Perform the following steps to get the [http://www.cmake.org CMake Make System] working for you. The example shows how to set things up such that the binary startCompletionServer is built by a call to "make" and that the distribution autocomplete-0.1.tar.gz is built by a call to "make package_source".

Basic workcycle

Let us assume that all your soruce files (.h and .cpp files) are located in one top level directory called autocompletion}. In this directory, create a file called CMakeLists.txt with the following content: 

# BUILDING
PROJECT(autocompletion)

SET(BASEFILES 
               Globals.cpp            Globals.h 
               HYBCompleter.cpp       HYBCompleter.h 
               IndexBase.cpp          IndexBase.h 
               History.cpp            History.h
               codes.cpp              codes.h
               nrutil.c               nrutil.h
               QueryParameters.cpp    QueryParameters.h 
               HYBIndex.cpp           HYBIndex.h 
               WordsFile.cpp          WordsFile.h 
               ConcurrentLog.cpp      ConcurrentLog.h 
               DocsDB.cpp             DocsDB.h 
               Document.cpp           Document.h 
               ExcerptsGenerator.cpp  ExcerptsGenerator.h
               CompletionServer.cpp   CompletionServer.h
               CompleterBase.cpp      CompleterBase.h
)

ADD_EXECUTABLE(startCompletionServer StartCompletionServer.cpp ${BASEFILES})

# TODO: the following ist not portable!
# we could use IF(UNIX) or IF($ENV{OSTYPE} EQUAL linux-gnu)

ADD_DEFINITIONS(-fexceptions
                -static
                 -O6 -Wall
                -DVERSION=\"'`date +\"Version %d%b%y %H:%M\"`'\"
                -DNDEBUG -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 
                -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_REENTRANT
                )

TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(startCompletionServer pthread z)

Now create a sibling directory, change into this directory and make an "out-of-source" build: 

$ cd ..
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake ../autocompletion # out-of-source build: build in a completely different tree
$ make
$ ./startCompletionServer

Installing

# INSTALLING
INSTALL(TARGETS startCompletionServer RUNTIME DESTINATION bin)

Use the command line definition CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX: 

$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=.

Packaging

Testing

ADD_EXECUTABLE(test-adler32 test-adler32.cpp ${BASEFILES})
TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(test-adler32 pthread z)
ADD_TEST(adler32 test-adler32 4711)

Using subdirectories

# Recurse into subdirs
ADD_SUBDIRECTORY( src )

Generating config.h

INCLUDE (CheckIncludeFiles)

# usage: CHECK_INCLUDE_FILES (<header> <RESULT_VARIABLE> )
CHECK_INCLUDE_FILES (malloc.h HAVE_MALLOC_H)

# If another header is required to use the header you are looking for,
# you have to list the header files separated by semicolons
CHECK_INCLUDE_FILES ("sys/param.h;sys/mount.h" HAVE_SYS_MOUNT_H)

INCLUDE (CheckFunctionExists)
CHECK_FUNCTION_EXISTS(memcpy HAVE_MEMCPY)
CHECK_FUNCTION_EXISTS(floedeldoe HAVE_FLODELDOE)

CONFIGURE_FILE(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/config.h.cmake 
               ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/config.h)

Useful options

CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED(VERSION 2.4)
ENABLE_TESTING()

# the following line works in 2.4, but not in 2.0 :-)
# CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED(VERSION 2.4 FATAL_ERROR)

# workaround for stopping cmake
IF(CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION LESS 2.4)
  MESSAGE(FATAL_ERROR "STOPPED! You need at least CMake version 2.4 for this.")
ENDIF(CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION LESS 2.4)

# option to produce more 'verbose' compiling
#SET(CMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE ON)