CMAKE-COMMANDS(7) CMake CMAKE-COMMANDS(7)NAMEcmake-commands - CMake Language Command Reference
NORMAL COMMANDS
These commands may be used freely in CMake projects.
add_compile_options
Adds options to the compilation of source files.
add_compile_options(<option> ...)
Adds options to the compiler command line for targets in the current
directory and below that are added after this command is invoked. See
documentation of the directory and target COMPILE_OPTIONS properties.
This command can be used to add any options, but alternative commands
exist to add preprocessor definitions (target_compile_definitions() and
add_definitions()) or include directories (target_include_directories()
and include_directories()).
Arguments to add_compile_options may use "generator expressions" with
the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for
available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for more on
defining buildsystem properties.
add_custom_command
Add a custom build rule to the generated build system.
There are two main signatures for add_custom_command.
Generating Files
The first signature is for adding a custom command to produce an out‐
put:
add_custom_command(OUTPUT output1 [output2 ...]
COMMAND command1 [ARGS] [args1...]
[COMMAND command2 [ARGS] [args2...] ...]
[MAIN_DEPENDENCY depend]
[DEPENDS [depends...]]
[BYPRODUCTS [files...]]
[IMPLICIT_DEPENDS <lang1> depend1
[<lang2> depend2] ...]
[WORKING_DIRECTORY dir]
[COMMENT comment]
[VERBATIM] [APPEND] [USES_TERMINAL])
This defines a command to generate specified OUTPUT file(s). A target
created in the same directory (CMakeLists.txt file) that specifies any
output of the custom command as a source file is given a rule to gener‐
ate the file using the command at build time. Do not list the output
in more than one independent target that may build in parallel or the
two instances of the rule may conflict (instead use the add_custom_tar‐
get() command to drive the command and make the other targets depend on
that one). In makefile terms this creates a new target in the follow‐
ing form:
OUTPUT: MAIN_DEPENDENCY DEPENDS
COMMAND
The options are:
APPEND Append the COMMAND and DEPENDS option values to the custom com‐
mand for the first output specified. There must have already
been a previous call to this command with the same output. The
COMMENT, MAIN_DEPENDENCY, and WORKING_DIRECTORY options are cur‐
rently ignored when APPEND is given, but may be used in the
future.
BYPRODUCTS
Specify the files the command is expected to produce but whose
modification time may or may not be newer than the dependencies.
If a byproduct name is a relative path it will be interpreted
relative to the build tree directory corresponding to the cur‐
rent source directory. Each byproduct file will be marked with
the GENERATED source file property automatically.
Explicit specification of byproducts is supported by the Ninja
generator to tell the ninja build tool how to regenerate byprod‐
ucts when they are missing. It is also useful when other build
rules (e.g. custom commands) depend on the byproducts. Ninja
requires a build rule for any generated file on which another
rule depends even if there are order-only dependencies to ensure
the byproducts will be available before their dependents build.
The BYPRODUCTS option is ignored on non-Ninja generators except
to mark byproducts GENERATED.
COMMAND
Specify the command-line(s) to execute at build time. If more
than one COMMAND is specified they will be executed in order,
but not necessarily composed into a stateful shell or batch
script. (To run a full script, use the configure_file() command
or the file(GENERATE) command to create it, and then specify a
COMMAND to launch it.) The optional ARGS argument is for back‐
ward compatibility and will be ignored.
If COMMAND specifies an executable target (created by the
add_executable() command) it will automatically be replaced by
the location of the executable created at build time. (Use the
TARGET_FILE generator expression to reference an executable
later in the command line.) Additionally a target-level depen‐
dency will be added so that the executable target will be built
before any target using this custom command. However this does
NOT add a file-level dependency that would cause the custom com‐
mand to re-run whenever the executable is recompiled.
Arguments to COMMAND may use generator expressions. References
to target names in generator expressions imply target-level
dependencies, but NOT file-level dependencies. List target
names with the DEPENDS option to add file-level dependencies.
COMMENT
Display the given message before the commands are executed at
build time.
DEPENDS
Specify files on which the command depends. If any dependency
is an OUTPUT of another custom command in the same directory
(CMakeLists.txt file) CMake automatically brings the other cus‐
tom command into the target in which this command is built. If
DEPENDS is not specified the command will run whenever the OUT‐
PUT is missing; if the command does not actually create the OUT‐
PUT then the rule will always run. If DEPENDS specifies any
target (created by the add_custom_target(), add_executable(), or
add_library() command) a target-level dependency is created to
make sure the target is built before any target using this cus‐
tom command. Additionally, if the target is an executable or
library a file-level dependency is created to cause the custom
command to re-run whenever the target is recompiled.
Arguments to DEPENDS may use generator expressions.
IMPLICIT_DEPENDS
Request scanning of implicit dependencies of an input file. The
language given specifies the programming language whose corre‐
sponding dependency scanner should be used. Currently only C
and CXX language scanners are supported. The language has to be
specified for every file in the IMPLICIT_DEPENDS list. Depen‐
dencies discovered from the scanning are added to those of the
custom command at build time. Note that the IMPLICIT_DEPENDS
option is currently supported only for Makefile generators and
will be ignored by other generators.
MAIN_DEPENDENCY
Specify the primary input source file to the command. This is
treated just like any value given to the DEPENDS option but also
suggests to Visual Studio generators where to hang the custom
command. At most one custom command may specify a given source
file as its main dependency.
OUTPUT Specify the output files the command is expected to produce. If
an output name is a relative path it will be interpreted rela‐
tive to the build tree directory corresponding to the current
source directory. Each output file will be marked with the GEN‐
ERATED source file property automatically. If the output of the
custom command is not actually created as a file on disk it
should be marked with the SYMBOLIC source file property.
USES_TERMINAL
The command will be given direct access to the terminal if pos‐
sible. With the Ninja generator, this places the command in the
console pool.
VERBATIM
All arguments to the commands will be escaped properly for the
build tool so that the invoked command receives each argument
unchanged. Note that one level of escapes is still used by the
CMake language processor before add_custom_command even sees the
arguments. Use of VERBATIM is recommended as it enables correct
behavior. When VERBATIM is not given the behavior is platform
specific because there is no protection of tool-specific special
characters.
WORKING_DIRECTORY
Execute the command with the given current working directory.
If it is a relative path it will be interpreted relative to the
build tree directory corresponding to the current source direc‐
tory.
Build Events
The second signature adds a custom command to a target such as a
library or executable. This is useful for performing an operation
before or after building the target. The command becomes part of the
target and will only execute when the target itself is built. If the
target is already built, the command will not execute.
add_custom_command(TARGET target
PRE_BUILD | PRE_LINK | POST_BUILD
COMMAND command1 [ARGS] [args1...]
[COMMAND command2 [ARGS] [args2...] ...]
[BYPRODUCTS [files...]]
[WORKING_DIRECTORY dir]
[COMMENT comment]
[VERBATIM] [USES_TERMINAL])
This defines a new command that will be associated with building the
specified target. When the command will happen is determined by which
of the following is specified:
PRE_BUILD
Run before any other rules are executed within the target. This
is supported only on Visual Studio 7 or later. For all other
generators PRE_BUILD will be treated as PRE_LINK.
PRE_LINK
Run after sources have been compiled but before linking the
binary or running the librarian or archiver tool of a static
library. This is not defined for targets created by the
add_custom_target() command.
POST_BUILD
Run after all other rules within the target have been executed.
add_custom_target
Add a target with no output so it will always be built.
add_custom_target(Name [ALL] [command1 [args1...]]
[COMMAND command2 [args2...] ...]
[DEPENDS depend depend depend ... ]
[BYPRODUCTS [files...]]
[WORKING_DIRECTORY dir]
[COMMENT comment]
[VERBATIM] [USES_TERMINAL]
[SOURCES src1 [src2...]])
Adds a target with the given name that executes the given commands.
The target has no output file and is always considered out of date even
if the commands try to create a file with the name of the target. Use
the add_custom_command() command to generate a file with dependencies.
By default nothing depends on the custom target. Use the add_dependen‐
cies() command to add dependencies to or from other targets.
The options are:
ALL Indicate that this target should be added to the default build
target so that it will be run every time (the command cannot be
called ALL).
BYPRODUCTS
Specify the files the command is expected to produce but whose
modification time may or may not be updated on subsequent
builds. If a byproduct name is a relative path it will be
interpreted relative to the build tree directory corresponding
to the current source directory. Each byproduct file will be
marked with the GENERATED source file property automatically.
Explicit specification of byproducts is supported by the Ninja
generator to tell the ninja build tool how to regenerate byprod‐
ucts when they are missing. It is also useful when other build
rules (e.g. custom commands) depend on the byproducts. Ninja
requires a build rule for any generated file on which another
rule depends even if there are order-only dependencies to ensure
the byproducts will be available before their dependents build.
The BYPRODUCTS option is ignored on non-Ninja generators except
to mark byproducts GENERATED.
COMMAND
Specify the command-line(s) to execute at build time. If more
than one COMMAND is specified they will be executed in order,
but not necessarily composed into a stateful shell or batch
script. (To run a full script, use the configure_file() command
or the file(GENERATE) command to create it, and then specify a
COMMAND to launch it.)
If COMMAND specifies an executable target (created by the
add_executable() command) it will automatically be replaced by
the location of the executable created at build time. Addition‐
ally a target-level dependency will be added so that the exe‐
cutable target will be built before this custom target.
Arguments to COMMAND may use generator expressions. References
to target names in generator expressions imply target-level
dependencies.
The command and arguments are optional and if not specified an
empty target will be created.
COMMENT
Display the given message before the commands are executed at
build time.
DEPENDS
Reference files and outputs of custom commands created with
add_custom_command() command calls in the same directory (CMake‐
Lists.txt file). They will be brought up to date when the tar‐
get is built.
Use the add_dependencies() command to add dependencies on other
targets.
SOURCES
Specify additional source files to be included in the custom
target. Specified source files will be added to IDE project
files for convenience in editing even if they have no build
rules.
VERBATIM
All arguments to the commands will be escaped properly for the
build tool so that the invoked command receives each argument
unchanged. Note that one level of escapes is still used by the
CMake language processor before add_custom_target even sees the
arguments. Use of VERBATIM is recommended as it enables correct
behavior. When VERBATIM is not given the behavior is platform
specific because there is no protection of tool-specific special
characters.
USES_TERMINAL
The command will be given direct access to the terminal if pos‐
sible. With the Ninja generator, this places the command in the
console pool.
WORKING_DIRECTORY
Execute the command with the given current working directory.
If it is a relative path it will be interpreted relative to the
build tree directory corresponding to the current source direc‐
tory.
add_definitions
Adds -D define flags to the compilation of source files.
add_definitions(-DFOO -DBAR ...)
Adds definitions to the compiler command line for targets in the cur‐
rent directory and below (whether added before or after this command is
invoked). This command can be used to add any flags, but it is
intended to add preprocessor definitions (see the add_compile_options()
command to add other flags). Flags beginning in -D or /D that look
like preprocessor definitions are automatically added to the COM‐
PILE_DEFINITIONS directory property for the current directory. Defini‐
tions with non-trivial values may be left in the set of flags instead
of being converted for reasons of backwards compatibility. See docu‐
mentation of the directory, target, source file COMPILE_DEFINITIONS
properties for details on adding preprocessor definitions to specific
scopes and configurations.
See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for more on defining buildsystem
properties.
add_dependencies
Add a dependency between top-level targets.
add_dependencies(<target> [<target-dependency>]...)
Make a top-level <target> depend on other top-level targets to ensure
that they build before <target> does. A top-level target is one cre‐
ated by one of the add_executable(), add_library(), or add_custom_tar‐
get() commands (but not targets generated by CMake like install).
Dependencies added to an imported target or an interface library are
followed transitively in its place since the target itself does not
build.
See the DEPENDS option of add_custom_target() and add_custom_command()
commands for adding file-level dependencies in custom rules. See the
OBJECT_DEPENDS source file property to add file-level dependencies to
object files.
add_executable
Add an executable to the project using the specified source files.
add_executable(<name> [WIN32] [MACOSX_BUNDLE]
[EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL]
source1 [source2 ...])
Adds an executable target called <name> to be built from the source
files listed in the command invocation. The <name> corresponds to the
logical target name and must be globally unique within a project. The
actual file name of the executable built is constructed based on con‐
ventions of the native platform (such as <name>.exe or just <name>).
By default the executable file will be created in the build tree direc‐
tory corresponding to the source tree directory in which the command
was invoked. See documentation of the RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY target
property to change this location. See documentation of the OUTPUT_NAME
target property to change the <name> part of the final file name.
If WIN32 is given the property WIN32_EXECUTABLE will be set on the tar‐
get created. See documentation of that target property for details.
If MACOSX_BUNDLE is given the corresponding property will be set on the
created target. See documentation of the MACOSX_BUNDLE target property
for details.
If EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL is given the corresponding property will be set on
the created target. See documentation of the EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL target
property for details.
Source arguments to add_executable may use "generator expressions" with
the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for
available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for more on
defining buildsystem properties.
----
add_executable(<name> IMPORTED [GLOBAL])
An IMPORTED executable target references an executable file located
outside the project. No rules are generated to build it, and the
IMPORTED target property is True. The target name has scope in the
directory in which it is created and below, but the GLOBAL option
extends visibility. It may be referenced like any target built within
the project. IMPORTED executables are useful for convenient reference
from commands like add_custom_command(). Details about the imported
executable are specified by setting properties whose names begin in
IMPORTED_. The most important such property is IMPORTED_LOCATION (and
its per-configuration version IMPORTED_LOCATION_<CONFIG>) which speci‐
fies the location of the main executable file on disk. See documenta‐
tion of the IMPORTED_* properties for more information.
----
add_executable(<name> ALIAS <target>)
Creates an Alias Target, such that <name> can be used to refer to <tar‐
get> in subsequent commands. The <name> does not appear in the gener‐
ated buildsystem as a make target. The <target> may not be an Imported
Target or an ALIAS. ALIAS targets can be used as targets to read prop‐
erties from, executables for custom commands and custom targets. They
can also be tested for existance with the regular if(TARGET) subcom‐
mand. The <name> may not be used to modify properties of <target>,
that is, it may not be used as the operand of set_property(), set_tar‐
get_properties(), target_link_libraries() etc. An ALIAS target may not
be installed or exported.
add_library
Add a library to the project using the specified source files.
Normal Libraries
add_library(<name> [STATIC | SHARED | MODULE]
[EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL]
source1 [source2 ...])
Adds a library target called <name> to be built from the source files
listed in the command invocation. The <name> corresponds to the logi‐
cal target name and must be globally unique within a project. The
actual file name of the library built is constructed based on conven‐
tions of the native platform (such as lib<name>.a or <name>.lib).
STATIC, SHARED, or MODULE may be given to specify the type of library
to be created. STATIC libraries are archives of object files for use
when linking other targets. SHARED libraries are linked dynamically
and loaded at runtime. MODULE libraries are plugins that are not
linked into other targets but may be loaded dynamically at runtime
using dlopen-like functionality. If no type is given explicitly the
type is STATIC or SHARED based on whether the current value of the
variable BUILD_SHARED_LIBS is ON. For SHARED and MODULE libraries the
POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE target property is set to ON automatically.
A SHARED library may be marked with the FRAMEWORK target property to
create an OS X Framework.
If a library does not export any symbols, it must not be declared as a
SHARED library. For example, a Windows resource DLL or a managed
C++/CLI DLL that exports no unmanaged symbols would need to be a MODULE
library. This is because CMake expects a SHARED library to always have
an associated import library on Windows.
By default the library file will be created in the build tree directory
corresponding to the source tree directory in which the command was
invoked. See documentation of the ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY,
LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, and RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY target proper‐
ties to change this location. See documentation of the OUTPUT_NAME
target property to change the <name> part of the final file name.
If EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL is given the corresponding property will be set on
the created target. See documentation of the EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL target
property for details.
Source arguments to add_library may use "generator expressions" with
the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for
available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for more on
defining buildsystem properties.
Imported Libraries
add_library(<name> <SHARED|STATIC|MODULE|UNKNOWN> IMPORTED
[GLOBAL])
An IMPORTED library target references a library file located outside
the project. No rules are generated to build it, and the IMPORTED tar‐
get property is True. The target name has scope in the directory in
which it is created and below, but the GLOBAL option extends visibil‐
ity. It may be referenced like any target built within the project.
IMPORTED libraries are useful for convenient reference from commands
like target_link_libraries(). Details about the imported library are
specified by setting properties whose names begin in IMPORTED_ and
INTERFACE_. The most important such property is IMPORTED_LOCATION (and
its per-configuration variant IMPORTED_LOCATION_<CONFIG>) which speci‐
fies the location of the main library file on disk. See documentation
of the IMPORTED_* and INTERFACE_* properties for more information.
Object Libraries
add_library(<name> OBJECT <src>...)
Creates an Object Library. An object library compiles source files but
does not archive or link their object files into a library. Instead
other targets created by add_library() or add_executable() may refer‐
ence the objects using an expression of the form $<TAR‐
GET_OBJECTS:objlib> as a source, where objlib is the object library
name. For example:
add_library(... $<TARGET_OBJECTS:objlib> ...)
add_executable(... $<TARGET_OBJECTS:objlib> ...)
will include objlib's object files in a library and an executable along
with those compiled from their own sources. Object libraries may con‐
tain only sources that compile, header files, and other files that
would not affect linking of a normal library (e.g. .txt). They may
contain custom commands generating such sources, but not PRE_BUILD,
PRE_LINK, or POST_BUILD commands. Object libraries cannot be imported,
exported, installed, or linked. Some native build systems may not like
targets that have only object files, so consider adding at least one
real source file to any target that references $<TAR‐
GET_OBJECTS:objlib>.
Alias Libraries
add_library(<name> ALIAS <target>)
Creates an Alias Target, such that <name> can be used to refer to <tar‐
get> in subsequent commands. The <name> does not appear in the gener‐
atedbuildsystem as a make target. The <target> may not be an Imported
Target or an ALIAS. ALIAS targets can be used as linkable targets and
as targets to read properties from. They can also be tested for exis‐
tance with the regular if(TARGET) subcommand. The <name> may not be
used to modify properties of <target>, that is, it may not be used as
the operand of set_property(), set_target_properties(), tar‐
get_link_libraries() etc. An ALIAS target may not be installed or
exported.
Interface Libraries
add_library(<name> INTERFACE [IMPORTED [GLOBAL]])
Creates an Interface Library. An INTERFACE library target does not
directly create build output, though it may have properties set on it
and it may be installed, exported and imported. Typically the INTER‐
FACE_* properties are populated on the interface target using the com‐
mands:
· set_property(),
· target_link_libraries(INTERFACE),
· target_include_directories(INTERFACE),
· target_compile_options(INTERFACE),
· target_compile_definitions(INTERFACE), and
· target_sources(INTERFACE),
and then it is used as an argument to target_link_libraries() like any
other target.
An INTERFACE Imported Target may also be created with this signature.
An IMPORTED library target references a library defined outside the
project. The target name has scope in the directory in which it is
created and below, but the GLOBAL option extends visibility. It may be
referenced like any target built within the project. IMPORTED
libraries are useful for convenient reference from commands like tar‐
get_link_libraries().
add_subdirectory
Add a subdirectory to the build.
add_subdirectory(source_dir [binary_dir]
[EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL])
Add a subdirectory to the build. The source_dir specifies the direc‐
tory in which the source CMakeLists.txt and code files are located. If
it is a relative path it will be evaluated with respect to the current
directory (the typical usage), but it may also be an absolute path.
The binary_dir specifies the directory in which to place the output
files. If it is a relative path it will be evaluated with respect to
the current output directory, but it may also be an absolute path. If
binary_dir is not specified, the value of source_dir, before expanding
any relative path, will be used (the typical usage). The CMake‐
Lists.txt file in the specified source directory will be processed
immediately by CMake before processing in the current input file con‐
tinues beyond this command.
If the EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL argument is provided then targets in the subdi‐
rectory will not be included in the ALL target of the parent directory
by default, and will be excluded from IDE project files. Users must
explicitly build targets in the subdirectory. This is meant for use
when the subdirectory contains a separate part of the project that is
useful but not necessary, such as a set of examples. Typically the
subdirectory should contain its own project() command invocation so
that a full build system will be generated in the subdirectory (such as
a VS IDE solution file). Note that inter-target dependencies supercede
this exclusion. If a target built by the parent project depends on a
target in the subdirectory, the dependee target will be included in the
parent project build system to satisfy the dependency.
add_test
Add a test to the project to be run by ctest(1).
add_test(NAME <name> COMMAND <command> [<arg>...]
[CONFIGURATIONS <config>...]
[WORKING_DIRECTORY <dir>])
Add a test called <name>. The test name may not contain spaces,
quotes, or other characters special in CMake syntax. The options are:
COMMAND
Specify the test command-line. If <command> specifies an exe‐
cutable target (created by add_executable()) it will automati‐
cally be replaced by the location of the executable created at
build time.
CONFIGURATIONS
Restrict execution of the test only to the named configurations.
WORKING_DIRECTORY
Set the WORKING_DIRECTORY test property to specify the working
directory in which to execute the test. If not specified the
test will be run with the current working directory set to the
build directory corresponding to the current source directory.
The given test command is expected to exit with code 0 to pass and
non-zero to fail, or vice-versa if the WILL_FAIL test property is set.
Any output written to stdout or stderr will be captured by ctest(1) but
does not affect the pass/fail status unless the PASS_REGULAR_EXPRESSION
or FAIL_REGULAR_EXPRESSION test property is used.
The COMMAND and WORKING_DIRECTORY options may use "generator expres‐
sions" with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7)
manual for available expressions.
Example usage:
add_test(NAME mytest
COMMAND testDriver --config $<CONFIGURATION>
--exe $<TARGET_FILE:myexe>)
This creates a test mytest whose command runs a testDriver tool passing
the configuration name and the full path to the executable file pro‐
duced by target myexe.
NOTE:
CMake will generate tests only if the enable_testing() command has
been invoked. The CTest module invokes the command automatically
when the BUILD_TESTING option is ON.
----
add_test(<name> <command> [<arg>...])
Add a test called <name> with the given command-line. Unlike the above
NAME signature no transformation is performed on the command-line to
support target names or generator expressions.
aux_source_directory
Find all source files in a directory.
aux_source_directory(<dir> <variable>)
Collects the names of all the source files in the specified directory
and stores the list in the <variable> provided. This command is
intended to be used by projects that use explicit template instantia‐
tion. Template instantiation files can be stored in a "Templates" sub‐
directory and collected automatically using this command to avoid manu‐
ally listing all instantiations.
It is tempting to use this command to avoid writing the list of source
files for a library or executable target. While this seems to work,
there is no way for CMake to generate a build system that knows when a
new source file has been added. Normally the generated build system
knows when it needs to rerun CMake because the CMakeLists.txt file is
modified to add a new source. When the source is just added to the
directory without modifying this file, one would have to manually rerun
CMake to generate a build system incorporating the new file.
break
Break from an enclosing foreach or while loop.
break()
Breaks from an enclosing foreach loop or while loop
See also the continue() command.
build_command
Get a command line to build the current project. This is mainly
intended for internal use by the CTest module.
build_command(<variable>
[CONFIGURATION <config>]
[TARGET <target>]
[PROJECT_NAME <projname>] # legacy, causes warning
)
Sets the given <variable> to a command-line string of the form:
<cmake> --build . [--config <config>] [--target <target>] [-- -i]
where <cmake> is the location of the cmake(1) command-line tool, and
<config> and <target> are the values provided to the CONFIGURATION and
TARGET options, if any. The trailing -- -i option is added for Make‐
file Generators if policy CMP0061 is not set to NEW.
When invoked, this cmake --build command line will launch the underly‐
ing build system tool.
build_command(<cachevariable> <makecommand>)
This second signature is deprecated, but still available for backwards
compatibility. Use the first signature instead.
It sets the given <cachevariable> to a command-line string as above but
without the --target option. The <makecommand> is ignored but should
be the full path to msdev, devenv, nmake, make or one of the end user
build tools for legacy invocations.
NOTE:
In CMake versions prior to 3.0 this command returned a command line
that directly invokes the native build tool for the current genera‐
tor. Their implementation of the PROJECT_NAME option had no useful
effects, so CMake now warns on use of the option.
cmake_host_system_information
Query host system specific information.
cmake_host_system_information(RESULT <variable> QUERY <key> ...)
Queries system information of the host system on which cmake runs. One
or more <key> can be provided to select the information to be queried.
The list of queried values is stored in <variable>.
<key> can be one of the following values:
NUMBER_OF_LOGICAL_CORES = Number of logical cores.
NUMBER_OF_PHYSICAL_CORES = Number of physical cores.
HOSTNAME = Hostname.
FQDN = Fully qualified domain name.
TOTAL_VIRTUAL_MEMORY = Total virtual memory in megabytes.
AVAILABLE_VIRTUAL_MEMORY = Available virtual memory in megabytes.
TOTAL_PHYSICAL_MEMORY = Total physical memory in megabytes.
AVAILABLE_PHYSICAL_MEMORY = Available physical memory in megabytes.
cmake_minimum_required
Set the minimum required version of cmake for a project.
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION major[.minor[.patch[.tweak]]]
[FATAL_ERROR])
If the current version of CMake is lower than that required it will
stop processing the project and report an error. When a version higher
than 2.4 is specified the command implicitly invokes
cmake_policy(VERSION major[.minor[.patch[.tweak]]])
which sets the cmake policy version level to the version specified.
When version 2.4 or lower is given the command implicitly invokes
cmake_policy(VERSION 2.4)
which enables compatibility features for CMake 2.4 and lower.
The FATAL_ERROR option is accepted but ignored by CMake 2.6 and higher.
It should be specified so CMake versions 2.4 and lower fail with an
error instead of just a warning.
NOTE:
Call the cmake_minimum_required() command at the beginning of the
top-level CMakeLists.txt file even before calling the project() com‐
mand. It is important to establish version and policy settings
before invoking other commands whose behavior they may affect. See
also policy CMP0000.
Calling cmake_minimum_required() inside a function() limits some
effects to the function scope when invoked. Such calls should not
be made with the intention of having global effects.
cmake_policy
Manage CMake Policy settings. See the cmake-policies(7) manual for
defined policies.
As CMake evolves it is sometimes necessary to change existing behavior
in order to fix bugs or improve implementations of existing features.
The CMake Policy mechanism is designed to help keep existing projects
building as new versions of CMake introduce changes in behavior. Each
new policy (behavioral change) is given an identifier of the form
CMP<NNNN> where <NNNN> is an integer index. Documentation associated
with each policy describes the OLD and NEW behavior and the reason the
policy was introduced. Projects may set each policy to select the
desired behavior. When CMake needs to know which behavior to use it
checks for a setting specified by the project. If no setting is avail‐
able the OLD behavior is assumed and a warning is produced requesting
that the policy be set.
Setting Policies by CMake Version
The cmake_policy command is used to set policies to OLD or NEW behav‐
ior. While setting policies individually is supported, we encourage
projects to set policies based on CMake versions:
cmake_policy(VERSION major.minor[.patch[.tweak]])
Specify that the current CMake code is written for the given version of
CMake. All policies introduced in the specified version or earlier
will be set to use NEW behavior. All policies introduced after the
specified version will be unset (unless the CMAKE_POL‐
ICY_DEFAULT_CMP<NNNN> variable sets a default). This effectively
requests behavior preferred as of a given CMake version and tells newer
CMake versions to warn about their new policies. The policy version
specified must be at least 2.4 or the command will report an error.
Note that the cmake_minimum_required(VERSION) command implicitly calls
cmake_policy(VERSION) too.
Setting Policies Explicitly
cmake_policy(SET CMP<NNNN> NEW)
cmake_policy(SET CMP<NNNN> OLD)
Tell CMake to use the OLD or NEW behavior for a given policy. Projects
depending on the old behavior of a given policy may silence a policy
warning by setting the policy state to OLD. Alternatively one may fix
the project to work with the new behavior and set the policy state to
NEW.
NOTE:
The OLD behavior of a policy is deprecated by definition and may be
removed in a future version of CMake.
Checking Policy Settings
cmake_policy(GET CMP<NNNN> <variable>)
Check whether a given policy is set to OLD or NEW behavior. The output
<variable> value will be OLD or NEW if the policy is set, and empty
otherwise.
CMake Policy Stack
CMake keeps policy settings on a stack, so changes made by the
cmake_policy command affect only the top of the stack. A new entry on
the policy stack is managed automatically for each subdirectory to pro‐
tect its parents and siblings. CMake also manages a new entry for
scripts loaded by include() and find_package() commands except when
invoked with the NO_POLICY_SCOPE option (see also policy CMP0011). The
cmake_policy command provides an interface to manage custom entries on
the policy stack:
cmake_policy(PUSH)cmake_policy(POP)
Each PUSH must have a matching POP to erase any changes. This is use‐
ful to make temporary changes to policy settings. Calls to the
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION), cmake_policy(VERSION), or cmake_pol‐
icy(SET) commands influence only the current top of the policy stack.
Commands created by the function() and macro() commands record policy
settings when they are created and use the pre-record policies when
they are invoked. If the function or macro implementation sets poli‐
cies, the changes automatically propagate up through callers until they
reach the closest nested policy stack entry.
configure_file
Copy a file to another location and modify its contents.
configure_file(<input> <output>
[COPYONLY] [ESCAPE_QUOTES] [@ONLY]
[NEWLINE_STYLE [UNIX|DOS|WIN32|LF|CRLF] ])
Copies an <input> file to an <output> file and substitutes variable
values referenced as @VAR@ or ${VAR} in the input file content. Each
variable reference will be replaced with the current value of the vari‐
able, or the empty string if the variable is not defined. Furthermore,
input lines of the form:
#cmakedefine VAR ...
will be replaced with either:
#define VAR ...
or:
/* #undef VAR */
depending on whether VAR is set in CMake to any value not considered a
false constant by the if() command. The "..." content on the line
after the variable name, if any, is processed as above. Input file
lines of the form #cmakedefine01 VAR will be replaced with either
#define VAR 1 or #define VAR 0 similarly.
If the input file is modified the build system will re-run CMake to
re-configure the file and generate the build system again.
The arguments are:
<input>
Path to the input file. A relative path is treated with respect
to the value of CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR. The input path must
be a file, not a directory.
<output>
Path to the output file or directory. A relative path is
treated with respect to the value of CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR.
If the path names an existing directory the output file is
placed in that directory with the same file name as the input
file.
COPYONLY
Copy the file without replacing any variable references or other
content. This option may not be used with NEWLINE_STYLE.
ESCAPE_QUOTES
Escape any substituted quotes with backslashes (C-style).
@ONLY Restrict variable replacement to references of the form @VAR@.
This is useful for configuring scripts that use ${VAR} syntax.
NEWLINE_STYLE <style>
Specify the newline style for the output file. Specify UNIX or
LF for \n newlines, or specify DOS, WIN32, or CRLF for \r\n new‐
lines. This option may not be used with COPYONLY.
Example
Consider a source tree containing a foo.h.in file:
#cmakedefine FOO_ENABLE
#cmakedefine FOO_STRING "@FOO_STRING@"
An adjacent CMakeLists.txt may use configure_file to configure the
header:
option(FOO_ENABLE "Enable Foo" ON)
if(FOO_ENABLE)
set(FOO_STRING "foo")
endif()
configure_file(foo.h.in foo.h @ONLY)
This creates a foo.h in the build directory corresponding to this
source directory. If the FOO_ENABLE option is on, the configured file
will contain:
#define FOO_ENABLE
#define FOO_STRING "foo"
Otherwise it will contain:
/* #undef FOO_ENABLE */
/* #undef FOO_STRING */
One may then use the include_directories() command to specify the out‐
put directory as an include directory:
include_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
so that sources may include the header as #include <foo.h>.
continue
Continue to the top of enclosing foreach or while loop.
continue()
The continue command allows a cmake script to abort the rest of a block
in a foreach() or while() loop, and start at the top of the next itera‐
tion. See also the break() command.
create_test_sourcelist
Create a test driver and source list for building test programs.
create_test_sourcelist(sourceListName driverName
test1 test2 test3
EXTRA_INCLUDE include.h
FUNCTION function)
A test driver is a program that links together many small tests into a
single executable. This is useful when building static executables
with large libraries to shrink the total required size. The list of
source files needed to build the test driver will be in sourceListName.
driverName is the name of the test driver program. The rest of the
arguments consist of a list of test source files, can be semicolon sep‐
arated. Each test source file should have a function in it that is the
same name as the file with no extension (foo.cxx should have int
foo(int, char*[]);) driverName will be able to call each of the tests
by name on the command line. If EXTRA_INCLUDE is specified, then the
next argument is included into the generated file. If FUNCTION is
specified, then the next argument is taken as a function name that is
passed a pointer to ac and av. This can be used to add extra command
line processing to each test. The CMAKE_TESTDRIVER_BEFORE_TESTMAIN
cmake variable can be set to have code that will be placed directly
before calling the test main function. CMAKE_TESTDRIVER_AFTER_TESTMAIN
can be set to have code that will be placed directly after the call to
the test main function.
define_property
Define and document custom properties.
define_property(<GLOBAL | DIRECTORY | TARGET | SOURCE |
TEST | VARIABLE | CACHED_VARIABLE>
PROPERTY <name> [INHERITED]
BRIEF_DOCS <brief-doc> [docs...]
FULL_DOCS <full-doc> [docs...])
Define one property in a scope for use with the set_property() and
get_property() commands. This is primarily useful to associate docu‐
mentation with property names that may be retrieved with the get_prop‐
erty() command. The first argument determines the kind of scope in
which the property should be used. It must be one of the following:
GLOBAL = associated with the global namespace
DIRECTORY = associated with one directory
TARGET = associated with one target
SOURCE = associated with one source file
TEST = associated with a test named with add_test
VARIABLE = documents a CMake language variable
CACHED_VARIABLE = documents a CMake cache variable
Note that unlike set_property() and get_property() no actual scope
needs to be given; only the kind of scope is important.
The required PROPERTY option is immediately followed by the name of the
property being defined.
If the INHERITED option then the get_property() command will chain up
to the next higher scope when the requested property is not set in the
scope given to the command. DIRECTORY scope chains to GLOBAL. TARGET,
SOURCE, and TEST chain to DIRECTORY.
The BRIEF_DOCS and FULL_DOCS options are followed by strings to be
associated with the property as its brief and full documentation. Cor‐
responding options to the get_property() command will retrieve the doc‐
umentation.
elseif
Starts the elseif portion of an if block.
elseif(expression)
See the if() command.
else
Starts the else portion of an if block.
else(expression)
See the if() command.
enable_language
Enable a language (CXX/C/Fortran/etc)
enable_language(<lang> [OPTIONAL] )
This command enables support for the named language in CMake. This is
the same as the project command but does not create any of the extra
variables that are created by the project command. Example languages
are CXX, C, Fortran.
This command must be called in file scope, not in a function call.
Furthermore, it must be called in the highest directory common to all
targets using the named language directly for compiling sources or
indirectly through link dependencies. It is simplest to enable all
needed languages in the top-level directory of a project.
The OPTIONAL keyword is a placeholder for future implementation and
does not currently work.
enable_testing
Enable testing for current directory and below.
enable_testing()
Enables testing for this directory and below. See also the add_test()
command. Note that ctest expects to find a test file in the build
directory root. Therefore, this command should be in the source direc‐
tory root.
endforeach
Ends a list of commands in a foreach block.
endforeach(expression)
See the foreach() command.
endfunction
Ends a list of commands in a function block.
endfunction(expression)
See the function() command.
endif
Ends a list of commands in an if block.
endif(expression)
See the if() command.
endmacro
Ends a list of commands in a macro block.
endmacro(expression)
See the macro() command.
endwhile
Ends a list of commands in a while block.
endwhile(expression)
See the while() command.
execute_process
Execute one or more child processes.
execute_process(COMMAND <cmd1> [args1...]]
[COMMAND <cmd2> [args2...] [...]]
[WORKING_DIRECTORY <directory>]
[TIMEOUT <seconds>]
[RESULT_VARIABLE <variable>]
[OUTPUT_VARIABLE <variable>]
[ERROR_VARIABLE <variable>]
[INPUT_FILE <file>]
[OUTPUT_FILE <file>]
[ERROR_FILE <file>]
[OUTPUT_QUIET]
[ERROR_QUIET]
[OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE]
[ERROR_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE])
Runs the given sequence of one or more commands with the standard out‐
put of each process piped to the standard input of the next. A single
standard error pipe is used for all processes.
Options:
COMMAND
A child process command line.
CMake executes the child process using operating system APIs
directly. All arguments are passed VERBATIM to the child
process. No intermediate shell is used, so shell operators such
as > are treated as normal arguments. (Use the INPUT_*, OUT‐
PUT_*, and ERROR_* options to redirect stdin, stdout, and
stderr.)
WORKING_DIRECTORY
The named directory will be set as the current working directory
of the child processes.
TIMEOUT
The child processes will be terminated if they do not finish in
the specified number of seconds (fractions are allowed).
RESULT_VARIABLE
The variable will be set to contain the result of running the
processes. This will be an integer return code from the last
child or a string describing an error condition.
OUTPUT_VARIABLE, ERROR_VARIABLE
The variable named will be set with the contents of the standard
output and standard error pipes, respectively. If the same
variable is named for both pipes their output will be merged in
the order produced.
INPUT_FILE, OUTPUT_FILE, ERROR_FILE
The file named will be attached to the standard input of the
first process, standard output of the last process, or standard
error of all processes, respectively. If the same file is named
for both output and error then it will be used for both.
OUTPUT_QUIET, ERROR_QUIET
The standard output or standard error results will be quietly
ignored.
If more than one OUTPUT_* or ERROR_* option is given for the same pipe
the precedence is not specified. If no OUTPUT_* or ERROR_* options are
given the output will be shared with the corresponding pipes of the
CMake process itself.
The execute_process() command is a newer more powerful version of
exec_program(), but the old command has been kept for compatibility.
Both commands run while CMake is processing the project prior to build
system generation. Use add_custom_target() and add_custom_command() to
create custom commands that run at build time.
export
Export targets from the build tree for use by outside projects.
export(EXPORT <export-name> [NAMESPACE <namespace>] [FILE <filename>])
Create a file <filename> that may be included by outside projects to
import targets from the current project's build tree. This is useful
during cross-compiling to build utility executables that can run on the
host platform in one project and then import them into another project
being compiled for the target platform. If the NAMESPACE option is
given the <namespace> string will be prepended to all target names
written to the file.
Target installations are associated with the export <export-name> using
the EXPORT option of the install(TARGETS) command.
The file created by this command is specific to the build tree and
should never be installed. See the install(EXPORT) command to export
targets from an installation tree.
The properties set on the generated IMPORTED targets will have the same
values as the final values of the input TARGETS.
export(TARGETS [target1 [target2 [...]]] [NAMESPACE <namespace>]
[APPEND] FILE <filename> [EXPORT_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES])
This signature is similar to the EXPORT signature, but targets are
listed explicitly rather than specified as an export-name. If the
APPEND option is given the generated code will be appended to the file
instead of overwriting it. The EXPORT_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES key‐
word, if present, causes the contents of the properties matching
(IMPORTED_)?LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES(_<CONFIG>)? to be exported, when
policy CMP0022 is NEW. If a library target is included in the export
but a target to which it links is not included the behavior is unspeci‐
fied.
export(PACKAGE <name>)
Store the current build directory in the CMake user package registry
for package <name>. The find_package command may consider the direc‐
tory while searching for package <name>. This helps dependent projects
find and use a package from the current project's build tree without
help from the user. Note that the entry in the package registry that
this command creates works only in conjunction with a package configu‐
ration file (<name>Config.cmake) that works with the build tree. In
some cases, for example for packaging and for system wide installa‐
tions, it is not desirable to write the user package registry. If the
CMAKE_EXPORT_NO_PACKAGE_REGISTRY variable is enabled, the export(PACK‐
AGE) command will do nothing.
file
File manipulation command.
----
file(WRITE <filename> <content>...)
file(APPEND <filename> <content>...)
Write <content> into a file called <filename>. If the file does not
exist, it will be created. If the file already exists, WRITE mode will
overwrite it and APPEND mode will append to the end. (If the file is a
build input, use the configure_file() command to update the file only
when its content changes.)
----
file(READ <filename> <variable>
[OFFSET <offset>] [LIMIT <max-in>] [HEX])
Read content from a file called <filename> and store it in a <vari‐
able>. Optionally start from the given <offset> and read at most
<max-in> bytes. The HEX option causes data to be converted to a hexa‐
decimal representation (useful for binary data).
----
file(STRINGS <filename> <variable> [<options>...])
Parse a list of ASCII strings from <filename> and store it in <vari‐
able>. Binary data in the file are ignored. Carriage return (\r, CR)
characters are ignored. The options are:
LENGTH_MAXIMUM <max-len>
Consider only strings of at most a given length.
LENGTH_MINIMUM <min-len>
Consider only strings of at least a given length.
LIMIT_COUNT <max-num>
Limit the number of distinct strings to be extracted.
LIMIT_INPUT <max-in>
Limit the number of input bytes to read from the file.
LIMIT_OUTPUT <max-out>
Limit the number of total bytes to store in the <variable>.
NEWLINE_CONSUME
Treat newline characters (\n, LF) as part of string content
instead of terminating at them.
NO_HEX_CONVERSION
Intel Hex and Motorola S-record files are automatically con‐
verted to binary while reading unless this option is given.
REGEX <regex>
Consider only strings that match the given regular expression.
ENCODING <encoding-type>
Consider strings of a given encoding. Currently supported
encodings are: UTF-8, UTF-16LE, UTF-16BE, UTF-32LE, UTF-32BE.
If the ENCODING option is not provided and the file has a Byte
Order Mark, the ENCODING option will be defaulted to respect the
Byte Order Mark.
For example, the code
file(STRINGS myfile.txt myfile)
stores a list in the variable myfile in which each item is a line from
the input file.
----
file(<MD5|SHA1|SHA224|SHA256|SHA384|SHA512> <filename> <variable>)
Compute a cryptographic hash of the content of <filename> and store it
in a <variable>.
----
file(GLOB <variable>
[LIST_DIRECTORIES true|false] [RELATIVE <path>]
[<globbing-expressions>...])
file(GLOB_RECURSE <variable> [FOLLOW_SYMLINKS]
[LIST_DIRECTORIES true|false] [RELATIVE <path>]
[<globbing-expressions>...])
Generate a list of files that match the <globbing-expressions> and
store it into the <variable>. Globbing expressions are similar to reg‐
ular expressions, but much simpler. If RELATIVE flag is specified, the
results will be returned as relative paths to the given path. No spe‐
cific order of results is defined. If order is important then sort the
list explicitly (e.g. using the list(SORT) command).
By default GLOB lists directories - directories are omited in result if
LIST_DIRECTORIES is set to false.
NOTE:
We do not recommend using GLOB to collect a list of source files
from your source tree. If no CMakeLists.txt file changes when a
source is added or removed then the generated build system cannot
know when to ask CMake to regenerate.
Examples of globbing expressions include:
*.cxx - match all files with extension cxx
*.vt? - match all files with extension vta,...,vtz
f[3-5].txt - match files f3.txt, f4.txt, f5.txt
The GLOB_RECURSE mode will traverse all the subdirectories of the
matched directory and match the files. Subdirectories that are sym‐
links are only traversed if FOLLOW_SYMLINKS is given or policy CMP0009
is not set to NEW.
By default GLOB_RECURSE omits directories from result list - setting
LIST_DIRECTORIES to true adds directories to result list. If FOL‐
LOW_SYMLINKS is given or policy CMP0009 is not set to OLD then
LIST_DIRECTORIES treats symlinks as directories.
Examples of recursive globbing include:
/dir/*.py - match all python files in /dir and subdirectories
----
file(RENAME <oldname> <newname>)
Move a file or directory within a filesystem from <oldname> to <new‐
name>, replacing the destination atomically.
----
file(REMOVE [<files>...])
file(REMOVE_RECURSE [<files>...])
Remove the given files. The REMOVE_RECURSE mode will remove the given
files and directories, also non-empty directories
----
file(MAKE_DIRECTORY [<directories>...])
Create the given directories and their parents as needed.
----
file(RELATIVE_PATH <variable> <directory> <file>)
Compute the relative path from a <directory> to a <file> and store it
in the <variable>.
----
file(TO_CMAKE_PATH "<path>" <variable>)
file(TO_NATIVE_PATH "<path>" <variable>)
The TO_CMAKE_PATH mode converts a native <path> into a cmake-style path
with forward-slashes (/). The input can be a single path or a system
search path like $ENV{PATH}. A search path will be converted to a
cmake-style list separated by ; characters.
The TO_NATIVE_PATH mode converts a cmake-style <path> into a native
path with platform-specific slashes (\ on Windows and / elsewhere).
Always use double quotes around the <path> to be sure it is treated as
a single argument to this command.
----
file(DOWNLOAD <url> <file> [<options>...])
file(UPLOAD <file> <url> [<options>...])
The DOWNLOAD mode downloads the given <url> to a local <file>. The
UPLOAD mode uploads a local <file> to a given <url>.
Options to both DOWNLOAD and UPLOAD are:
INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT <seconds>
Terminate the operation after a period of inactivity.
LOG <variable>
Store a human-readable log of the operation in a variable.
SHOW_PROGRESS
Print progress information as status messages until the opera‐
tion is complete.
STATUS <variable>
Store the resulting status of the operation in a variable. The
status is a ; separated list of length 2. The first element is
the numeric return value for the operation, and the second ele‐
ment is a string value for the error. A 0 numeric error means
no error in the operation.
TIMEOUT <seconds>
Terminate the operation after a given total time has elapsed.
Additional options to DOWNLOAD are:
EXPECTED_HASH ALGO=<value>
Verify that the downloaded content hash matches the expected value,
where ALGO is one of MD5, SHA1, SHA224, SHA256, SHA384, or SHA512.
If it does not match, the operation fails with an error.
EXPECTED_MD5 <value>
Historical short-hand for EXPECTED_HASH MD5=<value>.
TLS_VERIFY <ON|OFF>
Specify whether to verify the server certificate for https://
URLs. The default is to not verify.
TLS_CAINFO <file>
Specify a custom Certificate Authority file for https:// URLs.
For https:// URLs CMake must be built with OpenSSL support. TLS/SSL
certificates are not checked by default. Set TLS_VERIFY to ON to check
certificates and/or use EXPECTED_HASH to verify downloaded content. If
neither TLS option is given CMake will check variables CMAKE_TLS_VERIFY
and CMAKE_TLS_CAINFO, respectively.
----
file(TIMESTAMP <filename> <variable> [<format>] [UTC])
Compute a string representation of the modification time of <filename>
and store it in <variable>. Should the command be unable to obtain a
timestamp variable will be set to the empty string ("").
See the string(TIMESTAMP) command for documentation of the <format> and
UTC options.
----
file(GENERATE OUTPUT output-file
<INPUT input-file|CONTENT content>
[CONDITION expression])
Generate an output file for each build configuration supported by the
current CMake Generator. Evaluate generator expressions from the input
content to produce the output content. The options are:
CONDITION <condition>
Generate the output file for a particular configuration only if
the condition is true. The condition must be either 0 or 1
after evaluating generator expressions.
CONTENT <content>
Use the content given explicitly as input.
INPUT <input-file>
Use the content from a given file as input.
OUTPUT <output-file>
Specify the output file name to generate. Use generator expres‐
sions such as $<CONFIG> to specify a configuration-specific out‐
put file name. Multiple configurations may generate the same
output file only if the generated content is identical. Other‐
wise, the <output-file> must evaluate to an unique name for each
configuration.
Exactly one CONTENT or INPUT option must be given. A specific OUTPUT
file may be named by at most one invocation of file(GENERATE). Gener‐
ated files are modified on subsequent cmake runs only if their content
is changed.
----
file(<COPY|INSTALL> <files>... DESTINATION <dir>
[FILE_PERMISSIONS <permissions>...]
[DIRECTORY_PERMISSIONS <permissions>...]
[NO_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS] [USE_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS]
[FILES_MATCHING]
[[PATTERN <pattern> | REGEX <regex>]
[EXCLUDE] [PERMISSIONS <permissions>...]] [...])
The COPY signature copies files, directories, and symlinks to a desti‐
nation folder. Relative input paths are evaluated with respect to the
current source directory, and a relative destination is evaluated with
respect to the current build directory. Copying preserves input file
timestamps, and optimizes out a file if it exists at the destination
with the same timestamp. Copying preserves input permissions unless
explicit permissions or NO_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS are given (default is
USE_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS).
See the install(DIRECTORY) command for documentation of permissions,
FILES_MATCHING, PATTERN, REGEX, and EXCLUDE options. Copying directo‐
ries preserves the structure of their content even if options are used
to select a subset of files.
The INSTALL signature differs slightly from COPY: it prints status mes‐
sages (subject to the CMAKE_INSTALL_MESSAGE variable), and
NO_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS is default. Installation scripts generated by
the install() command use this signature (with some undocumented
options for internal use).
----
file(LOCK <path> [DIRECTORY] [RELEASE]
[GUARD <FUNCTION|FILE|PROCESS>]
[RESULT_VARIABLE <variable>]
[TIMEOUT <seconds>])
Lock a file specified by <path> if no DIRECTORY option present and file
<path>/cmake.lock otherwise. File will be locked for scope defined by
GUARD option (default value is PROCESS). RELEASE option can be used to
unlock file explicitly. If option TIMEOUT is not specified CMake will
wait until lock succeed or until fatal error occurs. If TIMEOUT is set
to 0 lock will be tried once and result will be reported immediately.
If TIMEOUT is not 0 CMake will try to lock file for the period speci‐
fied by <seconds> value. Any errors will be interpreted as fatal if
there is no RESULT_VARIABLE option. Otherwise result will be stored in
<variable> and will be 0 on success or error message on failure.
Note that lock is advisory - there is no guarantee that other processes
will respect this lock, i.e. lock synchronize two or more CMake
instances sharing some modifiable resources. Similar logic applied to
DIRECTORY option - locking parent directory doesn't prevent other LOCK
commands to lock any child directory or file.
Trying to lock file twice is not allowed. Any intermediate directories
and file itself will be created if they not exist. GUARD and TIMEOUT
options ignored on RELEASE operation.
find_file
A short-hand signature is:
find_file (<VAR> name1 [path1 path2 ...])
The general signature is:
find_file (
<VAR>
name | NAMES name1 [name2 ...]
[HINTS path1 [path2 ... ENV var]]
[PATHS path1 [path2 ... ENV var]]
[PATH_SUFFIXES suffix1 [suffix2 ...]]
[DOC "cache documentation string"]
[NO_DEFAULT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_PATH]
[NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH]
[CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH |
ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH |
NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH]
)
This command is used to find a full path to named file. A cache entry
named by <VAR> is created to store the result of this command. If the
full path to a file is found the result is stored in the variable and
the search will not be repeated unless the variable is cleared. If
nothing is found, the result will be <VAR>-NOTFOUND, and the search
will be attempted again the next time find_file is invoked with the
same variable.
Options include:
NAMES Specify one or more possible names for the full path to a file.
When using this to specify names with and without a version suf‐
fix, we recommend specifying the unversioned name first so that
locally-built packages can be found before those provided by
distributions.
HINTS, PATHS
Specify directories to search in addition to the default loca‐
tions. The ENV var sub-option reads paths from a system envi‐
ronment variable.
PATH_SUFFIXES
Specify additional subdirectories to check below each directory
location otherwise considered.
DOC Specify the documentation string for the <VAR> cache entry.
If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is specified, then no additional paths are added to
the search. If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is not specified, the search process is
as follows:
1. Search paths specified in cmake-specific cache variables. These are
intended to be used on the command line with a -DVAR=value. This
can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_PATH is passed.
· <prefix>/include/<arch> if CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE is set, and
<prefix>/include for each <prefix> in CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
· CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH
· CMAKE_FRAMEWORK_PATH
2. Search paths specified in cmake-specific environment variables.
These are intended to be set in the user's shell configuration.
This can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH is passed.
· <prefix>/include/<arch> if CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE is set, and
<prefix>/include for each <prefix> in CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
· CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH
· CMAKE_FRAMEWORK_PATH
3. Search the paths specified by the HINTS option. These should be
paths computed by system introspection, such as a hint provided by
the location of another item already found. Hard-coded guesses
should be specified with the PATHS option.
4. Search the standard system environment variables. This can be
skipped if NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH is an argument.
· Directories in INCLUDE, <prefix>/include/<arch> if
CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE is set, and <prefix>/include for each
<prefix>/[s]bin in PATH, and <entry>/include for other entries in
PATH, and the directories in PATH itself.
5. Search cmake variables defined in the Platform files for the current
system. This can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH is passed.
· <prefix>/include/<arch> if CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE is set, and
<prefix>/include for each <prefix> in CMAKE_SYSTEM_PREFIX_PATH
· CMAKE_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_PATH
· CMAKE_SYSTEM_FRAMEWORK_PATH
6. Search the paths specified by the PATHS option or in the short-hand
version of the command. These are typically hard-coded guesses.
On OS X the CMAKE_FIND_FRAMEWORK and CMAKE_FIND_APPBUNDLE variables
determine the order of preference between Apple-style and unix-style
package components.
The CMake variable CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH specifies one or more directo‐
ries to be prepended to all other search directories. This effectively
"re-roots" the entire search under given locations. Paths which are
descendants of the CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX are excluded from this re-root‐
ing, because that variable is always a path on the host system. By
default the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH is empty.
The CMAKE_SYSROOT variable can also be used to specify exactly one
directory to use as a prefix. Setting CMAKE_SYSROOT also has other
effects. See the documentation for that variable for more.
These variables are especially useful when cross-compiling to point to
the root directory of the target environment and CMake will search
there too. By default at first the directories listed in
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH are searched, then the CMAKE_SYSROOT directory is
searched, and then the non-rooted directories will be searched. The
default behavior can be adjusted by setting
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE. This behavior can be manually over‐
ridden on a per-call basis using options:
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH
Search in the order described above.
NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
Do not use the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH variable.
ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
Search only the re-rooted directories and directories below
CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX.
The default search order is designed to be most-specific to least-spe‐
cific for common use cases. Projects may override the order by simply
calling the command multiple times and using the NO_* options:
find_file (<VAR> NAMES name PATHS paths... NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
find_file (<VAR> NAMES name)
Once one of the calls succeeds the result variable will be set and
stored in the cache so that no call will search again.
find_library
A short-hand signature is:
find_library (<VAR> name1 [path1 path2 ...])
The general signature is:
find_library (
<VAR>
name | NAMES name1 [name2 ...] [NAMES_PER_DIR]
[HINTS path1 [path2 ... ENV var]]
[PATHS path1 [path2 ... ENV var]]
[PATH_SUFFIXES suffix1 [suffix2 ...]]
[DOC "cache documentation string"]
[NO_DEFAULT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_PATH]
[NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH]
[CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH |
ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH |
NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH]
)
This command is used to find a library. A cache entry named by <VAR>
is created to store the result of this command. If the library is
found the result is stored in the variable and the search will not be
repeated unless the variable is cleared. If nothing is found, the
result will be <VAR>-NOTFOUND, and the search will be attempted again
the next time find_library is invoked with the same variable.
Options include:
NAMES Specify one or more possible names for the library.
When using this to specify names with and without a version suf‐
fix, we recommend specifying the unversioned name first so that
locally-built packages can be found before those provided by
distributions.
HINTS, PATHS
Specify directories to search in addition to the default loca‐
tions. The ENV var sub-option reads paths from a system envi‐
ronment variable.
PATH_SUFFIXES
Specify additional subdirectories to check below each directory
location otherwise considered.
DOC Specify the documentation string for the <VAR> cache entry.
If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is specified, then no additional paths are added to
the search. If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is not specified, the search process is
as follows:
1. Search paths specified in cmake-specific cache variables. These are
intended to be used on the command line with a -DVAR=value. This
can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_PATH is passed.
· <prefix>/lib/<arch> if CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE is set, and
<prefix>/lib for each <prefix> in CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
· CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH
· CMAKE_FRAMEWORK_PATH
2. Search paths specified in cmake-specific environment variables.
These are intended to be set in the user's shell configuration.
This can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH is passed.
· <prefix>/lib/<arch> if CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE is set, and
<prefix>/lib for each <prefix> in CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
· CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH
· CMAKE_FRAMEWORK_PATH
3. Search the paths specified by the HINTS option. These should be
paths computed by system introspection, such as a hint provided by
the location of another item already found. Hard-coded guesses
should be specified with the PATHS option.
4. Search the standard system environment variables. This can be
skipped if NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH is an argument.
· Directories in LIB, <prefix>/lib/<arch> if CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITEC‐
TURE is set, and <prefix>/lib for each <prefix>/[s]bin in PATH,
and <entry>/lib for other entries in PATH, and the directories in
PATH itself.
5. Search cmake variables defined in the Platform files for the current
system. This can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH is passed.
· <prefix>/lib/<arch> if CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE is set, and
<prefix>/lib for each <prefix> in CMAKE_SYSTEM_PREFIX_PATH
· CMAKE_SYSTEM_LIBRARY_PATH
· CMAKE_SYSTEM_FRAMEWORK_PATH
6. Search the paths specified by the PATHS option or in the short-hand
version of the command. These are typically hard-coded guesses.
On OS X the CMAKE_FIND_FRAMEWORK and CMAKE_FIND_APPBUNDLE variables
determine the order of preference between Apple-style and unix-style
package components.
The CMake variable CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH specifies one or more directo‐
ries to be prepended to all other search directories. This effectively
"re-roots" the entire search under given locations. Paths which are
descendants of the CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX are excluded from this re-root‐
ing, because that variable is always a path on the host system. By
default the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH is empty.
The CMAKE_SYSROOT variable can also be used to specify exactly one
directory to use as a prefix. Setting CMAKE_SYSROOT also has other
effects. See the documentation for that variable for more.
These variables are especially useful when cross-compiling to point to
the root directory of the target environment and CMake will search
there too. By default at first the directories listed in
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH are searched, then the CMAKE_SYSROOT directory is
searched, and then the non-rooted directories will be searched. The
default behavior can be adjusted by setting
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_LIBRARY. This behavior can be manually over‐
ridden on a per-call basis using options:
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH
Search in the order described above.
NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
Do not use the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH variable.
ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
Search only the re-rooted directories and directories below
CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX.
The default search order is designed to be most-specific to least-spe‐
cific for common use cases. Projects may override the order by simply
calling the command multiple times and using the NO_* options:
find_library (<VAR> NAMES name PATHS paths... NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
find_library (<VAR> NAMES name)
Once one of the calls succeeds the result variable will be set and
stored in the cache so that no call will search again.
When more than one value is given to the NAMES option this command by
default will consider one name at a time and search every directory for
it. The NAMES_PER_DIR option tells this command to consider one direc‐
tory at a time and search for all names in it.
Each library name given to the NAMES option is first considered as a
library file name and then considered with platform-specific prefixes
(e.g. lib) and suffixes (e.g. .so). Therefore one may specify library
file names such as libfoo.a directly. This can be used to locate
static libraries on UNIX-like systems.
If the library found is a framework, then <VAR> will be set to the full
path to the framework <fullPath>/A.framework. When a full path to a
framework is used as a library, CMake will use a -framework A, and a
-F<fullPath> to link the framework to the target.
If the FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB64_PATHS global property is set all search
paths will be tested as normal, with 64/ appended, and with all matches
of lib/ replaced with lib64/. This property is automatically set for
the platforms that are known to need it if at least one of the lan‐
guages supported by the project() command is enabled.
find_package
Load settings for an external project.
find_package(<package> [version] [EXACT] [QUIET] [MODULE]
[REQUIRED] [[COMPONENTS] [components...]]
[OPTIONAL_COMPONENTS components...]
[NO_POLICY_SCOPE])
Finds and loads settings from an external project. <package>_FOUND
will be set to indicate whether the package was found. When the pack‐
age is found package-specific information is provided through variables
and Imported Targets documented by the package itself. The QUIET
option disables messages if the package cannot be found. The MODULE
option disables the second signature documented below. The REQUIRED
option stops processing with an error message if the package cannot be
found.
A package-specific list of required components may be listed after the
COMPONENTS option (or after the REQUIRED option if present). Addi‐
tional optional components may be listed after OPTIONAL_COMPONENTS.
Available components and their influence on whether a package is con‐
sidered to be found are defined by the target package.
The [version] argument requests a version with which the package found
should be compatible (format is major[.minor[.patch[.tweak]]]). The
EXACT option requests that the version be matched exactly. If no [ver‐
sion] and/or component list is given to a recursive invocation inside a
find-module, the corresponding arguments are forwarded automatically
from the outer call (including the EXACT flag for [version]). Version
support is currently provided only on a package-by-package basis
(details below).
User code should generally look for packages using the above simple
signature. The remainder of this command documentation specifies the
full command signature and details of the search process. Project
maintainers wishing to provide a package to be found by this command
are encouraged to read on.
The command has two modes by which it searches for packages: "Module"
mode and "Config" mode. Module mode is available when the command is
invoked with the above reduced signature. CMake searches for a file
called Find<package>.cmake in the CMAKE_MODULE_PATH followed by the
CMake installation. If the file is found, it is read and processed by
CMake. It is responsible for finding the package, checking the ver‐
sion, and producing any needed messages. Many find-modules provide
limited or no support for versioning; check the module documentation.
If no module is found and the MODULE option is not given the command
proceeds to Config mode.
The complete Config mode command signature is:
find_package(<package> [version] [EXACT] [QUIET]
[REQUIRED] [[COMPONENTS] [components...]]
[CONFIG|NO_MODULE]
[NO_POLICY_SCOPE]
[NAMES name1 [name2 ...]]
[CONFIGS config1 [config2 ...]]
[HINTS path1 [path2 ... ]]
[PATHS path1 [path2 ... ]]
[PATH_SUFFIXES suffix1 [suffix2 ...]]
[NO_DEFAULT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_PATH]
[NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_PACKAGE_REGISTRY]
[NO_CMAKE_BUILDS_PATH] # Deprecated; does nothing.
[NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PACKAGE_REGISTRY]
[CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH |
ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH |
NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH])
The CONFIG option may be used to skip Module mode explicitly and switch
to Config mode. It is synonymous to using NO_MODULE. Config mode is
also implied by use of options not specified in the reduced signature.
Config mode attempts to locate a configuration file provided by the
package to be found. A cache entry called <package>_DIR is created to
hold the directory containing the file. By default the command
searches for a package with the name <package>. If the NAMES option is
given the names following it are used instead of <package>. The com‐
mand searches for a file called <name>Config.cmake or
<lower-case-name>-config.cmake for each name specified. A replacement
set of possible configuration file names may be given using the CONFIGS
option. The search procedure is specified below. Once found, the con‐
figuration file is read and processed by CMake. Since the file is pro‐
vided by the package it already knows the location of package contents.
The full path to the configuration file is stored in the cmake variable
<package>_CONFIG.
All configuration files which have been considered by CMake while
searching for an installation of the package with an appropriate ver‐
sion are stored in the cmake variable <package>_CONSIDERED_CONFIGS, the
associated versions in <package>_CONSIDERED_VERSIONS.
If the package configuration file cannot be found CMake will generate
an error describing the problem unless the QUIET argument is specified.
If REQUIRED is specified and the package is not found a fatal error is
generated and the configure step stops executing. If <package>_DIR has
been set to a directory not containing a configuration file CMake will
ignore it and search from scratch.
When the [version] argument is given Config mode will only find a ver‐
sion of the package that claims compatibility with the requested ver‐
sion (format is major[.minor[.patch[.tweak]]]). If the EXACT option is
given only a version of the package claiming an exact match of the
requested version may be found. CMake does not establish any conven‐
tion for the meaning of version numbers. Package version numbers are
checked by "version" files provided by the packages themselves. For a
candidate package configuration file <config-file>.cmake the corre‐
sponding version file is located next to it and named either <con‐
fig-file>-version.cmake or <config-file>Version.cmake. If no such ver‐
sion file is available then the configuration file is assumed to not be
compatible with any requested version. A basic version file containing
generic version matching code can be created using the CMakePackageCon‐
figHelpers module. When a version file is found it is loaded to check
the requested version number. The version file is loaded in a nested
scope in which the following variables have been defined:
PACKAGE_FIND_NAME
the <package> name
PACKAGE_FIND_VERSION
full requested version string
PACKAGE_FIND_VERSION_MAJOR
major version if requested, else 0
PACKAGE_FIND_VERSION_MINOR
minor version if requested, else 0
PACKAGE_FIND_VERSION_PATCH
patch version if requested, else 0
PACKAGE_FIND_VERSION_TWEAK
tweak version if requested, else 0
PACKAGE_FIND_VERSION_COUNT
number of version components, 0 to 4
The version file checks whether it satisfies the requested version and
sets these variables:
PACKAGE_VERSION
full provided version string
PACKAGE_VERSION_EXACT
true if version is exact match
PACKAGE_VERSION_COMPATIBLE
true if version is compatible
PACKAGE_VERSION_UNSUITABLE
true if unsuitable as any version
These variables are checked by the find_package command to determine
whether the configuration file provides an acceptable version. They
are not available after the find_package call returns. If the version
is acceptable the following variables are set:
<package>_VERSION
full provided version string
<package>_VERSION_MAJOR
major version if provided, else 0
<package>_VERSION_MINOR
minor version if provided, else 0
<package>_VERSION_PATCH
patch version if provided, else 0
<package>_VERSION_TWEAK
tweak version if provided, else 0
<package>_VERSION_COUNT
number of version components, 0 to 4
and the corresponding package configuration file is loaded. When mul‐
tiple package configuration files are available whose version files
claim compatibility with the version requested it is unspecified which
one is chosen. No attempt is made to choose a highest or closest ver‐
sion number.
Config mode provides an elaborate interface and search procedure. Much
of the interface is provided for completeness and for use internally by
find-modules loaded by Module mode. Most user code should simply call:
find_package(<package> [major[.minor]] [EXACT] [REQUIRED|QUIET])
in order to find a package. Package maintainers providing CMake pack‐
age configuration files are encouraged to name and install them such
that the procedure outlined below will find them without requiring use
of additional options.
CMake constructs a set of possible installation prefixes for the pack‐
age. Under each prefix several directories are searched for a configu‐
ration file. The tables below show the directories searched. Each
entry is meant for installation trees following Windows (W), UNIX (U),
or Apple (A) conventions:
<prefix>/ (W)
<prefix>/(cmake|CMake)/ (W)
<prefix>/<name>*/ (W)
<prefix>/<name>*/(cmake|CMake)/ (W)
<prefix>/(lib/<arch>|lib|share)/cmake/<name>*/ (U)
<prefix>/(lib/<arch>|lib|share)/<name>*/ (U)
<prefix>/(lib/<arch>|lib|share)/<name>*/(cmake|CMake)/ (U)
On systems supporting OS X Frameworks and Application Bundles the fol‐
lowing directories are searched for frameworks or bundles containing a
configuration file:
<prefix>/<name>.framework/Resources/ (A)
<prefix>/<name>.framework/Resources/CMake/ (A)
<prefix>/<name>.framework/Versions/*/Resources/ (A)
<prefix>/<name>.framework/Versions/*/Resources/CMake/ (A)
<prefix>/<name>.app/Contents/Resources/ (A)
<prefix>/<name>.app/Contents/Resources/CMake/ (A)
In all cases the <name> is treated as case-insensitive and corresponds
to any of the names specified (<package> or names given by NAMES).
Paths with lib/<arch> are enabled if the CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE
variable is set. If PATH_SUFFIXES is specified the suffixes are
appended to each (W) or (U) directory entry one-by-one.
This set of directories is intended to work in cooperation with
projects that provide configuration files in their installation trees.
Directories above marked with (W) are intended for installations on
Windows where the prefix may point at the top of an application's
installation directory. Those marked with (U) are intended for instal‐
lations on UNIX platforms where the prefix is shared by multiple pack‐
ages. This is merely a convention, so all (W) and (U) directories are
still searched on all platforms. Directories marked with (A) are
intended for installations on Apple platforms. The CMAKE_FIND_FRAME‐
WORK and CMAKE_FIND_APPBUNDLE variables determine the order of prefer‐
ence.
The set of installation prefixes is constructed using the following
steps. If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is specified all NO_* options are enabled.
1. Search paths specified in cmake-specific cache variables. These are
intended to be used on the command line with a -DVAR=value. This
can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_PATH is passed:
CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
CMAKE_FRAMEWORK_PATH
CMAKE_APPBUNDLE_PATH
2. Search paths specified in cmake-specific environment variables.
These are intended to be set in the user's shell configuration.
This can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH is passed:
<package>_DIR
CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
CMAKE_FRAMEWORK_PATH
CMAKE_APPBUNDLE_PATH
3. Search paths specified by the HINTS option. These should be paths
computed by system introspection, such as a hint provided by the
location of another item already found. Hard-coded guesses should
be specified with the PATHS option.
4. Search the standard system environment variables. This can be
skipped if NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH is passed. Path entries end‐
ing in /bin or /sbin are automatically converted to their parent
directories:
PATH
5. Search paths stored in the CMake User Package Registry. This can be
skipped if NO_CMAKE_PACKAGE_REGISTRY is passed or by setting the
CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_NO_PACKAGE_REGISTRY to TRUE. See the cmake-pack‐
ages(7) manual for details on the user package registry.
6. Search cmake variables defined in the Platform files for the current
system. This can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH is passed:
CMAKE_SYSTEM_PREFIX_PATH
CMAKE_SYSTEM_FRAMEWORK_PATH
CMAKE_SYSTEM_APPBUNDLE_PATH
7. Search paths stored in the CMake System Package Registry. This can
be skipped if NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PACKAGE_REGISTRY is passed or by set‐
ting the CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_NO_SYSTEM_PACKAGE_REGISTRY to TRUE. See
the cmake-packages(7) manual for details on the system package reg‐
istry.
8. Search paths specified by the PATHS option. These are typically
hard-coded guesses.
The CMake variable CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH specifies one or more directo‐
ries to be prepended to all other search directories. This effectively
"re-roots" the entire search under given locations. Paths which are
descendants of the CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX are excluded from this re-root‐
ing, because that variable is always a path on the host system. By
default the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH is empty.
The CMAKE_SYSROOT variable can also be used to specify exactly one
directory to use as a prefix. Setting CMAKE_SYSROOT also has other
effects. See the documentation for that variable for more.
These variables are especially useful when cross-compiling to point to
the root directory of the target environment and CMake will search
there too. By default at first the directories listed in
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH are searched, then the CMAKE_SYSROOT directory is
searched, and then the non-rooted directories will be searched. The
default behavior can be adjusted by setting
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PACKAGE. This behavior can be manually over‐
ridden on a per-call basis using options:
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH
Search in the order described above.
NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
Do not use the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH variable.
ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
Search only the re-rooted directories and directories below
CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX.
The default search order is designed to be most-specific to least-spe‐
cific for common use cases. Projects may override the order by simply
calling the command multiple times and using the NO_* options:
find_package (<package> PATHS paths... NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
find_package (<package>)
Once one of the calls succeeds the result variable will be set and
stored in the cache so that no call will search again.
Every non-REQUIRED find_package call can be disabled by setting the
CMAKE_DISABLE_FIND_PACKAGE_<PackageName> variable to TRUE.
When loading a find module or package configuration file find_package
defines variables to provide information about the call arguments (and
restores their original state before returning):
CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_NAME
the <package> name which is searched for
<package>_FIND_REQUIRED
true if REQUIRED option was given
<package>_FIND_QUIETLY
true if QUIET option was given
<package>_FIND_VERSION
full requested version string
<package>_FIND_VERSION_MAJOR
major version if requested, else 0
<package>_FIND_VERSION_MINOR
minor version if requested, else 0
<package>_FIND_VERSION_PATCH
patch version if requested, else 0
<package>_FIND_VERSION_TWEAK
tweak version if requested, else 0
<package>_FIND_VERSION_COUNT
number of version components, 0 to 4
<package>_FIND_VERSION_EXACT
true if EXACT option was given
<package>_FIND_COMPONENTS
list of requested components
<package>_FIND_REQUIRED_<c>
true if component <c> is required, false if component <c> is
optional
In Module mode the loaded find module is responsible to honor the
request detailed by these variables; see the find module for details.
In Config mode find_package handles REQUIRED, QUIET, and [version]
options automatically but leaves it to the package configuration file
to handle components in a way that makes sense for the package. The
package configuration file may set <package>_FOUND to false to tell
find_package that component requirements are not satisfied.
See the cmake_policy() command documentation for discussion of the
NO_POLICY_SCOPE option.
find_path
A short-hand signature is:
find_path (<VAR> name1 [path1 path2 ...])
The general signature is:
find_path (
<VAR>
name | NAMES name1 [name2 ...]
[HINTS path1 [path2 ... ENV var]]
[PATHS path1 [path2 ... ENV var]]
[PATH_SUFFIXES suffix1 [suffix2 ...]]
[DOC "cache documentation string"]
[NO_DEFAULT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_PATH]
[NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH]
[CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH |
ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH |
NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH]
)
This command is used to find a directory containing the named file. A
cache entry named by <VAR> is created to store the result of this com‐
mand. If the file in a directory is found the result is stored in the
variable and the search will not be repeated unless the variable is
cleared. If nothing is found, the result will be <VAR>-NOTFOUND, and
the search will be attempted again the next time find_path is invoked
with the same variable.
Options include:
NAMES Specify one or more possible names for the file in a directory.
When using this to specify names with and without a version suf‐
fix, we recommend specifying the unversioned name first so that
locally-built packages can be found before those provided by
distributions.
HINTS, PATHS
Specify directories to search in addition to the default loca‐
tions. The ENV var sub-option reads paths from a system envi‐
ronment variable.
PATH_SUFFIXES
Specify additional subdirectories to check below each directory
location otherwise considered.
DOC Specify the documentation string for the <VAR> cache entry.
If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is specified, then no additional paths are added to
the search. If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is not specified, the search process is
as follows:
1. Search paths specified in cmake-specific cache variables. These are
intended to be used on the command line with a -DVAR=value. This
can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_PATH is passed.
· <prefix>/include/<arch> if CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE is set, and
<prefix>/include for each <prefix> in CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
· CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH
· CMAKE_FRAMEWORK_PATH
2. Search paths specified in cmake-specific environment variables.
These are intended to be set in the user's shell configuration.
This can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH is passed.
· <prefix>/include/<arch> if CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE is set, and
<prefix>/include for each <prefix> in CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
· CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH
· CMAKE_FRAMEWORK_PATH
3. Search the paths specified by the HINTS option. These should be
paths computed by system introspection, such as a hint provided by
the location of another item already found. Hard-coded guesses
should be specified with the PATHS option.
4. Search the standard system environment variables. This can be
skipped if NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH is an argument.
· Directories in INCLUDE, <prefix>/include/<arch> if
CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE is set, and <prefix>/include for each
<prefix>/[s]bin in PATH, and <entry>/include for other entries in
PATH, and the directories in PATH itself.
5. Search cmake variables defined in the Platform files for the current
system. This can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH is passed.
· <prefix>/include/<arch> if CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE is set, and
<prefix>/include for each <prefix> in CMAKE_SYSTEM_PREFIX_PATH
· CMAKE_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_PATH
· CMAKE_SYSTEM_FRAMEWORK_PATH
6. Search the paths specified by the PATHS option or in the short-hand
version of the command. These are typically hard-coded guesses.
On OS X the CMAKE_FIND_FRAMEWORK and CMAKE_FIND_APPBUNDLE variables
determine the order of preference between Apple-style and unix-style
package components.
The CMake variable CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH specifies one or more directo‐
ries to be prepended to all other search directories. This effectively
"re-roots" the entire search under given locations. Paths which are
descendants of the CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX are excluded from this re-root‐
ing, because that variable is always a path on the host system. By
default the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH is empty.
The CMAKE_SYSROOT variable can also be used to specify exactly one
directory to use as a prefix. Setting CMAKE_SYSROOT also has other
effects. See the documentation for that variable for more.
These variables are especially useful when cross-compiling to point to
the root directory of the target environment and CMake will search
there too. By default at first the directories listed in
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH are searched, then the CMAKE_SYSROOT directory is
searched, and then the non-rooted directories will be searched. The
default behavior can be adjusted by setting
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE. This behavior can be manually over‐
ridden on a per-call basis using options:
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH
Search in the order described above.
NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
Do not use the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH variable.
ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
Search only the re-rooted directories and directories below
CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX.
The default search order is designed to be most-specific to least-spe‐
cific for common use cases. Projects may override the order by simply
calling the command multiple times and using the NO_* options:
find_path (<VAR> NAMES name PATHS paths... NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
find_path (<VAR> NAMES name)
Once one of the calls succeeds the result variable will be set and
stored in the cache so that no call will search again.
When searching for frameworks, if the file is specified as A/b.h, then
the framework search will look for A.framework/Headers/b.h. If that is
found the path will be set to the path to the framework. CMake will
convert this to the correct -F option to include the file.
find_program
A short-hand signature is:
find_program (<VAR> name1 [path1 path2 ...])
The general signature is:
find_program (
<VAR>
name | NAMES name1 [name2 ...] [NAMES_PER_DIR]
[HINTS path1 [path2 ... ENV var]]
[PATHS path1 [path2 ... ENV var]]
[PATH_SUFFIXES suffix1 [suffix2 ...]]
[DOC "cache documentation string"]
[NO_DEFAULT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_PATH]
[NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]
[NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH]
[CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH |
ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH |
NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH]
)
This command is used to find a program. A cache entry named by <VAR>
is created to store the result of this command. If the program is
found the result is stored in the variable and the search will not be
repeated unless the variable is cleared. If nothing is found, the
result will be <VAR>-NOTFOUND, and the search will be attempted again
the next time find_program is invoked with the same variable.
Options include:
NAMES Specify one or more possible names for the program.
When using this to specify names with and without a version suf‐
fix, we recommend specifying the unversioned name first so that
locally-built packages can be found before those provided by
distributions.
HINTS, PATHS
Specify directories to search in addition to the default loca‐
tions. The ENV var sub-option reads paths from a system envi‐
ronment variable.
PATH_SUFFIXES
Specify additional subdirectories to check below each directory
location otherwise considered.
DOC Specify the documentation string for the <VAR> cache entry.
If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is specified, then no additional paths are added to
the search. If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is not specified, the search process is
as follows:
1. Search paths specified in cmake-specific cache variables. These are
intended to be used on the command line with a -DVAR=value. This
can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_PATH is passed.
· <prefix>/[s]bin for each <prefix> in CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
· CMAKE_PROGRAM_PATH
· CMAKE_APPBUNDLE_PATH
2. Search paths specified in cmake-specific environment variables.
These are intended to be set in the user's shell configuration.
This can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH is passed.
· <prefix>/[s]bin for each <prefix> in CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
· CMAKE_PROGRAM_PATH
· CMAKE_APPBUNDLE_PATH
3. Search the paths specified by the HINTS option. These should be
paths computed by system introspection, such as a hint provided by
the location of another item already found. Hard-coded guesses
should be specified with the PATHS option.
4. Search the standard system environment variables. This can be
skipped if NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH is an argument.
· PATH
5. Search cmake variables defined in the Platform files for the current
system. This can be skipped if NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH is passed.
· <prefix>/[s]bin for each <prefix> in CMAKE_SYSTEM_PREFIX_PATH
· CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROGRAM_PATH
· CMAKE_SYSTEM_APPBUNDLE_PATH
6. Search the paths specified by the PATHS option or in the short-hand
version of the command. These are typically hard-coded guesses.
On OS X the CMAKE_FIND_FRAMEWORK and CMAKE_FIND_APPBUNDLE variables
determine the order of preference between Apple-style and unix-style
package components.
The CMake variable CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH specifies one or more directo‐
ries to be prepended to all other search directories. This effectively
"re-roots" the entire search under given locations. Paths which are
descendants of the CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX are excluded from this re-root‐
ing, because that variable is always a path on the host system. By
default the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH is empty.
The CMAKE_SYSROOT variable can also be used to specify exactly one
directory to use as a prefix. Setting CMAKE_SYSROOT also has other
effects. See the documentation for that variable for more.
These variables are especially useful when cross-compiling to point to
the root directory of the target environment and CMake will search
there too. By default at first the directories listed in
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH are searched, then the CMAKE_SYSROOT directory is
searched, and then the non-rooted directories will be searched. The
default behavior can be adjusted by setting
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PROGRAM. This behavior can be manually over‐
ridden on a per-call basis using options:
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH
Search in the order described above.
NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
Do not use the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH variable.
ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
Search only the re-rooted directories and directories below
CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX.
The default search order is designed to be most-specific to least-spe‐
cific for common use cases. Projects may override the order by simply
calling the command multiple times and using the NO_* options:
find_program (<VAR> NAMES name PATHS paths... NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
find_program (<VAR> NAMES name)
Once one of the calls succeeds the result variable will be set and
stored in the cache so that no call will search again.
When more than one value is given to the NAMES option this command by
default will consider one name at a time and search every directory for
it. The NAMES_PER_DIR option tells this command to consider one direc‐
tory at a time and search for all names in it.
fltk_wrap_ui
Create FLTK user interfaces Wrappers.
fltk_wrap_ui(resultingLibraryName source1
source2 ... sourceN )
Produce .h and .cxx files for all the .fl and .fld files listed. The
resulting .h and .cxx files will be added to a variable named result‐
ingLibraryName_FLTK_UI_SRCS which should be added to your library.
foreach
Evaluate a group of commands for each value in a list.
foreach(loop_var arg1 arg2 ...)
COMMAND1(ARGS ...)
COMMAND2(ARGS ...)
...
endforeach(loop_var)
All commands between foreach and the matching endforeach are recorded
without being invoked. Once the endforeach is evaluated, the recorded
list of commands is invoked once for each argument listed in the origi‐
nal foreach command. Before each iteration of the loop ${loop_var}
will be set as a variable with the current value in the list.
foreach(loop_var RANGE total)
foreach(loop_var RANGE start stop [step])
Foreach can also iterate over a generated range of numbers. There are
three types of this iteration:
· When specifying single number, the range will have elements 0 to
"total".
· When specifying two numbers, the range will have elements from the
first number to the second number.
· The third optional number is the increment used to iterate from the
first number to the second number.
foreach(loop_var IN [LISTS [list1 [...]]]
[ITEMS [item1 [...]]])
Iterates over a precise list of items. The LISTS option names
list-valued variables to be traversed, including empty elements (an
empty string is a zero-length list). (Note macro arguments are not
variables.) The ITEMS option ends argument parsing and includes all
arguments following it in the iteration.
function
Start recording a function for later invocation as a command:
function(<name> [arg1 [arg2 [arg3 ...]]])
COMMAND1(ARGS ...)
COMMAND2(ARGS ...)
...
endfunction(<name>)
Define a function named <name> that takes arguments named arg1, arg2,
arg3, (...). Commands listed after function, but before the matching
endfunction(), are not invoked until the function is invoked. When it
is invoked, the commands recorded in the function are first modified by
replacing formal parameters (${arg1}) with the arguments passed, and
then invoked as normal commands. In addition to referencing the formal
parameters you can reference the ARGC variable which will be set to the
number of arguments passed into the function as well as ARGV0, ARGV1,
ARGV2, ... which will have the actual values of the arguments passed
in. This facilitates creating functions with optional arguments.
Additionally ARGV holds the list of all arguments given to the function
and ARGN holds the list of arguments past the last expected argument.
Referencing to ARGV# arguments beyond ARGC have undefined behavior.
Checking that ARGC is greater than # is the only way to ensure that
ARGV# was passed to the function as an extra argument.
A function opens a new scope: see set(var PARENT_SCOPE) for details.
See the cmake_policy() command documentation for the behavior of poli‐
cies inside functions.
get_cmake_property
Get a property of the CMake instance.
get_cmake_property(VAR property)
Get a property from the CMake instance. The value of the property is
stored in the variable VAR. If the property is not found, VAR will be
set to "NOTFOUND". See the cmake-properties(7) manual for available
properties.
See also the more general get_property() command.
get_directory_property
Get a property of DIRECTORY scope.
get_directory_property(<variable> [DIRECTORY <dir>] <prop-name>)
Store a property of directory scope in the named variable. If the
property is not defined the empty-string is returned. The DIRECTORY
argument specifies another directory from which to retrieve the prop‐
erty value. The specified directory must have already been traversed
by CMake.
get_directory_property(<variable> [DIRECTORY <dir>]
DEFINITION <var-name>)
Get a variable definition from a directory. This form is useful to get
a variable definition from another directory.
See also the more general get_property() command.
get_filename_component
Get a specific component of a full filename.
----
get_filename_component(<VAR> <FileName> <COMP> [CACHE])
Set <VAR> to a component of <FileName>, where <COMP> is one of:
DIRECTORY = Directory without file name
NAME = File name without directory
EXT = File name longest extension (.b.c from d/a.b.c)
NAME_WE = File name without directory or longest extension
PATH = Legacy alias for DIRECTORY (use for CMake <= 2.8.11)
Paths are returned with forward slashes and have no trailing slashes.
The longest file extension is always considered. If the optional CACHE
argument is specified, the result variable is added to the cache.
----
get_filename_component(<VAR> <FileName>
<COMP> [BASE_DIR <BASE_DIR>]
[CACHE])
Set <VAR> to the absolute path of <FileName>, where <COMP> is one of:
ABSOLUTE = Full path to file
REALPATH = Full path to existing file with symlinks resolved
If the provided <FileName> is a relative path, it is evaluated relative
to the given base directory <BASE_DIR>. If no base directory is pro‐
vided, the default base directory will be CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR.
Paths are returned with forward slashes and have no trailing slahes.
If the optional CACHE argument is specified, the result variable is
added to the cache.
----
get_filename_component(<VAR> <FileName>
PROGRAM [PROGRAM_ARGS <ARG_VAR>]
[CACHE])
The program in <FileName> will be found in the system search path or
left as a full path. If PROGRAM_ARGS is present with PROGRAM, then any
command-line arguments present in the <FileName> string are split from
the program name and stored in <ARG_VAR>. This is used to separate a
program name from its arguments in a command line string.
get_property
Get a property.
get_property(<variable>
<GLOBAL |
DIRECTORY [dir] |
TARGET <target> |
SOURCE <source> |
INSTALL <file> |
TEST <test> |
CACHE <entry> |
VARIABLE>
PROPERTY <name>
[SET | DEFINED | BRIEF_DOCS | FULL_DOCS])
Get one property from one object in a scope. The first argument speci‐
fies the variable in which to store the result. The second argument
determines the scope from which to get the property. It must be one of
the following:
GLOBAL Scope is unique and does not accept a name.
DIRECTORY
Scope defaults to the current directory but another directory
(already processed by CMake) may be named by full or relative
path.
TARGET Scope must name one existing target.
SOURCE Scope must name one source file.
INSTALL
Scope must name one installed file path.
TEST Scope must name one existing test.
CACHE Scope must name one cache entry.
VARIABLE
Scope is unique and does not accept a name.
The required PROPERTY option is immediately followed by the name of the
property to get. If the property is not set an empty value is
returned. If the SET option is given the variable is set to a boolean
value indicating whether the property has been set. If the DEFINED
option is given the variable is set to a boolean value indicating
whether the property has been defined such as with the define_prop‐
erty() command. If BRIEF_DOCS or FULL_DOCS is given then the variable
is set to a string containing documentation for the requested property.
If documentation is requested for a property that has not been defined
NOTFOUND is returned.
get_source_file_property
Get a property for a source file.
get_source_file_property(VAR file property)
Get a property from a source file. The value of the property is stored
in the variable VAR. If the property is not found, VAR will be set to
"NOTFOUND". Use set_source_files_properties() to set property values.
Source file properties usually control how the file is built. One prop‐
erty that is always there is LOCATION
See also the more general get_property() command.
get_target_property
Get a property from a target.
get_target_property(VAR target property)
Get a property from a target. The value of the property is stored in
the variable VAR. If the property is not found, VAR will be set to
"NOTFOUND". Use set_target_properties() to set property values. Prop‐
erties are usually used to control how a target is built, but some
query the target instead. This command can get properties for any tar‐
get so far created. The targets do not need to be in the current
CMakeLists.txt file.
See also the more general get_property() command.
get_test_property
Get a property of the test.
get_test_property(test property VAR)
Get a property from the test. The value of the property is stored in
the variable VAR. If the test or property is not found, VAR will be
set to "NOTFOUND". For a list of standard properties you can type
cmake --help-property-list.
See also the more general get_property() command.
if
Conditionally execute a group of commands.
if(expression)
# then section.
COMMAND1(ARGS ...)
COMMAND2(ARGS ...)
...
elseif(expression2)
# elseif section.
COMMAND1(ARGS ...)
COMMAND2(ARGS ...)
...
else(expression)
# else section.
COMMAND1(ARGS ...)
COMMAND2(ARGS ...)
...
endif(expression)
Evaluates the given expression. If the result is true, the commands in
the THEN section are invoked. Otherwise, the commands in the else sec‐
tion are invoked. The elseif and else sections are optional. You may
have multiple elseif clauses. Note that the expression in the else and
endif clause is optional. Long expressions can be used and there is a
traditional order of precedence. Parenthetical expressions are evalu‐
ated first followed by unary tests such as EXISTS, COMMAND, and
DEFINED. Then any binary tests such as EQUAL, LESS, GREATER, STRLESS,
STRGREATER, STREQUAL, and MATCHES will be evaluated. Then boolean NOT
operators and finally boolean AND and then OR operators will be evalu‐
ated.
Possible expressions are:
if(<constant>)
True if the constant is 1, ON, YES, TRUE, Y, or a non-zero num‐
ber. False if the constant is 0, OFF, NO, FALSE, N, IGNORE,
NOTFOUND, the empty string, or ends in the suffix -NOTFOUND.
Named boolean constants are case-insensitive. If the argument
is not one of these specific constants, it is treated as a vari‐
able or string and the following signature is used.
if(<variable|string>)
True if given a variable that is defined to a value that is not
a false constant. False otherwise. (Note macro arguments are
not variables.)
if(NOT <expression>)
True if the expression is not true.
if(<expr1> AND <expr2>)
True if both expressions would be considered true individually.
if(<expr1> OR <expr2>)
True if either expression would be considered true individually.
if(COMMAND command-name)
True if the given name is a command, macro or function that can
be invoked.
if(POLICY policy-id)
True if the given name is an existing policy (of the form
CMP<NNNN>).
if(TARGET target-name)
True if the given name is an existing logical target name such
as those created by the add_executable(), add_library(), or
add_custom_target() commands.
if(TEST test-name)
True if the given name is an existing test name created by the
add_test() command.
if(EXISTS path-to-file-or-directory)
True if the named file or directory exists. Behavior is
well-defined only for full paths.
if(file1 IS_NEWER_THAN file2)
True if file1 is newer than file2 or if one of the two files
doesn't exist. Behavior is well-defined only for full paths.
If the file time stamps are exactly the same, an IS_NEWER_THAN
comparison returns true, so that any dependent build operations
will occur in the event of a tie. This includes the case of
passing the same file name for both file1 and file2.
if(IS_DIRECTORY path-to-directory)
True if the given name is a directory. Behavior is well-defined
only for full paths.
if(IS_SYMLINK file-name)
True if the given name is a symbolic link. Behavior is
well-defined only for full paths.
if(IS_ABSOLUTE path)
True if the given path is an absolute path.
if(<variable|string> MATCHES regex)
True if the given string or variable's value matches the given
regular expression.
if(<variable|string> LESS <variable|string>)
True if the given string or variable's value is a valid number
and less than that on the right.
if(<variable|string> GREATER <variable|string>)
True if the given string or variable's value is a valid number
and greater than that on the right.
if(<variable|string> EQUAL <variable|string>)
True if the given string or variable's value is a valid number
and equal to that on the right.
if(<variable|string> STRLESS <variable|string>)
True if the given string or variable's value is lexicographi‐
cally less than the string or variable on the right.
if(<variable|string> STRGREATER <variable|string>)
True if the given string or variable's value is lexicographi‐
cally greater than the string or variable on the right.
if(<variable|string> STREQUAL <variable|string>)
True if the given string or variable's value is lexicographi‐
cally equal to the string or variable on the right.
if(<variable|string> VERSION_LESS <variable|string>)
Component-wise integer version number comparison (version format
is major[.minor[.patch[.tweak]]]).
if(<variable|string> VERSION_EQUAL <variable|string>)
Component-wise integer version number comparison (version format
is major[.minor[.patch[.tweak]]]).
if(<variable|string> VERSION_GREATER <variable|string>)
Component-wise integer version number comparison (version format
is major[.minor[.patch[.tweak]]]).
if(<variable|string> IN_LIST <variable>)
True if the given element is contained in the named list vari‐
able.
if(DEFINED <variable>)
True if the given variable is defined. It does not matter if
the variable is true or false just if it has been set. (Note
macro arguments are not variables.)
if((expression) AND (expression OR (expression)))
The expressions inside the parenthesis are evaluated first and
then the remaining expression is evaluated as in the previous
examples. Where there are nested parenthesis the innermost are
evaluated as part of evaluating the expression that contains
them.
The if command was written very early in CMake's history, predating the
${} variable evaluation syntax, and for convenience evaluates variables
named by its arguments as shown in the above signatures. Note that
normal variable evaluation with ${} applies before the if command even
receives the arguments. Therefore code like:
set(var1 OFF)
set(var2 "var1")
if(${var2})
appears to the if command as:
if(var1)
and is evaluated according to the if(<variable>) case documented above.
The result is OFF which is false. However, if we remove the ${} from
the example then the command sees:
if(var2)
which is true because var2 is defined to "var1" which is not a false
constant.
Automatic evaluation applies in the other cases whenever the above-doc‐
umented signature accepts <variable|string>:
· The left hand argument to MATCHES is first checked to see if it is a
defined variable, if so the variable's value is used, otherwise the
original value is used.
· If the left hand argument to MATCHES is missing it returns false
without error
· Both left and right hand arguments to LESS, GREATER, and EQUAL are
independently tested to see if they are defined variables, if so
their defined values are used otherwise the original value is used.
· Both left and right hand arguments to STRLESS, STREQUAL, and STR‐
GREATER are independently tested to see if they are defined vari‐
ables, if so their defined values are used otherwise the original
value is used.
· Both left and right hand arguments to VERSION_LESS, VERSION_EQUAL,
and VERSION_GREATER are independently tested to see if they are
defined variables, if so their defined values are used otherwise the
original value is used.
· The right hand argument to NOT is tested to see if it is a boolean
constant, if so the value is used, otherwise it is assumed to be a
variable and it is dereferenced.
· The left and right hand arguments to AND and OR are independently
tested to see if they are boolean constants, if so they are used as
such, otherwise they are assumed to be variables and are derefer‐
enced.
To prevent ambiguity, potential variable or keyword names can be speci‐
fied in a Quoted Argument or a Bracket Argument. A quoted or bracketed
variable or keyword will be interpreted as a string and not derefer‐
enced or interpreted. See policy CMP0054.
include_directories
Add include directories to the build.
include_directories([AFTER|BEFORE] [SYSTEM] dir1 [dir2 ...])
Add the given directories to those the compiler uses to search for
include files. Relative paths are interpreted as relative to the cur‐
rent source directory.
The include directories are added to the INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES directory
property for the current CMakeLists file. They are also added to the
INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES target property for each target in the current
CMakeLists file. The target property values are the ones used by the
generators.
By default the directories specified are appended onto the current list
of directories. This default behavior can be changed by setting
CMAKE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES_BEFORE to ON. By using AFTER or BEFORE
explicitly, you can select between appending and prepending, indepen‐
dent of the default.
If the SYSTEM option is given, the compiler will be told the directo‐
ries are meant as system include directories on some platforms. Sig‐
nalling this setting might achieve effects such as the compiler skip‐
ping warnings, or these fixed-install system files not being considered
in dependency calculations - see compiler docs.
Arguments to include_directories may use "generator expressions" with
the syntax "$<...>". See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for
available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for more on
defining buildsystem properties.
include_external_msproject
Include an external Microsoft project file in a workspace.
include_external_msproject(projectname location
[TYPE projectTypeGUID]
[GUID projectGUID]
[PLATFORM platformName]
dep1 dep2 ...)
Includes an external Microsoft project in the generated workspace file.
Currently does nothing on UNIX. This will create a target named [pro‐
jectname]. This can be used in the add_dependencies() command to make
things depend on the external project.
TYPE, GUID and PLATFORM are optional parameters that allow one to spec‐
ify the type of project, id (GUID) of the project and the name of the
target platform. This is useful for projects requiring values other
than the default (e.g. WIX projects). These options are not supported
by the Visual Studio 6 generator.
include_regular_expression
Set the regular expression used for dependency checking.
include_regular_expression(regex_match [regex_complain])
Set the regular expressions used in dependency checking. Only files
matching regex_match will be traced as dependencies. Only files match‐
ing regex_complain will generate warnings if they cannot be found
(standard header paths are not searched). The defaults are:
regex_match = "^.*$" (match everything)
regex_complain = "^$" (match empty string only)
include
Load and run CMake code from a file or module.
include(<file|module> [OPTIONAL] [RESULT_VARIABLE <VAR>]
[NO_POLICY_SCOPE])
Load and run CMake code from the file given. Variable reads and writes
access the scope of the caller (dynamic scoping). If OPTIONAL is
present, then no error is raised if the file does not exist. If
RESULT_VARIABLE is given the variable will be set to the full filename
which has been included or NOTFOUND if it failed.
If a module is specified instead of a file, the file with name <module‐
name>.cmake is searched first in CMAKE_MODULE_PATH, then in the CMake
module directory. There is one exception to this: if the file which
calls include() is located itself in the CMake module directory, then
first the CMake module directory is searched and CMAKE_MODULE_PATH
afterwards. See also policy CMP0017.
See the cmake_policy() command documentation for discussion of the
NO_POLICY_SCOPE option.
install
Specify rules to run at install time.
Introduction
This command generates installation rules for a project. Rules speci‐
fied by calls to this command within a source directory are executed in
order during installation. The order across directories is not
defined.
There are multiple signatures for this command. Some of them define
installation options for files and targets. Options common to multiple
signatures are covered here but they are valid only for signatures that
specify them. The common options are:
DESTINATION
Specify the directory on disk to which a file will be installed.
If a full path (with a leading slash or drive letter) is given
it is used directly. If a relative path is given it is inter‐
preted relative to the value of the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX vari‐
able. The prefix can be relocated at install time using the
DESTDIR mechanism explained in the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX variable
documentation.
PERMISSIONS
Specify permissions for installed files. Valid permissions are
OWNER_READ, OWNER_WRITE, OWNER_EXECUTE, GROUP_READ, GROUP_WRITE,
GROUP_EXECUTE, WORLD_READ, WORLD_WRITE, WORLD_EXECUTE, SETUID,
and SETGID. Permissions that do not make sense on certain plat‐
forms are ignored on those platforms.
CONFIGURATIONS
Specify a list of build configurations for which the install
rule applies (Debug, Release, etc.).
COMPONENT
Specify an installation component name with which the install
rule is associated, such as "runtime" or "development". During
component-specific installation only install rules associated
with the given component name will be executed. During a full
installation all components are installed. If COMPONENT is not
provided a default component "Unspecified" is created. The
default component name may be controlled with the
CMAKE_INSTALL_DEFAULT_COMPONENT_NAME variable.
RENAME Specify a name for an installed file that may be different from
the original file. Renaming is allowed only when a single file
is installed by the command.
OPTIONAL
Specify that it is not an error if the file to be installed does
not exist.
Command signatures that install files may print messages during instal‐
lation. Use the CMAKE_INSTALL_MESSAGE variable to control which mes‐
sages are printed.
Installing Targets
install(TARGETS targets... [EXPORT <export-name>]
[[ARCHIVE|LIBRARY|RUNTIME|FRAMEWORK|BUNDLE|
PRIVATE_HEADER|PUBLIC_HEADER|RESOURCE]
[DESTINATION <dir>]
[INCLUDES DESTINATION [<dir> ...]]
[PERMISSIONS permissions...]
[CONFIGURATIONS [Debug|Release|...]]
[COMPONENT <component>]
[OPTIONAL] [NAMELINK_ONLY|NAMELINK_SKIP]
] [...])
The TARGETS form specifies rules for installing targets from a project.
There are five kinds of target files that may be installed: ARCHIVE,
LIBRARY, RUNTIME, FRAMEWORK, and BUNDLE. Executables are treated as
RUNTIME targets, except that those marked with the MACOSX_BUNDLE prop‐
erty are treated as BUNDLE targets on OS X. Static libraries are
always treated as ARCHIVE targets. Module libraries are always treated
as LIBRARY targets. For non-DLL platforms shared libraries are treated
as LIBRARY targets, except that those marked with the FRAMEWORK prop‐
erty are treated as FRAMEWORK targets on OS X. For DLL platforms the
DLL part of a shared library is treated as a RUNTIME target and the
corresponding import library is treated as an ARCHIVE target. All Win‐
dows-based systems including Cygwin are DLL platforms. The ARCHIVE,
LIBRARY, RUNTIME, and FRAMEWORK arguments change the type of target to
which the subsequent properties apply. If none is given the installa‐
tion properties apply to all target types. If only one is given then
only targets of that type will be installed (which can be used to
install just a DLL or just an import library). The INCLUDES DESTINA‐
TION specifies a list of directories which will be added to the INTER‐
FACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES target property of the <targets> when exported
by the install(EXPORT) command. If a relative path is specified, it is
treated as relative to the $<INSTALL_PREFIX>.
The PRIVATE_HEADER, PUBLIC_HEADER, and RESOURCE arguments cause subse‐
quent properties to be applied to installing a FRAMEWORK shared library
target's associated files on non-Apple platforms. Rules defined by
these arguments are ignored on Apple platforms because the associated
files are installed into the appropriate locations inside the framework
folder. See documentation of the PRIVATE_HEADER, PUBLIC_HEADER, and
RESOURCE target properties for details.
Either NAMELINK_ONLY or NAMELINK_SKIP may be specified as a LIBRARY
option. On some platforms a versioned shared library has a symbolic
link such as:
lib<name>.so -> lib<name>.so.1
where lib<name>.so.1 is the soname of the library and lib<name>.so is a
"namelink" allowing linkers to find the library when given -l<name>.
The NAMELINK_ONLY option causes installation of only the namelink when
a library target is installed. The NAMELINK_SKIP option causes instal‐
lation of library files other than the namelink when a library target
is installed. When neither option is given both portions are
installed. On platforms where versioned shared libraries do not have
namelinks or when a library is not versioned the NAMELINK_SKIP option
installs the library and the NAMELINK_ONLY option installs nothing.
See the VERSION and SOVERSION target properties for details on creating
versioned shared libraries.
One or more groups of properties may be specified in a single call to
the TARGETS form of this command. A target may be installed more than
once to different locations. Consider hypothetical targets myExe,
mySharedLib, and myStaticLib. The code:
install(TARGETS myExe mySharedLib myStaticLib
RUNTIME DESTINATION bin
LIBRARY DESTINATION lib
ARCHIVE DESTINATION lib/static)
install(TARGETS mySharedLib DESTINATION /some/full/path)
will install myExe to <prefix>/bin and myStaticLib to <pre‐
fix>/lib/static. On non-DLL platforms mySharedLib will be installed to
<prefix>/lib and /some/full/path. On DLL platforms the mySharedLib DLL
will be installed to <prefix>/bin and /some/full/path and its import
library will be installed to <prefix>/lib/static and /some/full/path.
The EXPORT option associates the installed target files with an export
called <export-name>. It must appear before any RUNTIME, LIBRARY, or
ARCHIVE options. To actually install the export file itself, call
install(EXPORT), documented below.
Installing a target with the EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL target property set to
TRUE has undefined behavior.
The install destination given to the target install DESTINATION may use
"generator expressions" with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-genera‐
tor-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.
Installing Files
install(<FILES|PROGRAMS> files... DESTINATION <dir>
[PERMISSIONS permissions...]
[CONFIGURATIONS [Debug|Release|...]]
[COMPONENT <component>]
[RENAME <name>] [OPTIONAL])
The FILES form specifies rules for installing files for a project.
File names given as relative paths are interpreted with respect to the
current source directory. Files installed by this form are by default
given permissions OWNER_WRITE, OWNER_READ, GROUP_READ, and WORLD_READ
if no PERMISSIONS argument is given.
The PROGRAMS form is identical to the FILES form except that the
default permissions for the installed file also include OWNER_EXECUTE,
GROUP_EXECUTE, and WORLD_EXECUTE. This form is intended to install
programs that are not targets, such as shell scripts. Use the TARGETS
form to install targets built within the project.
The list of files... given to FILES or PROGRAMS may use "generator
expressions" with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expres‐
sions(7) manual for available expressions. However, if any item begins
in a generator expression it must evaluate to a full path.
The install destination given to the files install DESTINATION may use
"generator expressions" with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-genera‐
tor-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.
Installing Directories
install(DIRECTORY dirs... DESTINATION <dir>
[FILE_PERMISSIONS permissions...]
[DIRECTORY_PERMISSIONS permissions...]
[USE_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS] [OPTIONAL] [MESSAGE_NEVER]
[CONFIGURATIONS [Debug|Release|...]]
[COMPONENT <component>] [FILES_MATCHING]
[[PATTERN <pattern> | REGEX <regex>]
[EXCLUDE] [PERMISSIONS permissions...]] [...])
The DIRECTORY form installs contents of one or more directories to a
given destination. The directory structure is copied verbatim to the
destination. The last component of each directory name is appended to
the destination directory but a trailing slash may be used to avoid
this because it leaves the last component empty. Directory names given
as relative paths are interpreted with respect to the current source
directory. If no input directory names are given the destination
directory will be created but nothing will be installed into it. The
FILE_PERMISSIONS and DIRECTORY_PERMISSIONS options specify permissions
given to files and directories in the destination. If USE_SOURCE_PER‐
MISSIONS is specified and FILE_PERMISSIONS is not, file permissions
will be copied from the source directory structure. If no permissions
are specified files will be given the default permissions specified in
the FILES form of the command, and the directories will be given the
default permissions specified in the PROGRAMS form of the command.
The MESSAGE_NEVER option disables file installation status output.
Installation of directories may be controlled with fine granularity
using the PATTERN or REGEX options. These "match" options specify a
globbing pattern or regular expression to match directories or files
encountered within input directories. They may be used to apply cer‐
tain options (see below) to a subset of the files and directories
encountered. The full path to each input file or directory (with for‐
ward slashes) is matched against the expression. A PATTERN will match
only complete file names: the portion of the full path matching the
pattern must occur at the end of the file name and be preceded by a
slash. A REGEX will match any portion of the full path but it may use
/ and $ to simulate the PATTERN behavior. By default all files and
directories are installed whether or not they are matched. The
FILES_MATCHING option may be given before the first match option to
disable installation of files (but not directories) not matched by any
expression. For example, the code
install(DIRECTORY src/ DESTINATION include/myproj
FILES_MATCHING PATTERN "*.h")
will extract and install header files from a source tree.
Some options may follow a PATTERN or REGEX expression and are applied
only to files or directories matching them. The EXCLUDE option will
skip the matched file or directory. The PERMISSIONS option overrides
the permissions setting for the matched file or directory. For example
the code
install(DIRECTORY icons scripts/ DESTINATION share/myproj
PATTERN "CVS" EXCLUDE
PATTERN "scripts/*"
PERMISSIONS OWNER_EXECUTE OWNER_WRITE OWNER_READ
GROUP_EXECUTE GROUP_READ)
will install the icons directory to share/myproj/icons and the scripts
directory to share/myproj. The icons will get default file permis‐
sions, the scripts will be given specific permissions, and any CVS
directories will be excluded.
The install destination given to the directory install DESTINATION may
use "generator expressions" with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-gen‐
erator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.
Custom Installation Logic
install([[SCRIPT <file>] [CODE <code>]]
[COMPONENT <component>] [...])
The SCRIPT form will invoke the given CMake script files during instal‐
lation. If the script file name is a relative path it will be inter‐
preted with respect to the current source directory. The CODE form
will invoke the given CMake code during installation. Code is speci‐
fied as a single argument inside a double-quoted string. For example,
the code
install(CODE "MESSAGE(\"Sample install message.\")")
will print a message during installation.
Installing Exports
install(EXPORT <export-name> DESTINATION <dir>
[NAMESPACE <namespace>] [FILE <name>.cmake]
[PERMISSIONS permissions...]
[CONFIGURATIONS [Debug|Release|...]]
[EXPORT_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES]
[COMPONENT <component>])
The EXPORT form generates and installs a CMake file containing code to
import targets from the installation tree into another project. Target
installations are associated with the export <export-name> using the
EXPORT option of the install(TARGETS) signature documented above. The
NAMESPACE option will prepend <namespace> to the target names as they
are written to the import file. By default the generated file will be
called <export-name>.cmake but the FILE option may be used to specify a
different name. The value given to the FILE option must be a file name
with the .cmake extension. If a CONFIGURATIONS option is given then
the file will only be installed when one of the named configurations is
installed. Additionally, the generated import file will reference only
the matching target configurations. The EXPORT_LINK_INTER‐
FACE_LIBRARIES keyword, if present, causes the contents of the proper‐
ties matching (IMPORTED_)?LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES(_<CONFIG>)? to be
exported, when policy CMP0022 is NEW. If a COMPONENT option is speci‐
fied that does not match that given to the targets associated with
<export-name> the behavior is undefined. If a library target is
included in the export but a target to which it links is not included
the behavior is unspecified.
The EXPORT form is useful to help outside projects use targets built
and installed by the current project. For example, the code
install(TARGETS myexe EXPORT myproj DESTINATION bin)
install(EXPORT myproj NAMESPACE mp_ DESTINATION lib/myproj)
will install the executable myexe to <prefix>/bin and code to import it
in the file <prefix>/lib/myproj/myproj.cmake. An outside project may
load this file with the include command and reference the myexe exe‐
cutable from the installation tree using the imported target name
mp_myexe as if the target were built in its own tree.
NOTE:
This command supercedes the install_targets() command and the
PRE_INSTALL_SCRIPT and POST_INSTALL_SCRIPT target properties. It
also replaces the FILES forms of the install_files() and
install_programs() commands. The processing order of these install
rules relative to those generated by install_targets(),
install_files(), and install_programs() commands is not defined.
link_directories
Specify directories in which the linker will look for libraries.
link_directories(directory1 directory2 ...)
Specify the paths in which the linker should search for libraries. The
command will apply only to targets created after it is called. Rela‐
tive paths given to this command are interpreted as relative to the
current source directory, see CMP0015.
Note that this command is rarely necessary. Library locations returned
by find_package() and find_library() are absolute paths. Pass these
absolute library file paths directly to the target_link_libraries()
command. CMake will ensure the linker finds them.
link_libraries
Link libraries to all targets added later.
link_libraries([item1 [item2 [...]]]
[[debug|optimized|general] <item>] ...)
Specify libraries or flags to use when linking any targets created
later in the current directory or below by commands such as add_exe‐
cutable() or add_library(). See the target_link_libraries() command
for meaning of arguments.
NOTE:
The target_link_libraries() command should be preferred whenever
possible. Library dependencies are chained automatically, so direc‐
tory-wide specification of link libraries is rarely needed.
list
List operations.
list(LENGTH <list> <output variable>)
list(GET <list> <element index> [<element index> ...]
<output variable>)
list(APPEND <list> [<element> ...])
list(FIND <list> <value> <output variable>)
list(INSERT <list> <element_index> <element> [<element> ...])
list(REMOVE_ITEM <list> <value> [<value> ...])
list(REMOVE_AT <list> <index> [<index> ...])
list(REMOVE_DUPLICATES <list>)
list(REVERSE <list>)
list(SORT <list>)
LENGTH will return a given list's length.
GET will return list of elements specified by indices from the list.
APPEND will append elements to the list.
FIND will return the index of the element specified in the list or -1
if it wasn't found.
INSERT will insert elements to the list to the specified location.
REMOVE_AT and REMOVE_ITEM will remove items from the list. The differ‐
ence is that REMOVE_ITEM will remove the given items, while REMOVE_AT
will remove the items at the given indices.
REMOVE_DUPLICATES will remove duplicated items in the list.
REVERSE reverses the contents of the list in-place.
SORT sorts the list in-place alphabetically.
The list subcommands APPEND, INSERT, REMOVE_AT, REMOVE_ITEM,
REMOVE_DUPLICATES, REVERSE and SORT may create new values for the list
within the current CMake variable scope. Similar to the set() command,
the LIST command creates new variable values in the current scope, even
if the list itself is actually defined in a parent scope. To propagate
the results of these operations upwards, use set() with PARENT_SCOPE,
set() with CACHE INTERNAL, or some other means of value propagation.
NOTES: A list in cmake is a ; separated group of strings. To create a
list the set command can be used. For example, set(var a b c d e) cre‐
ates a list with a;b;c;d;e, and set(var "a b c d e") creates a string
or a list with one item in it. (Note macro arguments are not vari‐
ables, and therefore cannot be used in LIST commands.)
When specifying index values, if <element index> is 0 or greater, it is
indexed from the beginning of the list, with 0 representing the first
list element. If <element index> is -1 or lesser, it is indexed from
the end of the list, with -1 representing the last list element. Be
careful when counting with negative indices: they do not start from 0.
-0 is equivalent to 0, the first list element.
load_cache
Load in the values from another project's CMake cache.
load_cache(pathToCacheFile READ_WITH_PREFIX
prefix entry1...)
Read the cache and store the requested entries in variables with their
name prefixed with the given prefix. This only reads the values, and
does not create entries in the local project's cache.
load_cache(pathToCacheFile [EXCLUDE entry1...]
[INCLUDE_INTERNALS entry1...])
Load in the values from another cache and store them in the local
project's cache as internal entries. This is useful for a project that
depends on another project built in a different tree. EXCLUDE option
can be used to provide a list of entries to be excluded.
INCLUDE_INTERNALS can be used to provide a list of internal entries to
be included. Normally, no internal entries are brought in. Use of
this form of the command is strongly discouraged, but it is provided
for backward compatibility.
macro
Start recording a macro for later invocation as a command:
macro(<name> [arg1 [arg2 [arg3 ...]]])
COMMAND1(ARGS ...)
COMMAND2(ARGS ...)
...
endmacro(<name>)
Define a macro named <name> that takes arguments named arg1, arg2,
arg3, (...). Commands listed after macro, but before the matching end‐
macro(), are not invoked until the macro is invoked. When it is
invoked, the commands recorded in the macro are first modified by
replacing formal parameters (${arg1}) with the arguments passed, and
then invoked as normal commands. In addition to referencing the formal
parameters you can reference the values ${ARGC} which will be set to
the number of arguments passed into the function as well as ${ARGV0},
${ARGV1}, ${ARGV2}, This facilitates creating macros with optional
arguments. Additionally ${ARGV} holds the list of all arguments given
to the macro and ${ARGN} holds the list of arguments past the last
expected argument. Referencing to ${ARGV#} arguments beyond ${ARGC}
have undefined behavior. Checking that ${ARGC} is greater than # is the
only way to ensure that ${ARGV#} was passed to the function as an extra
argument.
See the cmake_policy() command documentation for the behavior of poli‐
cies inside macros.
Macro Argument Caveats
Note that the parameters to a macro and values such as ARGN are not
variables in the usual CMake sense. They are string replacements much
like the C preprocessor would do with a macro. Therefore you will NOT
be able to use commands like:
if(ARGV1) # ARGV1 is not a variable
if(DEFINED ARGV2) # ARGV2 is not a variable
if(ARGC GREATER 2) # ARGC is not a variable
foreach(loop_var IN LISTS ARGN) # ARGN is not a variable
In the first case, you can use if(${ARGV1}). In the second and third
case, the proper way to check if an optional variable was passed to the
macro is to use if(${ARGC} GREATER 2). In the last case, you can use
foreach(loop_var ${ARGN}) but this will skip empty arguments. If you
need to include them, you can use:
set(list_var "${ARGN}")
foreach(loop_var IN LISTS list_var)
Note that if you have a variable with the same name in the scope from
which the macro is called, using unreferenced names will use the exist‐
ing variable instead of the arguments. For example:
macro(_BAR)
foreach(arg IN LISTS ARGN)
[...]
endforeach()endmacro()function(_FOO)
_bar(x y z)
endfunction()
_foo(a b c)
Will loop over a;b;c and not over x;y;z as one might be expecting. If
you want true CMake variables and/or better CMake scope control you
should look at the function command.
mark_as_advanced
Mark cmake cached variables as advanced.
mark_as_advanced([CLEAR|FORCE] VAR [VAR2 ...])
Mark the named cached variables as advanced. An advanced variable will
not be displayed in any of the cmake GUIs unless the show advanced
option is on. If CLEAR is the first argument advanced variables are
changed back to unadvanced. If FORCE is the first argument, then the
variable is made advanced. If neither FORCE nor CLEAR is specified,
new values will be marked as advanced, but if the variable already has
an advanced/non-advanced state, it will not be changed.
It does nothing in script mode.
math
Mathematical expressions.
math(EXPR <output variable> <math expression>)
EXPR evaluates mathematical expression and returns result in the output
variable. Example mathematical expression is '5 * ( 10 + 13 )'. Sup‐
ported operators are + - * / % | & ^ ~ << >> * / %. They have the same
meaning as they do in C code.
message
Display a message to the user.
message([<mode>] "message to display" ...)
The optional <mode> keyword determines the type of message:
(none) = Important information
STATUS = Incidental information
WARNING = CMake Warning, continue processing
AUTHOR_WARNING = CMake Warning (dev), continue processing
SEND_ERROR = CMake Error, continue processing,
but skip generation
FATAL_ERROR = CMake Error, stop processing and generation
DEPRECATION = CMake Deprecation Error or Warning if variable
CMAKE_ERROR_DEPRECATED or CMAKE_WARN_DEPRECATED
is enabled, respectively, else no message.
The CMake command-line tool displays STATUS messages on stdout and all
other message types on stderr. The CMake GUI displays all messages in
its log area. The interactive dialogs (ccmake and CMakeSetup) show
STATUS messages one at a time on a status line and other messages in
interactive pop-up boxes.
CMake Warning and Error message text displays using a simple markup
language. Non-indented text is formatted in line-wrapped paragraphs
delimited by newlines. Indented text is considered pre-formatted.
option
Provides an option that the user can optionally select.
option(<option_variable> "help string describing option"
[initial value])
Provide an option for the user to select as ON or OFF. If no initial
value is provided, OFF is used.
If you have options that depend on the values of other options, see the
module help for CMakeDependentOption.
project
Set a name, version, and enable languages for the entire project.
project(<PROJECT-NAME> [LANGUAGES] [<language-name>...])
project(<PROJECT-NAME>
[VERSION <major>[.<minor>[.<patch>[.<tweak>]]]]
[LANGUAGES <language-name>...])
Sets the name of the project and stores the name in the PROJECT_NAME
variable. Additionally this sets variables
· PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR, <PROJECT-NAME>_SOURCE_DIR
· PROJECT_BINARY_DIR, <PROJECT-NAME>_BINARY_DIR
If VERSION is specified, given components must be non-negative inte‐
gers. If VERSION is not specified, the default version is the empty
string. The VERSION option may not be used unless policy CMP0048 is
set to NEW.
The project() command stores the version number and its components in
variables
· PROJECT_VERSION, <PROJECT-NAME>_VERSION
· PROJECT_VERSION_MAJOR, <PROJECT-NAME>_VERSION_MAJOR
· PROJECT_VERSION_MINOR, <PROJECT-NAME>_VERSION_MINOR
· PROJECT_VERSION_PATCH, <PROJECT-NAME>_VERSION_PATCH
· PROJECT_VERSION_TWEAK, <PROJECT-NAME>_VERSION_TWEAK
Variables corresponding to unspecified versions are set to the empty
string (if policy CMP0048 is set to NEW).
Optionally you can specify which languages your project supports.
Example languages are C, CXX (i.e. C++), Fortran, etc. By default C
and CXX are enabled if no language options are given. Specify language
NONE, or use the LANGUAGES keyword and list no languages, to skip
enabling any languages.
If a variable exists called CMAKE_PROJECT_<PROJECT-NAME>_INCLUDE, the
file pointed to by that variable will be included as the last step of
the project command.
The top-level CMakeLists.txt file for a project must contain a literal,
direct call to the project() command; loading one through the include()
command is not sufficient. If no such call exists CMake will implic‐
itly add one to the top that enables the default languages (C and CXX).
NOTE:
Call the cmake_minimum_required() command at the beginning of the
top-level CMakeLists.txt file even before calling the project() com‐
mand. It is important to establish version and policy settings
before invoking other commands whose behavior they may affect. See
also policy CMP0000.
qt_wrap_cpp
Create Qt Wrappers.
qt_wrap_cpp(resultingLibraryName DestName
SourceLists ...)
Produce moc files for all the .h files listed in the SourceLists. The
moc files will be added to the library using the DestName source list.
qt_wrap_ui
Create Qt user interfaces Wrappers.
qt_wrap_ui(resultingLibraryName HeadersDestName
SourcesDestName SourceLists ...)
Produce .h and .cxx files for all the .ui files listed in the
SourceLists. The .h files will be added to the library using the Head‐
ersDestNamesource list. The .cxx files will be added to the library
using the SourcesDestNamesource list.
remove_definitions
Removes -D define flags added by add_definitions().
remove_definitions(-DFOO -DBAR ...)
Removes flags (added by add_definitions()) from the compiler command
line for sources in the current directory and below.
return
Return from a file, directory or function.
return()
Returns from a file, directory or function. When this command is
encountered in an included file (via include() or find_package()), it
causes processing of the current file to stop and control is returned
to the including file. If it is encountered in a file which is not
included by another file, e.g. a CMakeLists.txt, control is returned
to the parent directory if there is one. If return is called in a
function, control is returned to the caller of the function. Note that
a macro is not a function and does not handle return like a function
does.
separate_arguments
Parse space-separated arguments into a semicolon-separated list.
separate_arguments(<var> <UNIX|WINDOWS>_COMMAND "<args>")
Parses a unix- or windows-style command-line string "<args>" and stores
a semicolon-separated list of the arguments in <var>. The entire com‐
mand line must be given in one "<args>" argument.
The UNIX_COMMAND mode separates arguments by unquoted whitespace. It
recognizes both single-quote and double-quote pairs. A backslash
escapes the next literal character (" is "); there are no special
escapes (n is just n).
The WINDOWS_COMMAND mode parses a windows command-line using the same
syntax the runtime library uses to construct argv at startup. It sepa‐
rates arguments by whitespace that is not double-quoted. Backslashes
are literal unless they precede double-quotes. See the MSDN article
"Parsing C Command-Line Arguments" for details.
separate_arguments(VARIABLE)
Convert the value of VARIABLE to a semi-colon separated list. All spa‐
ces are replaced with ';'. This helps with generating command lines.
set_directory_properties
Set a property of the directory.
set_directory_properties(PROPERTIES prop1 value1 prop2 value2)
Set a property for the current directory and subdirectories. See Direc‐
tory Properties for the list of properties known to CMake.
set_property
Set a named property in a given scope.
set_property(<GLOBAL |
DIRECTORY [dir] |
TARGET [target1 [target2 ...]] |
SOURCE [src1 [src2 ...]] |
INSTALL [file1 [file2 ...]] |
TEST [test1 [test2 ...]] |
CACHE [entry1 [entry2 ...]]>
[APPEND] [APPEND_STRING]
PROPERTY <name> [value1 [value2 ...]])
Set one property on zero or more objects of a scope. The first argu‐
ment determines the scope in which the property is set. It must be one
of the following:
GLOBAL Scope is unique and does not accept a name.
DIRECTORY
Scope defaults to the current directory but another directory
(already processed by CMake) may be named by full or relative
path.
TARGET Scope may name zero or more existing targets.
SOURCE Scope may name zero or more source files. Note that source file
properties are visible only to targets added in the same direc‐
tory (CMakeLists.txt).
INSTALL
Scope may name zero or more installed file paths. These are
made available to CPack to influence deployment.
Both the property key and value may use generator expressions.
Specific properties may apply to installed files and/or directo‐
ries.
Path components have to be separated by forward slashes, must be
normalized and are case sensitive.
To reference the installation prefix itself with a relative path
use ".".
Currently installed file properties are only defined for the WIX
generator where the given paths are relative to the installation
prefix.
TEST Scope may name zero or more existing tests.
CACHE Scope must name zero or more cache existing entries.
The required PROPERTY option is immediately followed by the name of the
property to set. Remaining arguments are used to compose the property
value in the form of a semicolon-separated list. If the APPEND option
is given the list is appended to any existing property value. If the
APPEND_STRING option is given the string is append to any existing
property value as string, i.e. it results in a longer string and not a
list of strings.
See the cmake-properties(7) manual for a list of properties in each
scope.
set
Set a normal, cache, or environment variable to a given value. See the
cmake-language(7) variables documentation for the scopes and interac‐
tion of normal variables and cache entries.
Signatures of this command that specify a <value>... placeholder expect
zero or more arguments. Multiple arguments will be joined as a ;-list
to form the actual variable value to be set. Zero arguments will cause
normal variables to be unset. See the unset() command to unset vari‐
ables explicitly.
Set Normal Variable
set(<variable> <value>... [PARENT_SCOPE])
Set the given <variable> in the current function or directory scope.
If the PARENT_SCOPE option is given the variable will be set in the
scope above the current scope. Each new directory or function creates
a new scope. This command will set the value of a variable into the
parent directory or calling function (whichever is applicable to the
case at hand).
Set Cache Entry
set(<variable> <value>... CACHE <type> <docstring> [FORCE])
Set the given cache <variable> (cache entry). Since cache entries are
meant to provide user-settable values this does not overwrite existing
cache entries by default. Use the FORCE option to overwrite existing
entries.
The <type> must be specified as one of:
BOOL Boolean ON/OFF value. cmake-gui(1) offers a checkbox.
FILEPATH
Path to a file on disk. cmake-gui(1) offers a file dialog.
PATH Path to a directory on disk. cmake-gui(1) offers a file dialog.
STRING A line of text. cmake-gui(1) offers a text field or a drop-down
selection if the STRINGS cache entry property is set.
INTERNAL
A line of text. cmake-gui(1) does not show internal entries.
They may be used to store variables persistently across runs.
Use of this type implies FORCE.
The <docstring> must be specified as a line of text providing a quick
summary of the option for presentation to cmake-gui(1) users.
If the cache entry does not exist prior to the call or the FORCE option
is given then the cache entry will be set to the given value. Further‐
more, any normal variable binding in the current scope will be removed
to expose the newly cached value to any immediately following evalua‐
tion.
It is possible for the cache entry to exist prior to the call but have
no type set if it was created on the cmake(1) command line by a user
through the -D<var>=<value> option without specifying a type. In this
case the set command will add the type. Furthermore, if the <type> is
PATH or FILEPATH and the <value> provided on the command line is a rel‐
ative path, then the set command will treat the path as relative to the
current working directory and convert it to an absolute path.
Set Environment Variable
set(ENV{<variable>} <value>...)
Set the current process environment <variable> to the given value.
set_source_files_properties
Source files can have properties that affect how they are built.
set_source_files_properties([file1 [file2 [...]]]
PROPERTIES prop1 value1
[prop2 value2 [...]])
Set properties associated with source files using a key/value paired
list. See Source File Properties for the list of properties known to
CMake. Source file properties are visible only to targets added in the
same directory (CMakeLists.txt).
set_target_properties
Targets can have properties that affect how they are built.
set_target_properties(target1 target2 ...
PROPERTIES prop1 value1
prop2 value2 ...)
Set properties on a target. The syntax for the command is to list all
the files you want to change, and then provide the values you want to
set next. You can use any prop value pair you want and extract it
later with the get_property() or get_target_property() command.
See Target Properties for the list of properties known to CMake.
set_tests_properties
Set a property of the tests.
set_tests_properties(test1 [test2...] PROPERTIES prop1 value1 prop2 value2)
Set a property for the tests. If the test is not found, CMake will
report an error. Generator expressions will be expanded the same as
supported by the test's add_test() call. See Test Properties for the
list of properties known to CMake.
site_name
Set the given variable to the name of the computer.
site_name(variable)
source_group
Define a grouping for source files in IDE project generation.
source_group(<name> [FILES <src>...] [REGULAR_EXPRESSION <regex>])
Defines a group into which sources will be placed in project files.
This is intended to set up file tabs in Visual Studio. The options
are:
FILES Any source file specified explicitly will be placed in group
<name>. Relative paths are interpreted with respect to the cur‐
rent source directory.
REGULAR_EXPRESSION
Any source file whose name matches the regular expression will
be placed in group <name>.
If a source file matches multiple groups, the last group that explic‐
itly lists the file with FILES will be favored, if any. If no group
explicitly lists the file, the last group whose regular expression
matches the file will be favored.
The <name> of the group may contain backslashes to specify subgroups:
source_group(outer\\inner ...)
For backwards compatibility, the short-hand signature
source_group(<name> <regex>)
is equivalent to
source_group(<name> REGULAR_EXPRESSION <regex>)
string
String operations.
Search and Replace
FIND
string(FIND <string> <substring> <output variable> [REVERSE])
Return the position where the given substring was found in the supplied
string. If the REVERSE flag was used, the command will search for the
position of the last occurrence of the specified substring. If the
substring is not found, a position of -1 is returned.
REPLACE
string(REPLACE <match_string>
<replace_string> <output variable>
<input> [<input>...])
Replace all occurrences of match_string in the input with
replace_string and store the result in the output.
Regular Expressions
REGEX MATCH
string(REGEX MATCH <regular_expression>
<output variable> <input> [<input>...])
Match the regular expression once and store the match in the output
variable. All <input> arguments are concatenated before matching.
REGEX MATCHALL
string(REGEX MATCHALL <regular_expression>
<output variable> <input> [<input>...])
Match the regular expression as many times as possible and store the
matches in the output variable as a list. All <input> arguments are
concatenated before matching.
REGEX REPLACE
string(REGEX REPLACE <regular_expression>
<replace_expression> <output variable>
<input> [<input>...])
Match the regular expression as many times as possible and substitute
the replacement expression for the match in the output. All <input>
arguments are concatenated before matching.
The replace expression may refer to paren-delimited subexpressions of
the match using \1, \2, ..., \9. Note that two backslashes (\\1) are
required in CMake code to get a backslash through argument parsing.
Regex Specification
The following characters have special meaning in regular expressions:
^ Matches at beginning of input
$ Matches at end of input
. Matches any single character
[ ] Matches any character(s) inside the brackets
[^ ] Matches any character(s) not inside the brackets
- Inside brackets, specifies an inclusive range between
characters on either side e.g. [a-f] is [abcdef]
To match a literal - using brackets, make it the first
or the last character e.g. [+*/-] matches basic
mathematical operators.
* Matches preceding pattern zero or more times
+ Matches preceding pattern one or more times
? Matches preceding pattern zero or once only
| Matches a pattern on either side of the |
() Saves a matched subexpression, which can be referenced
in the REGEX REPLACE operation. Additionally it is saved
by all regular expression-related commands, including
e.g. if( MATCHES ), in the variables CMAKE_MATCH_(0..9).
*, + and ? have higher precedence than concatenation. | has lower
precedence than concatenation. This means that the regular expression
^ab+d$ matches abbd but not ababd, and the regular expression ^(ab|cd)$
matches ab but not abd.
Manipulation
APPEND
string(APPEND <string variable> [<input>...])
Append all the input arguments to the string.
CONCAT
string(CONCAT <output variable> [<input>...])
Concatenate all the input arguments together and store the result in
the named output variable.
TOLOWER
string(TOLOWER <string1> <output variable>)
Convert string to lower characters.
TOUPPER
string(TOUPPER <string1> <output variable>)
Convert string to upper characters.
LENGTH
string(LENGTH <string> <output variable>)
Store in an output variable a given string's length.
SUBSTRING
string(SUBSTRING <string> <begin> <length> <output variable>)
Store in an output variable a substring of a given string. If length
is -1 the remainder of the string starting at begin will be returned.
If string is shorter than length then end of string is used instead.
NOTE:
CMake 3.1 and below reported an error if length pointed past the end
of string.
STRIP
string(STRIP <string> <output variable>)
Store in an output variable a substring of a given string with leading
and trailing spaces removed.
GENEX_STRIP
string(GENEX_STRIP <input string> <output variable>)
Strip any generator expressions from the input string and store the
result in the output variable.
Comparison
string(COMPARE EQUAL <string1> <string2> <output variable>)
string(COMPARE NOTEQUAL <string1> <string2> <output variable>)
string(COMPARE LESS <string1> <string2> <output variable>)
string(COMPARE GREATER <string1> <string2> <output variable>)
Compare the strings and store true or false in the output variable.
Hashing
string(<MD5|SHA1|SHA224|SHA256|SHA384|SHA512>
<output variable> <input>)
Compute a cryptographic hash of the input string.
Generation
ASCII
string(ASCII <number> [<number> ...] <output variable>)
Convert all numbers into corresponding ASCII characters.
CONFIGURE
string(CONFIGURE <string1> <output variable>
[@ONLY] [ESCAPE_QUOTES])
Transform a string like configure_file() transforms a file.
RANDOM
string(RANDOM [LENGTH <length>] [ALPHABET <alphabet>]
[RANDOM_SEED <seed>] <output variable>)
Return a random string of given length consisting of characters from
the given alphabet. Default length is 5 characters and default alpha‐
bet is all numbers and upper and lower case letters. If an integer
RANDOM_SEED is given, its value will be used to seed the random number
generator.
TIMESTAMP
string(TIMESTAMP <output variable> [<format string>] [UTC])
Write a string representation of the current date and/or time to the
output variable.
Should the command be unable to obtain a timestamp the output variable
will be set to the empty string "".
The optional UTC flag requests the current date/time representation to
be in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) rather than local time.
The optional <format string> may contain the following format speci‐
fiers:
%d The day of the current month (01-31).
%H The hour on a 24-hour clock (00-23).
%I The hour on a 12-hour clock (01-12).
%j The day of the current year (001-366).
%m The month of the current year (01-12).
%M The minute of the current hour (00-59).
%S The second of the current minute.
60 represents a leap second. (00-60)
%U The week number of the current year (00-53).
%w The day of the current week. 0 is Sunday. (0-6)
%y The last two digits of the current year (00-99)
%Y The current year.
Unknown format specifiers will be ignored and copied to the output
as-is.
If no explicit <format string> is given it will default to:
%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S for local time.
%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ for UTC.
string(MAKE_C_IDENTIFIER <input string> <output variable>)
Write a string which can be used as an identifier in C.
UUID
string(UUID <output variable> NAMESPACE <namespace> NAME <name>
TYPE <MD5|SHA1> [UPPER])
Create a univerally unique identifier (aka GUID) as per RFC4122 based
on the hash of the combined values of <namespace> (which itself has to
be a valid UUID) and <name>. The hash algorithm can be either MD5
(Version 3 UUID) or SHA1 (Version 5 UUID). A UUID has the format
xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx where each x represents a lower
case hexadecimal character. Where required an uppercase representation
can be requested with the optional UPPER flag.
target_compile_definitions
Add compile definitions to a target.
target_compile_definitions(<target>
<INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items1...]
[<INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items2...] ...])
Specify compile definitions to use when compiling a given <target>.
The named <target> must have been created by a command such as add_exe‐
cutable() or add_library() and must not be an Imported Target.
The INTERFACE, PUBLIC and PRIVATE keywords are required to specify the
scope of the following arguments. PRIVATE and PUBLIC items will popu‐
late the COMPILE_DEFINITIONS property of <target>. PUBLIC and INTERFACE
items will populate the INTERFACE_COMPILE_DEFINITIONS property of <tar‐
get>. The following arguments specify compile definitions. Repeated
calls for the same <target> append items in the order called.
Arguments to target_compile_definitions may use "generator expressions"
with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual
for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.
target_compile_features
Add expected compiler features to a target.
target_compile_features(<target> <PRIVATE|PUBLIC|INTERFACE> <feature> [...])
Specify compiler features required when compiling a given target. If
the feature is not listed in the CMAKE_C_COMPILE_FEATURES variable or
CMAKE_CXX_COMPILE_FEATURES variable, then an error will be reported by
CMake. If the use of the feature requires an additional compiler flag,
such as -std=gnu++11, the flag will be added automatically.
The INTERFACE, PUBLIC and PRIVATE keywords are required to specify the
scope of the features. PRIVATE and PUBLIC items will populate the COM‐
PILE_FEATURES property of <target>. PUBLIC and INTERFACE items will
populate the INTERFACE_COMPILE_FEATURES property of <target>. Repeated
calls for the same <target> append items.
The named <target> must have been created by a command such as add_exe‐
cutable() or add_library() and must not be an IMPORTED target.
Arguments to target_compile_features may use "generator expressions"
with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual
for available expressions. See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual
for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.
target_compile_options
Add compile options to a target.
target_compile_options(<target> [BEFORE]
<INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items1...]
[<INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items2...] ...])
Specify compile options to use when compiling a given target. The
named <target> must have been created by a command such as add_exe‐
cutable() or add_library() and must not be an IMPORTED Target. If
BEFORE is specified, the content will be prepended to the property
instead of being appended.
This command can be used to add any options, but alternative commands
exist to add preprocessor definitions (target_compile_definitions() and
add_definitions()) or include directories (target_include_directories()
and include_directories()). See documentation of the directory and
target COMPILE_OPTIONS properties.
The INTERFACE, PUBLIC and PRIVATE keywords are required to specify the
scope of the following arguments. PRIVATE and PUBLIC items will popu‐
late the COMPILE_OPTIONS property of <target>. PUBLIC and INTERFACE
items will populate the INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS property of <target>.
The following arguments specify compile options. Repeated calls for
the same <target> append items in the order called.
Arguments to target_compile_options may use "generator expressions"
with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual
for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.
target_include_directories
Add include directories to a target.
target_include_directories(<target> [SYSTEM] [BEFORE]
<INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items1...]
[<INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items2...] ...])
Specify include directories to use when compiling a given target. The
named <target> must have been created by a command such as add_exe‐
cutable() or add_library() and must not be an IMPORTED target.
If BEFORE is specified, the content will be prepended to the property
instead of being appended.
The INTERFACE, PUBLIC and PRIVATE keywords are required to specify the
scope of the following arguments. PRIVATE and PUBLIC items will popu‐
late the INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES property of <target>. PUBLIC and INTER‐
FACE items will populate the INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES property of
<target>. The following arguments specify include directories.
Specified include directories may be absolute paths or relative paths.
Repeated calls for the same <target> append items in the order called.
If SYSTEM is specified, the compiler will be told the directories are
meant as system include directories on some platforms (signalling this
setting might achieve effects such as the compiler skipping warnings,
or these fixed-install system files not being considered in dependency
calculations - see compiler docs). If SYSTEM is used together with
PUBLIC or INTERFACE, the INTERFACE_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES target
property will be populated with the specified directories.
Arguments to target_include_directories may use "generator expressions"
with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual
for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.
Include directories usage requirements commonly differ between the
build-tree and the install-tree. The BUILD_INTERFACE and
INSTALL_INTERFACE generator expressions can be used to describe sepa‐
rate usage requirements based on the usage location. Relative paths
are allowed within the INSTALL_INTERFACE expression and are interpreted
relative to the installation prefix. For example:
target_include_directories(mylib PUBLIC
$<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/mylib>
$<INSTALL_INTERFACE:include/mylib> # <prefix>/include/mylib
)
Creating Relocatable Packages
Note that it is not advisable to populate the INSTALL_INTERFACE of the
INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES of a target with absolute paths to the
include directories of dependencies. That would hard-code into
installed packages the include directory paths for dependencies as
found on the machine the package was made on.
The INSTALL_INTERFACE of the INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES is only
suitable for specifying the required include directories for headers
provided with the target itself, not those provided by the transitive
dependencies listed in its INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES target property.
Those dependencies should themselves be targets that specify their own
header locations in INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.
See the Creating Relocatable Packages section of the cmake-packages(7)
manual for discussion of additional care that must be taken when speci‐
fying usage requirements while creating packages for redistribution.
target_link_libraries
Specify libraries or flags to use when linking a given target and/or
its dependents. Usage requirements from linked library targets will be
propagated. Usage requirements of a target's dependencies affect com‐
pilation of its own sources.
Overview
This command has several signatures as detailed in subsections below.
All of them have the general form:
target_link_libraries(<target> ... <item>... ...)
The named <target> must have been created in the current directory by a
command such as add_executable() or add_library(). Repeated calls for
the same <target> append items in the order called. Each <item> may
be:
· A library target name: The generated link line will have the full
path to the linkable library file associated with the target. The
buildsystem will have a dependency to re-link <target> if the library
file changes.
The named target must be created by add_library() within the project
or as an IMPORTED library. If it is created within the project an
ordering dependency will automatically be added in the build system
to make sure the named library target is up-to-date before the <tar‐
get> links.
If an imported library has the IMPORTED_NO_SONAME target property
set, CMake may ask the linker to search for the library instead of
using the full path (e.g. /usr/lib/libfoo.so becomes -lfoo).
· A full path to a library file: The generated link line will normally
preserve the full path to the file. The buildsystem will have a
dependency to re-link <target> if the library file changes.
There are some cases where CMake may ask the linker to search for the
library (e.g. /usr/lib/libfoo.so becomes -lfoo), such as when a
shared library is detected to have no SONAME field. See policy
CMP0060 for discussion of another case.
If the library file is in a Mac OSX framework, the Headers directory
of the framework will also be processed as a usage requirement. This
has the same effect as passing the framework directory as an include
directory.
· A plain library name: The generated link line will ask the linker to
search for the library (e.g. foo becomes -lfoo or foo.lib).
· A link flag: Item names starting with -, but not -l or -framework,
are treated as linker flags. Note that such flags will be treated
like any other library link item for purposes of transitive dependen‐
cies, so they are generally safe to specify only as private link
items that will not propagate to dependents.
· A debug, optimized, or general keyword immediately followed by
another <item>. The item following such a keyword will be used only
for the corresponding build configuration. The debug keyword corre‐
sponds to the Debug configuration (or to configurations named in the
DEBUG_CONFIGURATIONS global property if it is set). The optimized
keyword corresponds to all other configurations. The general keyword
corresponds to all configurations, and is purely optional. Higher
granularity may be achieved for per-configuration rules by creating
and linking to IMPORTED library targets.
Items containing ::, such as Foo::Bar, are assumed to be IMPORTED or
ALIAS library target names and will cause an error if no such target
exists. See policy CMP0028.
Arguments to target_link_libraries may use "generator expressions" with
the syntax $<...>. Note however, that generator expressions will not
be used in OLD handling of CMP0003 or CMP0004. See the cmake-genera‐
tor-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the
cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for more on defining buildsystem proper‐
ties.
Libraries for a Target and/or its Dependents
target_link_libraries(<target>
<PRIVATE|PUBLIC|INTERFACE> <item>...
[<PRIVATE|PUBLIC|INTERFACE> <item>...]...)
The PUBLIC, PRIVATE and INTERFACE keywords can be used to specify both
the link dependencies and the link interface in one command. Libraries
and targets following PUBLIC are linked to, and are made part of the
link interface. Libraries and targets following PRIVATE are linked to,
but are not made part of the link interface. Libraries following
INTERFACE are appended to the link interface and are not used for link‐
ing <target>.
Libraries for both a Target and its Dependents
target_link_libraries(<target> <item>...)
Library dependencies are transitive by default with this signature.
When this target is linked into another target then the libraries
linked to this target will appear on the link line for the other target
too. This transitive "link interface" is stored in the INTER‐
FACE_LINK_LIBRARIES target property and may be overridden by setting
the property directly. When CMP0022 is not set to NEW, transitive
linking is built in but may be overridden by the LINK_INTER‐
FACE_LIBRARIES property. Calls to other signatures of this command may
set the property making any libraries linked exclusively by this signa‐
ture private.
Libraries for a Target and/or its Dependents (Legacy)
target_link_libraries(<target>
<LINK_PRIVATE|LINK_PUBLIC> <lib>...
[<LINK_PRIVATE|LINK_PUBLIC> <lib>...]...)
The LINK_PUBLIC and LINK_PRIVATE modes can be used to specify both the
link dependencies and the link interface in one command.
This signature is for compatibility only. Prefer the PUBLIC or PRIVATE
keywords instead.
Libraries and targets following LINK_PUBLIC are linked to, and are made
part of the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES. If policy CMP0022 is not NEW,
they are also made part of the LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES. Libraries and
targets following LINK_PRIVATE are linked to, but are not made part of
the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES (or LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES).
Libraries for Dependents Only (Legacy)
target_link_libraries(<target> LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES <item>...)
The LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES mode appends the libraries to the INTER‐
FACE_LINK_LIBRARIES target property instead of using them for linking.
If policy CMP0022 is not NEW, then this mode also appends libraries to
the LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES and its per-configuration equivalent.
This signature is for compatibility only. Prefer the INTERFACE mode
instead.
Libraries specified as debug are wrapped in a generator expression to
correspond to debug builds. If policy CMP0022 is not NEW, the
libraries are also appended to the LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES_DEBUG prop‐
erty (or to the properties corresponding to configurations listed in
the DEBUG_CONFIGURATIONS global property if it is set). Libraries
specified as optimized are appended to the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES
property. If policy CMP0022 is not NEW, they are also appended to the
LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES property. Libraries specified as general (or
without any keyword) are treated as if specified for both debug and
optimized.
Cyclic Dependencies of Static Libraries
The library dependency graph is normally acyclic (a DAG), but in the
case of mutually-dependent STATIC libraries CMake allows the graph to
contain cycles (strongly connected components). When another target
links to one of the libraries, CMake repeats the entire connected com‐
ponent. For example, the code
add_library(A STATIC a.c)
add_library(B STATIC b.c)
target_link_libraries(A B)
target_link_libraries(B A)
add_executable(main main.c)
target_link_libraries(main A)
links main to A B A B. While one repetition is usually sufficient,
pathological object file and symbol arrangements can require more. One
may handle such cases by using the LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY target
property or by manually repeating the component in the last tar‐
get_link_libraries call. However, if two archives are really so inter‐
dependent they should probably be combined into a single archive, per‐
haps by using Object Libraries.
Creating Relocatable Packages
Note that it is not advisable to populate the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES
of a target with absolute paths to dependencies. That would hard-code
into installed packages the library file paths for dependencies as
found on the machine the package was made on.
See the Creating Relocatable Packages section of the cmake-packages(7)
manual for discussion of additional care that must be taken when speci‐
fying usage requirements while creating packages for redistribution.
target_sources
Add sources to a target.
target_sources(<target>
<INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items1...]
[<INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items2...] ...])
Specify sources to use when compiling a given target. The named <tar‐
get> must have been created by a command such as add_executable() or
add_library() and must not be an IMPORTED Target.
The INTERFACE, PUBLIC and PRIVATE keywords are required to specify the
scope of the following arguments. PRIVATE and PUBLIC items will popu‐
late the SOURCES property of <target>. PUBLIC and INTERFACE items will
populate the INTERFACE_SOURCES property of <target>. The following
arguments specify sources. Repeated calls for the same <target> append
items in the order called.
Arguments to target_sources may use "generator expressions" with the
syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for avail‐
able expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for more on
defining buildsystem properties.
try_compile
Try building some code.
Try Compiling Whole Projects
try_compile(RESULT_VAR <bindir> <srcdir>
<projectName> [<targetName>] [CMAKE_FLAGS <flags>...]
[OUTPUT_VARIABLE <var>])
Try building a project. The success or failure of the try_compile,
i.e. TRUE or FALSE respectively, is returned in RESULT_VAR.
In this form, <srcdir> should contain a complete CMake project with a
CMakeLists.txt file and all sources. The <bindir> and <srcdir> will
not be deleted after this command is run. Specify <targetName> to
build a specific target instead of the all or ALL_BUILD target. See
below for the meaning of other options.
Try Compiling Source Files
try_compile(RESULT_VAR <bindir> <srcfile|SOURCES srcfile...>
[CMAKE_FLAGS <flags>...]
[COMPILE_DEFINITIONS <defs>...]
[LINK_LIBRARIES <libs>...]
[OUTPUT_VARIABLE <var>]
[COPY_FILE <fileName> [COPY_FILE_ERROR <var>]])
Try building an executable from one or more source files. The success
or failure of the try_compile, i.e. TRUE or FALSE respectively, is
returned in RESULT_VAR.
In this form the user need only supply one or more source files that
include a definition for main. CMake will create a CMakeLists.txt file
to build the source(s) as an executable that looks something like this:
add_definitions(<expanded COMPILE_DEFINITIONS from caller>)
include_directories(${INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES})
link_directories(${LINK_DIRECTORIES})
add_executable(cmTryCompileExec <srcfile>...)
target_link_libraries(cmTryCompileExec ${LINK_LIBRARIES})
The options are:
CMAKE_FLAGS <flags>...
Specify flags of the form -DVAR:TYPE=VALUE to be passed to the
cmake command-line used to drive the test build. The above
example shows how values for variables INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES,
LINK_DIRECTORIES, and LINK_LIBRARIES are used.
COMPILE_DEFINITIONS <defs>...
Specify -Ddefinition arguments to pass to add_definitions in the
generated test project.
COPY_FILE <fileName>
Copy the linked executable to the given <fileName>.
COPY_FILE_ERROR <var>
Use after COPY_FILE to capture into variable <var> any error
message encountered while trying to copy the file.
LINK_LIBRARIES <libs>...
Specify libraries to be linked in the generated project. The
list of libraries may refer to system libraries and to Imported
Targets from the calling project.
If this option is specified, any -DLINK_LIBRARIES=... value
given to the CMAKE_FLAGS option will be ignored.
OUTPUT_VARIABLE <var>
Store the output from the build process the given variable.
In this version all files in <bindir>/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp will be
cleaned automatically. For debugging, --debug-trycompile can be passed
to cmake to avoid this clean. However, multiple sequential try_compile
operations reuse this single output directory. If you use
--debug-trycompile, you can only debug one try_compile call at a time.
The recommended procedure is to protect all try_compile calls in your
project by if(NOT DEFINED RESULT_VAR) logic, configure with cmake all
the way through once, then delete the cache entry associated with the
try_compile call of interest, and then re-run cmake again with
--debug-trycompile.
Other Behavior Settings
If set, the following variables are passed in to the generated try_com‐
pile CMakeLists.txt to initialize compile target properties with
default values:
· CMAKE_ENABLE_EXPORTS
· CMAKE_LINK_SEARCH_START_STATIC
· CMAKE_LINK_SEARCH_END_STATIC
· CMAKE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE
If CMP0056 is set to NEW, then CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS is passed in as
well.
The current setting of CMP0065 is set in the generated project.
Set the CMAKE_TRY_COMPILE_CONFIGURATION variable to choose a build con‐
figuration.
try_run
Try compiling and then running some code.
Try Compiling and Running Source Files
try_run(RUN_RESULT_VAR COMPILE_RESULT_VAR
bindir srcfile [CMAKE_FLAGS <flags>...]
[COMPILE_DEFINITIONS <defs>...]
[LINK_LIBRARIES <libs>...]
[COMPILE_OUTPUT_VARIABLE <var>]
[RUN_OUTPUT_VARIABLE <var>]
[OUTPUT_VARIABLE <var>]
[ARGS <args>...])
Try compiling a <srcfile>. Returns TRUE or FALSE for success or fail‐
ure in COMPILE_RESULT_VAR. If the compile succeeded, runs the exe‐
cutable and returns its exit code in RUN_RESULT_VAR. If the executable
was built, but failed to run, then RUN_RESULT_VAR will be set to
FAILED_TO_RUN. See the try_compile() command for information on how
the test project is constructed to build the source file.
The options are:
CMAKE_FLAGS <flags>...
Specify flags of the form -DVAR:TYPE=VALUE to be passed to the
cmake command-line used to drive the test build. The example in
try_compile() shows how values for variables INCLUDE_DIRECTO‐
RIES, LINK_DIRECTORIES, and LINK_LIBRARIES are used.
COMPILE_DEFINITIONS <defs>...
Specify -Ddefinition arguments to pass to add_definitions in the
generated test project.
COMPILE_OUTPUT_VARIABLE <var>
Report the compile step build output in a given variable.
LINK_LIBRARIES <libs>...
Specify libraries to be linked in the generated project. The
list of libraries may refer to system libraries and to Imported
Targets from the calling project.
If this option is specified, any -DLINK_LIBRARIES=... value
given to the CMAKE_FLAGS option will be ignored.
OUTPUT_VARIABLE <var>
Report the compile build output and the output from running the
executable in the given variable. This option exists for legacy
reasons. Prefer COMPILE_OUTPUT_VARIABLE and RUN_OUTPUT_VARIABLE
instead.
RUN_OUTPUT_VARIABLE <var>
Report the output from running the executable in a given vari‐
able.
Other Behavior Settings
Set the CMAKE_TRY_COMPILE_CONFIGURATION variable to choose a build con‐
figuration.
Behavior when Cross Compiling
When cross compiling, the executable compiled in the first step usually
cannot be run on the build host. The try_run command checks the
CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING variable to detect whether CMake is in cross-com‐
piling mode. If that is the case, it will still try to compile the
executable, but it will not try to run the executable unless the
CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING_EMULATOR variable is set. Instead it will create
cache variables which must be filled by the user or by presetting them
in some CMake script file to the values the executable would have pro‐
duced if it had been run on its actual target platform. These cache
entries are:
<RUN_RESULT_VAR>
Exit code if the executable were to be run on the target plat‐
form.
<RUN_RESULT_VAR>__TRYRUN_OUTPUT
Output from stdout and stderr if the executable were to be run
on the target platform. This is created only if the RUN_OUT‐
PUT_VARIABLE or OUTPUT_VARIABLE option was used.
In order to make cross compiling your project easier, use try_run only
if really required. If you use try_run, use the RUN_OUTPUT_VARIABLE or
OUTPUT_VARIABLE options only if really required. Using them will
require that when cross-compiling, the cache variables will have to be
set manually to the output of the executable. You can also "guard" the
calls to try_run with an if() block checking the CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING
variable and provide an easy-to-preset alternative for this case.
unset
Unset a variable, cache variable, or environment variable.
unset(<variable> [CACHE | PARENT_SCOPE])
Removes the specified variable causing it to become undefined. If
CACHE is present then the variable is removed from the cache instead of
the current scope.
If PARENT_SCOPE is present then the variable is removed from the scope
above the current scope. See the same option in the set() command for
further details.
<variable> can be an environment variable such as:
unset(ENV{LD_LIBRARY_PATH})
in which case the variable will be removed from the current environ‐
ment.
variable_watch
Watch the CMake variable for change.
variable_watch(<variable name> [<command to execute>])
If the specified variable changes, the message will be printed about
the variable being changed. If the command is specified, the command
will be executed. The command will receive the following arguments:
COMMAND(<variable> <access> <value> <current list file> <stack>)
while
Evaluate a group of commands while a condition is true
while(condition)
COMMAND1(ARGS ...)
COMMAND2(ARGS ...)
...
endwhile(condition)
All commands between while and the matching endwhile() are recorded
without being invoked. Once the endwhile() is evaluated, the recorded
list of commands is invoked as long as the condition is true. The con‐
dition is evaluated using the same logic as the if() command.
DEPRECATED COMMANDS
These commands are available only for compatibility with older versions
of CMake. Do not use them in new code.
build_name
Disallowed. See CMake Policy CMP0036.
Use ${CMAKE_SYSTEM} and ${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER} instead.
build_name(variable)
Sets the specified variable to a string representing the platform and
compiler settings. These values are now available through the
CMAKE_SYSTEM and CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER variables.
exec_program
Deprecated. Use the execute_process() command instead.
Run an executable program during the processing of the CMakeList.txt
file.
exec_program(Executable [directory in which to run]
[ARGS <arguments to executable>]
[OUTPUT_VARIABLE <var>]
[RETURN_VALUE <var>])
The executable is run in the optionally specified directory. The exe‐
cutable can include arguments if it is double quoted, but it is better
to use the optional ARGS argument to specify arguments to the program.
This is because cmake will then be able to escape spaces in the exe‐
cutable path. An optional argument OUTPUT_VARIABLE specifies a vari‐
able in which to store the output. To capture the return value of the
execution, provide a RETURN_VALUE. If OUTPUT_VARIABLE is specified,
then no output will go to the stdout/stderr of the console running
cmake.
export_library_dependencies
Disallowed. See CMake Policy CMP0033.
Use install(EXPORT) or export() command.
This command generates an old-style library dependencies file.
Projects requiring CMake 2.6 or later should not use the command. Use
instead the install(EXPORT) command to help export targets from an
installation tree and the export() command to export targets from a
build tree.
The old-style library dependencies file does not take into account
per-configuration names of libraries or the LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES
target property.
export_library_dependencies(<file> [APPEND])
Create a file named <file> that can be included into a CMake listfile
with the INCLUDE command. The file will contain a number of SET com‐
mands that will set all the variables needed for library dependency
information. This should be the last command in the top level CMake‐
Lists.txt file of the project. If the APPEND option is specified, the
SET commands will be appended to the given file instead of replacing
it.
install_files
Deprecated. Use the install(FILES) command instead.
This command has been superceded by the install() command. It is pro‐
vided for compatibility with older CMake code. The FILES form is
directly replaced by the FILES form of the install() command. The reg‐
exp form can be expressed more clearly using the GLOB form of the
file() command.
install_files(<dir> extension file file ...)
Create rules to install the listed files with the given extension into
the given directory. Only files existing in the current source tree or
its corresponding location in the binary tree may be listed. If a file
specified already has an extension, that extension will be removed
first. This is useful for providing lists of source files such as
foo.cxx when you want the corresponding foo.h to be installed. A typi‐
cal extension is '.h'.
install_files(<dir> regexp)
Any files in the current source directory that match the regular
expression will be installed.
install_files(<dir> FILES file file ...)
Any files listed after the FILES keyword will be installed explicitly
from the names given. Full paths are allowed in this form.
The directory <dir> is relative to the installation prefix, which is
stored in the variable CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX.
install_programs
Deprecated. Use the install(PROGRAMS) command instead.
This command has been superceded by the install() command. It is pro‐
vided for compatibility with older CMake code. The FILES form is
directly replaced by the PROGRAMS form of the install() command. The
regexp form can be expressed more clearly using the GLOB form of the
file() command.
install_programs(<dir> file1 file2 [file3 ...])
install_programs(<dir> FILES file1 [file2 ...])
Create rules to install the listed programs into the given directory.
Use the FILES argument to guarantee that the file list version of the
command will be used even when there is only one argument.
install_programs(<dir> regexp)
In the second form any program in the current source directory that
matches the regular expression will be installed.
This command is intended to install programs that are not built by
cmake, such as shell scripts. See the TARGETS form of the install()
command to create installation rules for targets built by cmake.
The directory <dir> is relative to the installation prefix, which is
stored in the variable CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX.
install_targets
Deprecated. Use the install(TARGETS) command instead.
This command has been superceded by the install() command. It is pro‐
vided for compatibility with older CMake code.
install_targets(<dir> [RUNTIME_DIRECTORY dir] target target)
Create rules to install the listed targets into the given directory.
The directory <dir> is relative to the installation prefix, which is
stored in the variable CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX. If RUNTIME_DIRECTORY is
specified, then on systems with special runtime files (Windows DLL),
the files will be copied to that directory.
load_command
Disallowed. See CMake Policy CMP0031.
Load a command into a running CMake.
load_command(COMMAND_NAME <loc1> [loc2 ...])
The given locations are searched for a library whose name is cmCOM‐
MAND_NAME. If found, it is loaded as a module and the command is added
to the set of available CMake commands. Usually, try_compile() is used
before this command to compile the module. If the command is success‐
fully loaded a variable named
CMAKE_LOADED_COMMAND_<COMMAND_NAME>
will be set to the full path of the module that was loaded. Otherwise
the variable will not be set.
make_directory
Deprecated. Use the file(MAKE_DIRECTORY) command instead.
make_directory(directory)
Creates the specified directory. Full paths should be given. Any par‐
ent directories that do not exist will also be created. Use with care.
output_required_files
Disallowed. See CMake Policy CMP0032.
Approximate C preprocessor dependency scanning.
This command exists only because ancient CMake versions provided it.
CMake handles preprocessor dependency scanning automatically using a
more advanced scanner.
output_required_files(srcfile outputfile)
Outputs a list of all the source files that are required by the speci‐
fied srcfile. This list is written into outputfile. This is similar
to writing out the dependencies for srcfile except that it jumps from
.h files into .cxx, .c and .cpp files if possible.
remove
Deprecated. Use the list(REMOVE_ITEM) command instead.
remove(VAR VALUE VALUE ...)
Removes VALUE from the variable VAR. This is typically used to remove
entries from a vector (e.g. semicolon separated list). VALUE is
expanded.
subdir_depends
Disallowed. See CMake Policy CMP0029.
Does nothing.
subdir_depends(subdir dep1 dep2 ...)
Does not do anything. This command used to help projects order paral‐
lel builds correctly. This functionality is now automatic.
subdirs
Deprecated. Use the add_subdirectory() command instead.
Add a list of subdirectories to the build.
subdirs(dir1 dir2 ...[EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL exclude_dir1 exclude_dir2 ...]
[PREORDER] )
Add a list of subdirectories to the build. The add_subdirectory() com‐
mand should be used instead of subdirs although subdirs will still
work. This will cause any CMakeLists.txt files in the sub directories
to be processed by CMake. Any directories after the PREORDER flag are
traversed first by makefile builds, the PREORDER flag has no effect on
IDE projects. Any directories after the EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL marker will
not be included in the top level makefile or project file. This is
useful for having CMake create makefiles or projects for a set of exam‐
ples in a project. You would want CMake to generate makefiles or
project files for all the examples at the same time, but you would not
want them to show up in the top level project or be built each time
make is run from the top.
use_mangled_mesa
Disallowed. See CMake Policy CMP0030.
Copy mesa headers for use in combination with system GL.
use_mangled_mesa(PATH_TO_MESA OUTPUT_DIRECTORY)
The path to mesa includes, should contain gl_mangle.h. The mesa head‐
ers are copied to the specified output directory. This allows mangled
mesa headers to override other GL headers by being added to the include
directory path earlier.
utility_source
Disallowed. See CMake Policy CMP0034.
Specify the source tree of a third-party utility.
utility_source(cache_entry executable_name
path_to_source [file1 file2 ...])
When a third-party utility's source is included in the distribution,
this command specifies its location and name. The cache entry will not
be set unless the path_to_source and all listed files exist. It is
assumed that the source tree of the utility will have been built before
it is needed.
When cross compiling CMake will print a warning if a utility_source()
command is executed, because in many cases it is used to build an exe‐
cutable which is executed later on. This doesn't work when cross com‐
piling, since the executable can run only on their target platform. So
in this case the cache entry has to be adjusted manually so it points
to an executable which is runnable on the build host.
variable_requires
Disallowed. See CMake Policy CMP0035.
Use the if() command instead.
Assert satisfaction of an option's required variables.
variable_requires(TEST_VARIABLE RESULT_VARIABLE
REQUIRED_VARIABLE1
REQUIRED_VARIABLE2 ...)
The first argument (TEST_VARIABLE) is the name of the variable to be
tested, if that variable is false nothing else is done. If TEST_VARI‐
ABLE is true, then the next argument (RESULT_VARIABLE) is a variable
that is set to true if all the required variables are set. The rest of
the arguments are variables that must be true or not set to NOTFOUND to
avoid an error. If any are not true, an error is reported.
write_file
Deprecated. Use the file(WRITE) command instead.
write_file(filename "message to write"... [APPEND])
The first argument is the file name, the rest of the arguments are mes‐
sages to write. If the argument APPEND is specified, then the message
will be appended.
NOTE 1: file(WRITE) and file(APPEND) do exactly the same as this one
but add some more functionality.
NOTE 2: When using write_file the produced file cannot be used as an
input to CMake (CONFIGURE_FILE, source file ...) because it will lead
to an infinite loop. Use configure_file() if you want to generate
input files to CMake.
CTEST COMMANDS
These commands are available only in ctest scripts.
ctest_build
Perform the CTest Build Step as a Dashboard Client.
ctest_build([BUILD <build-dir>] [APPEND]
[CONFIGURATION <config>]
[FLAGS <flags>]
[PROJECT_NAME <project-name>]
[TARGET <target-name>]
[NUMBER_ERRORS <num-err-var>]
[NUMBER_WARNINGS <num-warn-var>]
[RETURN_VALUE <result-var>]
)
Build the project and store results in Build.xml for submission with
the ctest_submit() command.
The CTEST_BUILD_COMMAND variable may be set to explicitly specify the
build command line. Otherwise the build command line is computed auto‐
matically based on the options given.
The options are:
BUILD <build-dir>
Specify the top-level build directory. If not given, the
CTEST_BINARY_DIRECTORY variable is used.
APPEND Mark results for append to those previously submitted to a dash‐
board server since the last ctest_start() call. Append seman‐
tics are defined by the dashboard server in use.
CONFIGURATION <config>
Specify the build configuration (e.g. Debug). If not specified
the CTEST_BUILD_CONFIGURATION variable will be checked. Other‐
wise the -C <cfg> option given to the ctest(1) command will be
used, if any.
FLAGS <flags>
Pass additional arguments to the underlying build command. If
not specified the CTEST_BUILD_FLAGS variable will be checked.
This can, e.g., be used to trigger a parallel build using the -j
option of make. See the ProcessorCount module for an example.
PROJECT_NAME <project-name>
Set the name of the project to build. This should correspond to
the top-level call to the project() command. If not specified
the CTEST_PROJECT_NAME variable will be checked.
TARGET <target-name>
Specify the name of a target to build. If not specified the
CTEST_BUILD_TARGET variable will be checked. Otherwise the
default target will be built. This is the "all" target (called
ALL_BUILD in Visual Studio Generators).
NUMBER_ERRORS <num-err-var>
Store the number of build errors detected in the given variable.
NUMBER_WARNINGS <num-warn-var>
Store the number of build warnings detected in the given vari‐
able.
RETURN_VALUE <result-var>
Store the return value of the native build tool in the given
variable.
QUIET Suppress any CTest-specific non-error output that would have
been printed to the console otherwise. The summary of warnings
/ errors, as well as the output from the native build tool is
unaffected by this option.
ctest_configure
Perform the CTest Configure Step as a Dashboard Client.
ctest_configure([BUILD <build-dir>] [SOURCE <source-dir>] [APPEND]
[OPTIONS <options>] [RETURN_VALUE <result-var>] [QUIET])
Configure the project build tree and record results in Configure.xml
for submission with the ctest_submit() command.
The options are:
BUILD <build-dir>
Specify the top-level build directory. If not given, the
CTEST_BINARY_DIRECTORY variable is used.
SOURCE <source-dir>
Specify the source directory. If not given, the
CTEST_SOURCE_DIRECTORY variable is used.
APPEND Mark results for append to those previously submitted to a dash‐
board server since the last ctest_start() call. Append seman‐
tics are defined by the dashboard server in use.
OPTIONS <options>
Specify command-line arguments to pass to the configuration
tool.
RETURN_VALUE <result-var>
Store in the <result-var> variable the return value of the
native configuration tool.
QUIET Suppress any CTest-specific non-error messages that would have
otherwise been printed to the console. Output from the underly‐
ing configure command is not affected.
ctest_coverage
Perform the CTest Coverage Step as a Dashboard Client.
ctest_coverage([BUILD <build-dir>] [APPEND]
[LABELS <label>...]
[RETURN_VALUE <result-var>]
[QUIET]
)
Collect coverage tool results and stores them in Coverage.xml for sub‐
mission with the ctest_submit() command.
The options are:
BUILD <build-dir>
Specify the top-level build directory. If not given, the
CTEST_BINARY_DIRECTORY variable is used.
APPEND Mark results for append to those previously submitted to a dash‐
board server since the last ctest_start() call. Append seman‐
tics are defined by the dashboard server in use.
LABELS Filter the coverage report to include only source files labeled
with at least one of the labels specified.
RETURN_VALUE <result-var>
Store in the <result-var> variable 0 if coverage tools ran with‐
out error and non-zero otherwise.
QUIET Suppress any CTest-specific non-error output that would have
been printed to the console otherwise. The summary indicating
how many lines of code were covered is unaffected by this
option.
ctest_empty_binary_directory
empties the binary directory
ctest_empty_binary_directory( directory )
Removes a binary directory. This command will perform some checks
prior to deleting the directory in an attempt to avoid malicious or
accidental directory deletion.
ctest_memcheck
Perform the CTest MemCheck Step as a Dashboard Client.
ctest_memcheck([BUILD <build-dir>] [APPEND]
[START <start-number>]
[END <end-number>]
[STRIDE <stride-number>]
[EXCLUDE <exclude-regex>]
[INCLUDE <include-regex>]
[EXCLUDE_LABEL <label-exclude-regex>]
[INCLUDE_LABEL <label-include-regex>]
[PARALLEL_LEVEL <level>]
[TEST_LOAD <threshold>]
[SCHEDULE_RANDOM <ON|OFF>]
[STOP_TIME <time-of-day>]
[RETURN_VALUE <result-var>]
[QUIET]
)
Run tests with a dynamic analysis tool and store results in Mem‐
Check.xml for submission with the ctest_submit() command.
The options are the same as those for the ctest_test() command.
ctest_read_custom_files
read CTestCustom files.
ctest_read_custom_files( directory ... )
Read all the CTestCustom.ctest or CTestCustom.cmake files from the
given directory.
By default, invoking ctest(1) without a script will read custom files
from the binary directory.
ctest_run_script
runs a ctest -S script
ctest_run_script([NEW_PROCESS] script_file_name script_file_name1
script_file_name2 ... [RETURN_VALUE var])
Runs a script or scripts much like if it was run from ctest -S. If no
argument is provided then the current script is run using the current
settings of the variables. If NEW_PROCESS is specified then each
script will be run in a separate process.If RETURN_VALUE is specified
the return value of the last script run will be put into var.
ctest_sleep
sleeps for some amount of time
ctest_sleep(<seconds>)
Sleep for given number of seconds.
ctest_sleep(<time1> <duration> <time2>)
Sleep for t=(time1 + duration - time2) seconds if t > 0.
ctest_start
Starts the testing for a given model
ctest_start(Model [TRACK <track>] [APPEND] [source [binary]] [QUIET])
Starts the testing for a given model. The command should be called
after the binary directory is initialized. If the 'source' and
'binary' directory are not specified, it reads the CTEST_SOURCE_DIREC‐
TORY and CTEST_BINARY_DIRECTORY. If the track is specified, the sub‐
missions will go to the specified track. If APPEND is used, the exist‐
ing TAG is used rather than creating a new one based on the current
time stamp. If QUIET is used, CTest will suppress any non-error mes‐
sages that it otherwise would have printed to the console.
If the CTEST_CHECKOUT_COMMAND variable (or the CTEST_CVS_CHECKOUT vari‐
able) is set, its content is treated as command-line. The command is
invoked with the current working directory set to the parent of the
source directory, even if the source directory already exists. This
can be used to create the source tree from a version control reposi‐
tory.
ctest_submit
Perform the CTest Submit Step as a Dashboard Client.
ctest_submit([PARTS <part>...] [FILES <file>...]
[RETRY_COUNT <count>]
[RETRY_DELAY <delay>]
[RETURN_VALUE <result-var>]
[QUIET]
)
Submit results to a dashboard server. By default all available parts
are submitted.
The options are:
PARTS <part>...
Specify a subset of parts to submit. Valid part names are:
Start = nothing
Update = ctest_update results, in Update.xml
Configure = ctest_configure results, in Configure.xml
Build = ctest_build results, in Build.xml
Test = ctest_test results, in Test.xml
Coverage = ctest_coverage results, in Coverage.xml
MemCheck = ctest_memcheck results, in DynamicAnalysis.xml
Notes = Files listed by CTEST_NOTES_FILES, in Notes.xml
ExtraFiles = Files listed by CTEST_EXTRA_SUBMIT_FILES
Upload = Files prepared for upload by ctest_upload(), in Upload.xml
Submit = nothing
FILES <file>...
Specify an explicit list of specific files to be submitted.
Each individual file must exist at the time of the call.
RETRY_COUNT <count>
Specify how many times to retry a timed-out submission.
RETRY_DELAY <delay>
Specify how long (in seconds) to wait after a timed-out submis‐
sion before attempting to re-submit.
RETURN_VALUE <result-var>
Store in the <result-var> variable 0 for success and non-zero on
failure.
QUIET Suppress all non-error messages that would have otherwise been
printed to the console.
Submit to CDash Upload API
ctest_submit(CDASH_UPLOAD <file> [CDASH_UPLOAD_TYPE <type>])
This second signature is used to upload files to CDash via the CDash
file upload API. The api first sends a request to upload to CDash along
with a content hash of the file. If CDash does not already have the
file, then it is uploaded. Along with the file, a CDash type string is
specified to tell CDash which handler to use to process the data.
ctest_test
Perform the CTest Test Step as a Dashboard Client.
ctest_test([BUILD <build-dir>] [APPEND]
[START <start-number>]
[END <end-number>]
[STRIDE <stride-number>]
[EXCLUDE <exclude-regex>]
[INCLUDE <include-regex>]
[EXCLUDE_LABEL <label-exclude-regex>]
[INCLUDE_LABEL <label-include-regex>]
[PARALLEL_LEVEL <level>]
[TEST_LOAD <threshold>]
[SCHEDULE_RANDOM <ON|OFF>]
[STOP_TIME <time-of-day>]
[RETURN_VALUE <result-var>]
[QUIET]
)
Run tests in the project build tree and store results in Test.xml for
submission with the ctest_submit() command.
The options are:
BUILD <build-dir>
Specify the top-level build directory. If not given, the
CTEST_BINARY_DIRECTORY variable is used.
APPEND Mark results for append to those previously submitted to a dash‐
board server since the last ctest_start() call. Append seman‐
tics are defined by the dashboard server in use.
START <start-number>
Specify the beginning of a range of test numbers.
END <end-number>
Specify the end of a range of test numbers.
STRIDE <stride-number>
Specify the stride by which to step across a range of test num‐
bers.
EXCLUDE <exclude-regex>
Specify a regular expression matching test names to exclude.
INCLUDE <include-regex>
Specify a regular expression matching test names to include.
Tests not matching this expression are excluded.
EXCLUDE_LABEL <label-exclude-regex>
Specify a regular expression matching test labels to exclude.
INCLUDE_LABEL <label-include-regex>
Specify a regular expression matching test labels to include.
Tests not matching this expression are excluded.
PARALLEL_LEVEL <level>
Specify a positive number representing the number of tests to be
run in parallel.
TEST_LOAD <threshold>
While running tests in parallel, try not to start tests when
they may cause the CPU load to pass above a given threshold. If
not specified the CTEST_TEST_LOAD variable will be checked, and
then the --test-load command-line argument to ctest(1). See
also the TestLoad setting in the CTest Test Step.
SCHEDULE_RANDOM <ON|OFF>
Launch tests in a random order. This may be useful for detect‐
ing implicit test dependencies.
STOP_TIME <time-of-day>
Specify a time of day at which the tests should all stop run‐
ning.
RETURN_VALUE <result-var>
Store in the <result-var> variable 0 if all tests passed. Store
non-zero if anything went wrong.
QUIET Suppress any CTest-specific non-error messages that would have
otherwise been printed to the console. Output from the underly‐
ing test command is not affected. Summary info detailing the
percentage of passing tests is also unaffected by the QUIET
option.
See also the CTEST_CUSTOM_MAXIMUM_PASSED_TEST_OUTPUT_SIZE and
CTEST_CUSTOM_MAXIMUM_FAILED_TEST_OUTPUT_SIZE variables.
ctest_update
Perform the CTest Update Step as a Dashboard Client.
ctest_update([SOURCE <source-dir>] [RETURN_VALUE <result-var>] [QUIET])
Update the source tree from version control and record results in
Update.xml for submission with the ctest_submit() command.
The options are:
SOURCE <source-dir>
Specify the source directory. If not given, the
CTEST_SOURCE_DIRECTORY variable is used.
RETURN_VALUE <result-var>
Store in the <result-var> variable the number of files updated
or -1 on error.
QUIET Tell CTest to suppress most non-error messages that it would
have otherwise printed to the console. CTest will still report
the new revision of the repository and any conflicting files
that were found.
ctest_upload
Upload files to a dashboard server as a Dashboard Client.
ctest_upload(FILES <file>... [QUIET])
The options are:
FILES <file>...
Specify a list of files to be sent along with the build results
to the dashboard server.
QUIET Suppress any CTest-specific non-error output that would have
been printed to the console otherwise.
COPYRIGHT
2000-2015 Kitware, Inc.
3.4.2 February 17, 2016 CMAKE-COMMANDS(7)
