CMAKE_<LANG>_STANDARD_LATEST

Added in version 3.30.

This variable represents the minimum between the latest version of the standard for language <LANG> which is supported by the current compiler and the latest version which is supported by CMake. Its value will be set to one of the supported values of the corresponding <LANG>_STANDARD target property; see the documentation of that property for a list of supported languages.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

Note

CMAKE_<LANG>_STANDARD_LATEST will never be set to a language standard which CMake recognizes but provides no support for. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, every value which is supported by the corresponding <LANG>_STANDARD target property represents a standard of language <LANG> which is both recognized and supported by CMake.

Checking for Language Standard Support

It is possible to use the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_STANDARD_LATEST variable to check for language standard support. This can be used to, e.g., conditionally enable optional features for a distributed library.

When doing so, one should be careful to not rely on integer value comparisons between standard levels. This is because some older standards of a given language which are supported by CMake (e.g., C++98, represented as 98) will have a higher numerical value than newer standards of that same language.

The following code sample demonstrates how one might correctly check for C++17 support:

# Careful! We cannot do direct integer comparisons with
# CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_LATEST because some earlier C++ standards (e.g.,
# C++98) will have a higher numerical value than our requirement (C++17).
#
# Instead, we keep a list of unsupported C++ standards and check if
# CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_LATEST appears in that list.
set(UNSUPPORTED_CXX_STANDARDS
  98
  11
  14
)

list(FIND UNSUPPORTED_CXX_STANDARDS ${CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_LATEST} UNSUPPORTED_CXX_STANDARDS_INDEX)

if(UNSUPPORTED_CXX_STANDARDS_INDEX EQUAL -1)
  # We know that the current compiler supports at least C++17. Enabling
  # some optional feature...
else()
  message(STATUS
    "Feature X is disabled because it requires C++17, but the current "
    "compiler only supports C++${CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_LATEST}."
  )
endif()