diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 1732dfa4..c01852a9 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -3,22 +3,11 @@
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.10)
 
 project(xo_statistics VERSION 1.0)
-enable_language(CXX)
 
+include(GNUInstallDirs)
 include(cmake/xo-bootstrap-macros.cmake)
 
-# ----------------------------------------------------------------
-# unit test setup
-
-enable_testing()
-# activate code coverage for all executables + libraries (when configured with -DCODE_COVERAGE=ON)
-add_code_coverage()
-# 1. assuming that /nix/store/ prefixes .hpp files belonging to gcc, catch2 etc.
-#    we're not interested in code coverage for these sources.
-# 2. exclude the utest/ subdir, we don't need coverage on the unit tests themselves;
-#    rather,  want coverage on the code that the unit tests exercise.
-#
-add_code_coverage_all_targets(EXCLUDE /nix/store/* utest/*)
+xo_cxx_toplevel_options3()
 
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------
 # bespoke (usually temporary) c++ settings
@@ -27,19 +16,6 @@ set(PROJECT_CXX_FLAGS "")
 #set(PROJECT_CXX_FLAGS "-fconcepts-diagnostics-depth=2")
 add_definitions(${PROJECT_CXX_FLAGS})
 
-# ----------------------------------------------------------------
-# common include paths etc.
-
-xo_toplevel_compile_options()
-
-# ----------------------------------------------------------------
-# external dependencies
-#
-# set CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to analog of /usr
-# to use .cmake assistants from /usr/lib/cmake/indentlog
-#
-# xo_dependency(..)
-
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------
 
 #add_subdirectory(example)