So, I successfully compiled mysql++ on both linux and windows using cmake. The scripts assume, that if you are on linux, you just plainly installed the libraries (mysql and mysqlclient) and if you are on windows you use vcpkg. It is very primitive so far but works. The only required change to the library is to remove MS extensions (__declspec(dllimport) and __declspec(dllexport)), cmake will take care of this, so if you leave it there, the compiler will complain about inconsistent import/export types. So one has to either delete the __declspec stuff (so that MYSQLPP_EXPORT resolves to nothing) or simply remove every installation of MYSQLPP_EXPORT macro. I also modified created a stable mysql++.h that includes config.h generated by cmake from config.h.in. Here are the two cmake lists: CMakeLists.txt in the root directory:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)

project(mysqlpp VERSION 3.3.1)
configure_file("${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/config.h.in" "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/lib/config.h")

execute_process(COMMAND "perl -w ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/lib/querydef.pl"
	WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}
)
execute_process(COMMAND "perl -w ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/lib/ssqls.pl"
	WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}
)

if(SINGLE_THREAD)
	message("Using single-thread configuration")
	message("you will not be able to user threads")
	message("set SINGLE_THREAD to 0 if this is not what you intended")
else()
	message("Using multithread configuration")
	set(CMAKE_THREAD_PREFER_PTHREAD TRUE)
	set(THREADS_PREFER_PTHREAD_FLAG TRUE)
	find_package(Threads REQUIRED)
endif()

if(UNIX)
	find_path(mysql mysql REQUIRED)
	find_library(mysqlclient mysqlclient CONFIG REQUIRED)
elseif(WIN32)
	set(VCPKG_TARGET_TRIPLET x64-windows)
	if(VCPKG_ROOT)
		message("VCPKG_ROOT is ${VCPKG_ROOT}")
	else()
		set(VCPKG_ROOT "C:/Program Files/vcpkg")
		message("VCPKG_ROOT not set, assuming ${VCPKG_ROOT}")
	endif()
	include(${VCPKG_ROOT}/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake)
	find_package(libmysql CONFIG REQUIRED)
endif()


add_compile_definitions(MYSQLPP_MYSQL_HEADERS_BURIED)
add_subdirectory(lib)

and CMakeLists.txt in the lib directory:

set(MYSQLPP_SOURCES
	beemutex.cpp
    cmdline.cpp
    connection.cpp
    cpool.cpp
    datetime.cpp
    dbdriver.cpp
    field_names.cpp
    field_types.cpp
    manip.cpp
    myset.cpp
    mysql++.cpp
    mystring.cpp
    null.cpp
    options.cpp
    qparms.cpp
    query.cpp
    result.cpp
    row.cpp
    scopedconnection.cpp
    sql_buffer.cpp
    sqlstream.cpp
    ssqls2.cppset(MYSQLPP_SOURCES
	beemutex.cpp
    cmdline.cpp
    connection.cpp
    cpool.cpp
    datetime.cpp
    dbdriver.cpp
    field_names.cpp
    field_types.cpp
    manip.cpp
    myset.cpp
    mysql++.cpp
    mystring.cpp
    null.cpp
    options.cpp
    qparms.cpp
    query.cpp
    result.cpp
    row.cpp
    scopedconnection.cpp
    sql_buffer.cpp
    sqlstream.cpp
    ssqls2.cpp
    stadapter.cpp
    tcp_connection.cpp
    transaction.cpp
    type_info.cpp
    uds_connection.cpp
    utility.cpp
    vallist.cpp
    wnp_connection.cpp
)

add_library(mysqlpp SHARED ${MYSQLPP_SOURCES})
if(WIN32)
	target_link_libraries(mysqlpp PUBLIC
		libmysql
	)
else()
	target_link_libraries(mysqlpp PUBLIC
		mysqlclient
	)
endif()
    stadapter.cpp
    tcp_connection.cpp
    transaction.cpp
    type_info.cpp
    uds_connection.cpp
    utility.cpp
    vallist.cpp
    wnp_connection.cpp
)

add_library(mysqlpp SHARED ${MYSQLPP_SOURCES})
if(WIN32)
	target_link_libraries(mysqlpp PUBLIC
		libmysql
	)
else()
	target_link_libraries(mysqlpp PUBLIC
		mysqlclient
	)
endif()

I didn't include the tests for now.