CMake 3.8 Release Notes¶
Contents
Changes made since CMake 3.7 include the following.
New Features¶
Languages¶
C#¶
CMake learned to support
CSharp(C#) as a first-class language that can be enabled via theproject()andenable_language()commands. It is currently supported by the Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above.C# assemblies and programs can be added just like common C++ targets using the
add_library()andadd_executable()commands. References between C# targets in the same source tree may be specified bytarget_link_libraries()like for C++. References to system or 3rd-party assemblies may be specified by the target propertiesVS_DOTNET_REFERENCE_<refname>andVS_DOTNET_REFERENCES.More fine tuning of C# targets may be done using target and source file properties. Specifically the target properties related to Visual Studio (
VS_*) are worth a look (for setting toolset versions, root namespaces, assembly icons, ...).
CUDA¶
CMake learned to support
CUDAas a first-class language that can be enabled via theproject()andenable_language()commands.CUDAis currently supported by the Makefile Generators and theNinjagenerator on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Support for the Visual Studio IDE is under development but not included in this release.The NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit compiler (
nvcc) is supported.
C & C++¶
The
Compile Featuresfunctionality now offers meta-features that request compiler modes for specific language standard levels (e.g.cxx_std_11). SeeCMAKE_C_KNOWN_FEATURESandCMAKE_CXX_KNOWN_FEATURES.The
Compile Featuresfunctionality is now aware of C++ 17. No specific features are yet enumerated besides thecxx_std_17meta-feature.The
Compile Featuresfunctionality is now aware of the availability of C99 in gcc since version 3.4.
Generators¶
The
CodeBlocksextra generator may now be used to generate withNMake Makefiles JOM.The Visual Studio Generators for VS 2013 and above learned to support a
host=x64option in theCMAKE_GENERATOR_TOOLSETvalue (e.g. via thecmake(1)-Toption) to request use of a VS 64-bit toolchain on 64-bit hosts.The Visual Studio Generators learned to treat files passed to
target_link_libraries()whose names end in.targetsas MSBuild "targets" files to be imported into generated project files.
Commands¶
The
add_custom_command()andadd_custom_target()commands learned the optionCOMMAND_EXPAND_LISTSwhich causes lists in theCOMMANDargument to be expanded, including lists created by generator expressions.The
execute_process()command gained anENCODINGoption to specify on Windows which encoding is used for output from child process.The
math(EXPR)command gained support for unary+and-operators.The
source_group()command gainedTREEandPREFIXoptions to add groups following source tree directory structure.The
string(TIMESTAMP)command learned to treat%%as a way to encode plain%.The
string(TIMESTAMP)command will now honor theSOURCE_DATE_EPOCHenvironment variable and use its value instead of the current time.The
try_compile()command source file signature gained new options to specify the language standard to use in the generated test project.The
try_compile()command source file signature now honors language standard variables likeCMAKE_CXX_STANDARD. See policyCMP0067.
Variables¶
A
CMAKE_CODELITE_USE_TARGETSvariable was added to tell theCodeLiteextra generator to change the generated project to have target-centric organization. Thebuild,rebuild, andcleanoperations withinCodeLitethen work on a selected target rather than the whole workspace. (Note that theNinjaclean operation on a target includes its dependencies, though.)The
CMAKE_SUBLIME_TEXT_2_ENV_SETTINGSvariable was added to tell theSublime Text 2extra generator to place specified environment variables in the generated.sublime-project.The
CMAKE_SUBLIME_TEXT_2_EXCLUDE_BUILD_TREEvariable was added to tell theSublime Text 2extra generator whether to exclude the build tree from the.sublime-projectwhen it is inside the source tree.A
CMAKE_VS_INCLUDE_PACKAGE_TO_DEFAULT_BUILDvariable was added to tell Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above to include thePACKAGEtarget in the default build, similar to the existingCMAKE_VS_INCLUDE_INSTALL_TO_DEFAULT_BUILDvariable for theINSTALLtarget.
Properties¶
A
BUILD_RPATHtarget property and correspondingCMAKE_BUILD_RPATHvariable were added to support customRPATHlocations to be added to binaries in the build tree.The
COMPILE_FLAGSsource file property learned to supportgenerator expressions.The
FRAMEWORKtarget property may now also be applied to static libraries on Apple targets. It will result in a proper Framework but with a static library inside.Imported Interface Libraries learned new
IMPORTED_LIBNAMEandIMPORTED_LIBNAME_<CONFIG>target properties to specify a link library name since interface libraries do not build their own library files.A
<LANG>_CPPLINTtarget property and supportingCMAKE_<LANG>_CPPLINTvariable were introduced to tell the Makefile Generators and theNinjagenerator to run thecpplintstyle checker along with the compiler forCandCXXlanguages.A
MANUALLY_ADDED_DEPENDENCIEStarget property has been added. It provides a read-only list of dependencies that have been added with theadd_dependencies()command.The
MAP_IMPORTED_CONFIG_<CONFIG>target property learned to interpret empty list elements as referring to the configuration-less imported location specified byIMPORTED_LOCATION.The
NO_SYSTEM_FROM_IMPORTEDtarget property is now supported on Imported Interface Libraries.New source file properties
SKIP_AUTOMOC,SKIP_AUTOUIC,SKIP_AUTORCC, andSKIP_AUTOGENwere added to allow source files to be excluded from processing byAUTOMOC,AUTOUIC, andAUTORCCtarget properties.A
VS_COPY_TO_OUT_DIRsource file property was added to tell Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above whether or not a file should e copied to the output directory.A
VS_DEBUGGER_WORKING_DIRECTORYtarget property was added to tell Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above what debugger working directory should be set for the target.A
VS_DOTNET_REFERENCES_COPY_LOCALtarget property was added to specify whether to copy referenced assemblies to the output directory.A
VS_DOTNET_REFERENCE_<refname>target property was added to tell Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above to add a .NET reference with a given hint path.A
VS_INCLUDE_IN_VSIXsource file property was added to tell Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above whether to include the file in a Visual Studio extension package.A
VS_RESOURCE_GENERATORsource file property was added to give Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above a setting for the resource generator (C#only).A
VS_USER_PROPStarget property was added to tell Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above to use a custom MSBuild user.propsfile.A
XCODE_EMIT_EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAMEglobal property was added to tell theXcodegenerator whether to emit theEFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAMEvariable. This is useful when building with multiple SDKs likemacosxandiphoneosin parallel.New
XCODE_PRODUCT_TYPEandXCODE_EXPLICIT_FILE_TYPEtarget properties were created to tell theXcodegenerator to use custom values of the corresponding attributes for a target in the generated Xcode project.
Modules¶
A
CSharpUtilitiesmodule was added to aid parameterization of Visual Studio C# targets. It provides functions to allow automated setting of source file properties to support Windows Forms, WPF/XAML or other technologies as needed.The
ExternalDatamodule learned to support multiple content links for one data file using different hashes, e.g.img.png.sha256andimg.png.sha1. This allows objects to be fetched from sources indexed by different hash algorithms.The
ExternalProjectmodule gained theGIT_PROGRESSoption to force Git to show progress when cloning repositories.The
ExternalProjectmodule gained aGIT_CONFIGoption to pass--configoptions to Git when cloning repositories.The
FeatureSummarymodulefeature_summary()command now accepts a newQUIET_ON_EMPTYoption that suppresses the output when the list of packages that belong to the selected category is empty.The
FeatureSummarymoduleadd_feature_info()command now accepts lists of dependencies for deciding whether a feature is enabled or not.The package types accepted by the
FeatureSummarymodule can now be tweaked by changing theFeatureSummary_PKG_TYPES,FeatureSummary_REQUIRED_PKG_TYPESandFeatureSummary_DEFAULT_PKG_TYPEglobal properties.The
FindOpenGLmodule now provides imported targetsOpenGL::GLandOpenGL::GLUwhen the libraries are found.The
UseSWIGmodule gained aswig_add_librarycommand to give more flexibility over the oldswig_add_modulecommand.The
UseSWIGmoduleswig_add_source_to_modulecommand learned a newSWIG_OUTFILE_DIRoption to control the output file location (swig -o).The
WriteCompilerDetectionHeadermodule gained theALLOW_UNKNOWN_COMPILERSandALLOW_UNKNOWN_COMPILER_VERSIONSoptions that allow creation of headers that will work also with unknown or old compilers by simply assuming they do not support any of the requested features.
CTest¶
The
ctest_memcheck()command gained aDEFECT_COUNT <var>option to capture the number of memory defects detected.The
ctest_memcheck()command learned to read the location of suppressions files for sanitizers from theCTEST_MEMORYCHECK_SUPPRESSIONS_FILEvariable.The
ctest_memcheck()command learned to supportLeakSanitizerindependently fromAddressSanitizer.The
ctest_update()commandCDASH_UPLOADsignature was taught to honor theRETRY_COUNT,RETRY_DELAY, andQUIEToptions.
CPack¶
The
CPackIFWConfigureFilemodule was added to define a newcpack_ifw_configure_file()command to configure file templates prepared in QtIFW/SDK/Creator style.The
CPackIFWmodulecpack_ifw_configure_component()andcpack_ifw_configure_component_group()commands gained a newDEFAULT,VIRTUAL,FORCED_INSTALLATION,REQUIRES_ADMIN_RIGHTS,DISPLAY_NAME,UPDATE_TEXT,DESCRIPTION,RELEASE_DATE,AUTO_DEPEND_ONandTRANSLATIONSoptions to more specific configuration.The
CPackIFWmodulecpack_ifw_configure_component()command gained a newDEPENDENCIESalias forDEPENDSoption.The
CPackIFWmodulecpack_ifw_configure_component_group()command gained a newDEPENDSoption. TheDEPENDENCIESalias also added.The
CPackIFWmodulecpack_ifw_configure_component()andcpack_ifw_configure_component_group()commandsPRIORITYoption now is deprecated and will be removed in a future version of CMake. Please use newSORTING_PRIORITYoption instead.The
CPack IFW Generatorgained newCPACK_IFW_PACKAGE_WATERMARK,CPACK_IFW_PACKAGE_BANNER,CPACK_IFW_PACKAGE_BACKGROUND,CPACK_IFW_PACKAGE_WIZARD_STYLE,CPACK_IFW_PACKAGE_WIZARD_DEFAULT_WIDTH,CPACK_IFW_PACKAGE_WIZARD_DEFAULT_HEIGHT, andCPACK_IFW_PACKAGE_TITLE_COLORvariables to customize a QtIFW installer look.The
CPack productbuild Generatorgained options to sign packages. See the variablesCPACK_PRODUCTBUILD_IDENTITY_NAME,CPACK_PRODUCTBUILD_KEYCHAIN_PATH,CPACK_PKGBUILD_IDENTITY_NAME, andCPACK_PKGBUILD_KEYCHAIN_PATH.The
CPack RPM Generatorlearned to omit tags that are not supported by providedrpmbuildtool. If unsupported tags are set they are ignored and a developer warning is printed out.The
CPack RPM Generatorlearned to generate main component package which forces generation of a rpm for defined component without component suffix in filename and package name. SeeCPACK_RPM_MAIN_COMPONENTvariable.The
CPack RPM Generatorlearned to generate a singledebuginfopackage on demand even if components packaging is used. SeeCPACK_RPM_DEBUGINFO_SINGLE_PACKAGEvariable.The
CPack RPM Generatorlearned to support multiple directives per file when usingCPACK_RPM_USER_FILELISTvariable.
Deprecated and Removed Features¶
The
FeatureSummarymodule commandsset_package_info(),set_feature_info(),print_enabled_features(), andprint_disabled_features()are now deprecated.The
UseSWIGmoduleswig_add_modulecommand is now deprecated in favor ofswig_add_library.
Other Changes¶
If a command specified by the
<LANG>_CLANG_TIDYtarget property returns non-zero at build time this is now treated as an error instead of silently ignored.The
ctest_memcheck()command no longer automatically addsleak_check=1to the options used byAddressSanitizer. The default behavior ofAddressSanitizeris to run LeakSanitizer to check leaks unlessleak_check=0.The
ctest_memcheck()command was fixed to correctly append extra sanitizer options read from theCTEST_MEMORYCHECK_SANITIZER_OPTIONSvariable to the environment variables used internally by the sanitizers.The
FeatureSummarymoduleset_package_properties()command no longer forces the package type toOPTIONALwhen the type is not explicitly set.The
Compile Featuresfunctionality is now aware of features supported by Intel C++ compilers versions 12.1 through 17.0 on UNIX and Windows platforms.Calls to the
FindPkgConfigmodulepkg_check_modules()command following a successful call learned to re-evaluate the cached values for a given prefix after changes to the parameters to the command for that prefix.When using
AUTOMOCorAUTOUIC, generatedmoc_*,*.mocandui_*are placed in the<CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR>/<TARGETNAME>_autogen/includedirectory which is automatically added to the target'sINCLUDE_DIRECTORIES. It is therefore not necessary anymore to haveCMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIRin the target'sINCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.The
Sublime Text 2generator no longer runs the native build command (e.g.ninjaormake) with verbose build output enabled.The
try_compile()command source file signature now honors theCMAKE_WARN_DEPRECATEDvariable value in the generated test project.The Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above now place per-source file flags after target-wide flags when they are classified as raw flags with no project file setting (
AdditionalOptions). This behavior is more consistent with the ordering of flags produced by other generators, and allows flags on more-specific properties (per-source) to override those on more general ones (per-target).The precompiled Windows binary MSI package provided on
cmake.orgnow records the installation directory in the Windows Registry under the keyHKLM\Software\Kitware\CMakewith a value namedInstallDir.