I was having trouble. I can now confirm that mingw-w64-cmake and the binary from cmake.org do operate in mostly identical ways. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Questions Regarding working with Mingw_w64, MSYS2, and CMake on Windows
    Then looking at any one of the many examples provided on cmake.org, it's clearly a viable way to do set(CMAKE_*), (e.g., set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11) Set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED True)). Of course, another way to set these variables is to use the -D flag as you suggested, but I was just wondering why you would prohibit using set(CMAKE_*). Source: about 1 year ago
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SCons mentions (14)

  • Show HN: Jeeves – A Pythonic Alternative to GNU Make
    The most comprehensive make alternative in python I've seen is Scons (https://scons.org/) It would be worth to see how they tackles some of the challenges you're looking into. Blurb from the website: SCons is an Open Source software construction tool. Think of SCons as an improved, cross-platform substitute for the classic Make utility with integrated functionality similar to autoconf/automake and compiler caches... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Taskfile: A Modern Alternative to Makefile
    Https://scons.org/ It has cache facility to speed up re-builds. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • What was used to build C++ programs before Cmake?
    SCons never got popular enough to escape the niches it grew up in. Source: 10 months ago
  • Is it possible to dynamically introduce nodes inside the project
    I literally do almost this exact thing with the game im working on. Situation is: im the programmer, working with an artist who cant code (and im not going to make them edit json on an ipad lmao) so I have a google drive spreadsheet where they put metadata for the items they make. I have a script that uses rclone to copy this down as a csv, along with the image assets. Then I wrote a python extension for scons... Source: about 1 year ago
  • How do i get started with GD Extension?
    It's a build tool, like cmake. https://scons.org/ you have to install it. Source: about 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing CMake and SCons, you can also consider the following products

GNU Make - GNU Make is a tool which controls the generation of executables and other non-source files of a program from the program's source files.

Ninja Build - Ninja is a small build system with a focus on speed.

Meson - Meson is an open source build system meant to be both extremely fast, and, even more importantly...

SBT - SBT is a build tool for Scala, like Ant or Maven but with hieroglyphics.

Gradle - Accelerate developer productivity. Gradle helps teams build, automate and deliver better software, faster. DocsExplore the documentation of Gradle. Find installation ..

Apache Maven - Apache Maven is a project comprehension and management software tool.