CMake 3.29 Release Notes

Changes made since CMake 3.28 include the following.

New Features

Command-Line

• cmake(1) -E cat can now print the standard input by passing the - argument.

Generators

• Visual Studio Generators now support selecting between the Intel oneAPI Fortran compiler (ifx) and the Intel classic Fortran compiler (ifort) using a fortran= field in CMAKE_GENERATOR_TOOLSET.

File-Based API

• The cmake-file-api(7) "codemodel" version 2 version field has been updated to 2.7.

• The cmake-file-api(7) "codemodel" version 2 "target" object gained a new "launchers" field.

Compilers

• The LLVM/Clang GNU-like frontend on Windows (clang++) may now be used to compile CUDA language sources.

• Compilers targeting the GNU ABI on Windows (MinGW) may now be used to compile Objective C (OBJC) and Objective C++ (OBJCXX). These include GNU compilers (gcc and g++) and the LLVM/Clang GNU-like frontends (clang and clang++).

• TI Clang-based compilers are now supported with compiler id TIClang.

Commands

• The add_custom_command(TARGET) signature now supports adding build events through Alias Targets.

• The cmake_language(EXIT) sub-command was added to terminate cmake -P scripts with a specified exit code.

• The export(SETUP) sub-command was added to configure export sets. Its TARGET option's XCFRAMEWORK_LOCATION setting specifies the location of a .xcframework that can be substituted for an installed target.

• The if() command gained new tests IS_READABLE, IS_WRITABLE and IS_EXECUTABLE to check file or directory permissions.

Variables

• The CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX environment variable was added to provide a default value for the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX variable.

• The CMAKE_LINKER_TYPE variable and corresponding LINKER_TYPE target property were added to specify what linker to use with some toolchains.

• The CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER_LINKER, CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER_LINKER_ID, CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER_LINKER_VERSION and CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER_LINKER_FRONTEND_VARIANT variables were added to describe the linker used by the language's link step.

• The CMAKE_PROJECT_INCLUDE, CMAKE_PROJECT_INCLUDE_BEFORE, CMAKE_PROJECT_<PROJECT-NAME>_INCLUDE, and CMAKE_PROJECT_<PROJECT-NAME>_INCLUDE_BEFORE variables learned to support a semicolon-separated list of CMake language files to be included sequentially. These variables can also reference module names to be found in CMAKE_MODULE_PATH or builtin to CMake.

• The CMAKE_SKIP_TEST_ALL_DEPENDENCY variable was added to control whether the test (or RUN_TESTS) buildsystem target depends on the all (or ALL_BUILD) target.

• A CMAKE_TEST_LAUNCHER variable and corresponding TEST_LAUNCHER target property were added to specify a launcher to be used by executable targets when invoked by tests added by the add_test() command.

Properties

• The CROSSCOMPILING_EMULATOR target property now supports generator expressions.

• The UNITY_BUILD target property now supports the Objective C (OBJC) and Objective C++ (OBJCXX) languages.

• The XCODE_EMBED_XPC_SERVICES target property was added to tell the Xcode generator what targets to put in the Embed XPC Resources build phase.

Modules

• The CMakePackageConfigHelpers module gained new generate_apple_platform_selection_file() and generate_apple_architecture_selection_file() functions, which can be used to generate a file that includes another Apple-platform-specific file or the includes an architecture-specific implementation of a package for an Apple platform, respectively.

• The FindOpenGL module learned to find a GLU include directory different than the GL include directory. A new OPENGL_INCLUDE_DIRS result variable provides all include directories.

CTest

• ctest(1) gained a --http-header option to add custom headers on submission to CDash.

• ctest(1) gained the --tests-from-file and --exclude-from-file options to run or exclude tests named in a file.

• ctest(1) now supports job server integration on POSIX systems.

• The ctest -j option may now be given without a value to let ctest choose a default level of parallelism, or with 0 to let ctest use unbounded parallelism. The corresponding CTEST_PARALLEL_LEVEL environment variable, if set to the empty string, is now equivalent to passing -j with no value.

• The ctest_test() command gained options INCLUDE_FROM_FILE and EXCLUDE_FROM_FILE to run or exclude tests named in a file.

CPack

• The CPack DEB Generator CPACK_DEBIAN_FILE_NAME variable may now be set without any suffix, and the .deb suffix will be added automatically.

• The CPack RPM Generator CPACK_RPM_FILE_NAME variable may now be set without any suffix, and the .rpm suffix will be added automatically.

• The CPack WIX Generator gained a new variable, CPACK_WIX_INSTALL_SCOPE, to control the InstallScope property of WiX MSI installers.

Other Changes

• CMake learned to de-duplicate libraries on link lines based on linker capabilities. See policy CMP0156.

• The add_test() command now honors CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING_EMULATOR only when cross-compiling. See policy CMP0158.

• On Windows, when targeting the MSVC ABI, the find_library() command now accepts .a file names after first considering .lib. This is symmetric with existing behavior when targeting the GNU ABI, in which the command accepts .lib file names after first considering .a.

• On Windows, when targeting the MSVC ABI, the find_library() command now considers .dll.lib file names before .lib. This is the default suffix for DLL import libraries created by Rust toolchains for the MSVC ABI.

• The Ninja and NMake Makefiles generators now use the -external:I flag for system includes when using IntelLLVM as of version 2021.4. The -external:W0 flag is also used as of version 2022.2.

• The create_test_sourcelist() command now provides a full path to the generated driver source file.

• The CPACK_PRODUCTBUILD_DOMAINS variable now defaults to true. See policy CMP0161.

Updates

Changes made since CMake 3.29.0 include the following.

3.29.1

• The CMAKE_LINKER_TYPE variable and corresponding LINKER_TYPE target property now work with compilers for the Swift language.

3.29.2, 3.29.3, 3.29.4

• These versions made no changes to documented features or interfaces. Some implementation updates were made to support ecosystem changes and/or fix regressions.

3.29.5

• The CPack WIX Generator's CPACK_WIX_INSTALL_SCOPE variable, new in 3.29, now defaults to NONE. This restores compatibility with behavior of 3.28 and below: without a custom WiX template, it produces installers that only create start menu and uninstall entries for the current user, even though they install for all users.

  In 3.29.0 through 3.29.4, CPACK_WIX_INSTALL_SCOPE defaulted to perMachine. This created MSI installers that create start menu and uninstall entries for all users by default. While this behavior is better on its own, these installers do not cleanly replace existing installations created with MSI installers produced by 3.28 and below. 3.29.5 reverts the default for compatibility. Projects may transition to perMachine on their own schedule by setting CPACK_WIX_INSTALL_SCOPE.