Since a few people asked me, here is a "minimal" CMakeLists.txt file for a user-written front-end 
program "myfe":

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cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.0)
project(myfe)

# Check for MIDASSYS environment variable
if (NOT DEFINED ENV{MIDASSYS})
   message(SEND_ERROR "MIDASSYS environment variable not defined.")
endif()

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
set(MIDASSYS $ENV{MIDASSYS})

if (${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME} MATCHES Linux)
   set(LIBS -lpthread -lutil -lrt)
endif()

add_executable(myfe myfe.cxx)

target_include_directories(myfe PRIVATE ${MIDASSYS}/include)
target_link_libraries(crfe ${MIDASSYS}/lib/libmfe.a ${MIDASSYS}/lib/libmidas.a ${LIBS})