Introduction

This document describes the schema for Common Package Specification files. A Common Package Specification file (hereafter “CPS”) is a mechanism for describing how users may consume a package. “User” here refers to another package, not an end user. CPS deals with building software, not installing software.

CPS is based on JSON. A CPS file is a valid JSON object.

The official version of the specification is maintained at https://github.com/cps-org/cps.

Contents

General Information

• Overview
  • Advantages of CPS
  • Contributors
• History
  • What’s wrong with pkg-config?
  • What’s wrong with CMake exported targets?
• Development Process
  • Community Involvement
  • Contributing

Core Specification

• Package Schema
  • Objects
  • Attributes
  • Notes
  • JSON Schema
• Compiler and Linker Features
  • Compiler Features
  • Linker Features
• Component Specification
• Package Configurations
  • Configuration Merging
• Package Searching
  • Prefix Determination

Appendices

• Supplemental Schema
  • Attributes(Supplemental)
• Usage and Implementation Recommendations
  • Configurations as Flags
  • Single Package, Multiple Platforms
  • Cross Compiling
  • Link-Only Requirements and Link Order
  • Transitive Dependencies
• Sample CPS File

• Search Page