Project structure using meson.build and c++

You are ready to start your new C++ project from scratch and you want to go with Test Driven Development approach. Where to start? How to structure your project?

In this post series I will try to answer those questions using meson.build as a build system.

What we want to have on top level(root) of our project:

├── include
├── meson.build
├── src
├── subprojects
└── test

include directory will contain header files
src directory will contain source files
subprojects directory will contain third party projects that use meson.build as a build system
test directory will contain everything related to tests
meson.build file containing build description for meson build system

I usually group header files into sub directories inside include directory:

├── include
│   ├── bar
│   │   └── random.hpp
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── foo
│   │   └── dummy.hpp
│   │   └── ...
│   └── tar
│       └── generator.hpp
│       └── ...
├── meson.build
├── src
├── subprojects
└── test

Same goes for source files, if there is source file for specific header (if is not header only):

├── include
├── meson.build
├── src
|   ├── meson.build
│   ├── bar
│   │   └── random.cpp
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── foo
│   │   └── dummy.cpp
│   │   └── ...
│   └── tar
│       └── generator.cpp
│       └── ...
├── subprojects
└── test

Lets take closer look at test directory. What we actually want is to support Testing Pyramid, so we will have something like this:

├── include
├── meson.build
├── src
├── subprojects
└── test
    ├── meson.build
    ├── unit_tests
    │   └── [List of all unit tests].cpp
    │   └── meson.build
    ├── integration_tests
    │   └── [List of all integration tests].cpp
    │   └── meson.build
    ├── component_tests
    │   └── [List of all component tests].cpp
    │   └── meson.build
    └── system_tests
        └── [List of all system tests].cpp
        └── meson.build