target_compile_options

Add compile options to a target.

target_compile_options(<target> [BEFORE]
  <INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items1...]
  [<INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items2...] ...])

Adds options to the COMPILE_OPTIONS or INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS target properties. These options are used when compiling the given <target>, which must have been created by a command such as add_executable() or add_library() and must not be an ALIAS target.

Note

These options are not used when linking the target. See the target_link_options() command for that.

Arguments

If BEFORE is specified, the content will be prepended to the property instead of being appended. See policy CMP0101 which affects whether BEFORE will be ignored in certain cases.

The INTERFACE, PUBLIC and PRIVATE keywords are required to specify the scope of the following arguments. PRIVATE and PUBLIC items will populate 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.

Added in version 3.11: Allow setting INTERFACE items on IMPORTED targets.

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.

Option De-duplication

The final set of options used for a target is constructed by accumulating options from the current target and the usage requirements of its dependencies. The set of options is de-duplicated to avoid repetition.

Added in version 3.12: While beneficial for individual options, the de-duplication step can break up option groups. For example, -option A -option B becomes -option A B. One may specify a group of options using shell-like quoting along with a SHELL: prefix. The SHELL: prefix is dropped, and the rest of the option string is parsed using the separate_arguments() UNIX_COMMAND mode. For example, "SHELL:-option A" "SHELL:-option B" becomes -option A -option B.

See Also

• This command can be used to add any options. However, for adding preprocessor definitions and include directories it is recommended to use the more specific commands target_compile_definitions() and target_include_directories().

• For directory-wide settings, there is the command add_compile_options().

• For file-specific settings, there is the source file property COMPILE_OPTIONS.

• This command adds compile options for all languages in a target. Use the COMPILE_LANGUAGE generator expression to specify per-language compile options.

• target_compile_features()

• target_link_libraries()

• target_link_directories()

• target_link_options()

• target_precompile_headers()

• target_sources()

• CMAKE_<LANG>_FLAGS and CMAKE_<LANG>_FLAGS_<CONFIG> add language-wide flags passed to all invocations of the compiler. This includes invocations that drive compiling and those that drive linking.