CMake

LVGL supports integrating with CMake. It comes with preconfigured targets for:

On top of the preconfigured targets you can also use "plain" CMake to integrate LVGL into any custom C/C++ project.

Prerequisites

  • CMake ( >= 3.12.4 )

  • Compatible build tool e.g. * Make * Ninja

Building LVGL with CMake

There are many ways to include external CMake projects into your own. A modern one also used in this example is the CMake FetchContent module. This module conveniently allows us to download dependencies directly at configure time from e.g. GitHub. Here is an example how we might include LVGL into our own project.

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.14)
include(FetchContent)

project(MyProject LANGUAGES C CXX)

# Build an executable called "MyFirmware"
add_executable(MyFirmware src/main.c)

# Specify path to own LVGL config header
set(LV_CONF_PATH
    ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/src/lv_conf.h
    CACHE STRING "" FORCE)

# Fetch LVGL from GitHub
FetchContent_Declare(lvgl GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/lvgl/lvgl.git)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(lvgl)

# The target "MyFirmware" depends on LVGL
target_link_libraries(MyFirmware PRIVATE lvgl::lvgl)

This configuration declares a dependency between the two targets MyFirmware and lvgl. Upon building the target MyFirmware this dependency will be resolved and lvgl will be built and linked with it. Since LVGL requires a config header called lv_conf.h to be includable by its sources we also set the option LV_CONF_PATH to point to our own copy of it.

Additional CMake options

Besides LV_CONF_PATH there are few additional CMake options available.

Include paths options

  • LV_LVGL_H_INCLUDE_SIMPLE: which specifies whether to #include "lvgl.h" absolute or relative

    ON (default)

    OFF

    "lvgl.h"

    "../../lvgl.h"

  • LV_CONF_INCLUDE_SIMPLE: which specifies whether to #include "lv_conf.h" and "lv_drv_conf.h" absolute or relative

    ON (default)

    OFF

    "lv_conf.h"

    "../../lv_conf.h"

    "lv_drv_conf.h"

    "../../lv_drv_conf.h"

We do not recommend disabling those options unless your folder layout makes it absolutely necessary.

Examples/demos options

LVGL examples and demos are built by default in the main CMake file.
To disable their built, use:

  • LV_CONF_BUILD_DISABLE_EXAMPLES: Set to 1 to disable examples build

  • LV_CONF_BUILD_DISABLE_DEMOS: Set to 1 to disable demos build

Building LVGL drivers

To build LVGL drivers, you can use:

FetchContent_Declare(lv_drivers
                     GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/lvgl/lv_drivers)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(lv_drivers)

# The target "MyFirmware" depends on LVGL and drivers
target_link_libraries(MyFirmware PRIVATE lvgl::lvgl lvgl::drivers)

Build shared libraries with CMake

By default, LVGL will be built as a static library (archive). CMake can instead be instructed to build LVGL as shared library (.so/.dll/etc.):

set(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS ON)

OR

$ cmake "-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON" .