CMake 3.8 Release Notes

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 the project() and enable_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() and add_executable() commands. References between C# targets in the same source tree may be specified by target_link_libraries() like for C++. References to system or 3rd-party assemblies may be specified by the target properties VS_DOTNET_REFERENCE_<refname> and VS_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 CUDA as a first-class language that can be enabled via the project() and enable_language() commands.

• CUDA is currently supported by the Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator 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 Features functionality now offers meta-features that request compiler modes for specific language standard levels (e.g. cxx_std_11). See CMAKE_C_KNOWN_FEATURES and CMAKE_CXX_KNOWN_FEATURES.

• The Compile Features functionality is now aware of C++ 17. No specific features are yet enumerated besides the cxx_std_17 meta-feature.

• The Compile Features functionality is now aware of the availability of C99 in gcc since version 3.4.

Platforms

• A new minimal platform file for Fuchsia was added.

Generators

• The CodeBlocks extra generator may now be used to generate with NMake Makefiles JOM.

• The Visual Studio Generators for VS 2013 and above learned to support a host=x64 option in the CMAKE_GENERATOR_TOOLSET value (e.g. via the cmake(1) -T option) 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 .targets as MSBuild "targets" files to be imported into generated project files.

Commands

• The add_custom_command() and add_custom_target() commands learned the option COMMAND_EXPAND_LISTS which causes lists in the COMMAND argument to be expanded, including lists created by generator expressions.

• The execute_process() command gained an ENCODING option 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 gained TREE and PREFIX options 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 the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment 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 like CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD. See policy CMP0067.

Variables

• A CMAKE_CODELITE_USE_TARGETS variable was added to tell the CodeLite extra generator to change the generated project to have target-centric organization. The build, rebuild, and clean operations within CodeLite then work on a selected target rather than the whole workspace. (Note that the Ninja clean operation on a target includes its dependencies, though.)

• The CMAKE_SUBLIME_TEXT_2_ENV_SETTINGS variable was added to tell the Sublime Text 2 extra generator to place specified environment variables in the generated .sublime-project.

• The CMAKE_SUBLIME_TEXT_2_EXCLUDE_BUILD_TREE variable was added to tell the Sublime Text 2 extra generator whether to exclude the build tree from the .sublime-project when it is inside the source tree.

• A CMAKE_VS_INCLUDE_PACKAGE_TO_DEFAULT_BUILD variable was added to tell Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above to include the PACKAGE target in the default build, similar to the existing CMAKE_VS_INCLUDE_INSTALL_TO_DEFAULT_BUILD variable for the INSTALL target.

Properties

• A BUILD_RPATH target property and corresponding CMAKE_BUILD_RPATH variable were added to support custom RPATH locations to be added to binaries in the build tree.

• The COMPILE_FLAGS source file property learned to support generator expressions.

• The FRAMEWORK target 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_LIBNAME and IMPORTED_LIBNAME_<CONFIG> target properties to specify a link library name since interface libraries do not build their own library files.

• A <LANG>_CPPLINT target property and supporting CMAKE_<LANG>_CPPLINT variable were introduced to tell the Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator to run the cpplint style checker along with the compiler for C and CXX languages.

• A MANUALLY_ADDED_DEPENDENCIES target property has been added. It provides a read-only list of dependencies that have been added with the add_dependencies() command.

• The MAP_IMPORTED_CONFIG_<CONFIG> target property learned to interpret empty list elements as referring to the configuration-less imported location specified by IMPORTED_LOCATION.

• The NO_SYSTEM_FROM_IMPORTED target property is now supported on Imported Interface Libraries.

• New source file properties SKIP_AUTOMOC, SKIP_AUTOUIC, SKIP_AUTORCC, and SKIP_AUTOGEN were added to allow source files to be excluded from processing by AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC, and AUTORCC target properties.

• A VS_COPY_TO_OUT_DIR source 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_DIRECTORY target 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_LOCAL target 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_VSIX source 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_GENERATOR source 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_PROPS target property was added to tell Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above to use a custom MSBuild user .props file.

• A XCODE_EMIT_EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME global property was added to tell the Xcode generator whether to emit the EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME variable. This is useful when building with multiple SDKs like macosx and iphoneos in parallel.

• New XCODE_PRODUCT_TYPE and XCODE_EXPLICIT_FILE_TYPE target properties were created to tell the Xcode generator to use custom values of the corresponding attributes for a target in the generated Xcode project.

Modules

• A CSharpUtilities module 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 ExternalData module learned to support multiple content links for one data file using different hashes, e.g. img.png.sha256 and img.png.sha1. This allows objects to be fetched from sources indexed by different hash algorithms.

• The ExternalProject module gained the GIT_PROGRESS option to force Git to show progress when cloning repositories.

• The ExternalProject module gained a GIT_CONFIG option to pass --config options to Git when cloning repositories.

• The FeatureSummary module feature_summary() command now accepts a new QUIET_ON_EMPTY option that suppresses the output when the list of packages that belong to the selected category is empty.

• The FeatureSummary module add_feature_info() command now accepts lists of dependencies for deciding whether a feature is enabled or not.

• The package types accepted by the FeatureSummary module can now be tweaked by changing the FeatureSummary_PKG_TYPES, FeatureSummary_REQUIRED_PKG_TYPES and FeatureSummary_DEFAULT_PKG_TYPE global properties.

• The FindOpenGL module now provides imported targets OpenGL::GL and OpenGL::GLU when the libraries are found.

• The UseSWIG module gained a swig_add_library command to give more flexibility over the old swig_add_module command.

• The UseSWIG module swig_add_source_to_module command learned a new SWIG_OUTFILE_DIR option to control the output file location (swig -o).

• The WriteCompilerDetectionHeader module gained the ALLOW_UNKNOWN_COMPILERS and ALLOW_UNKNOWN_COMPILER_VERSIONS options 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 a DEFECT_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 the CTEST_MEMORYCHECK_SUPPRESSIONS_FILE variable.

• The ctest_memcheck() command learned to support LeakSanitizer independently from AddressSanitizer.

• The ctest_update() command CDASH_UPLOAD signature was taught to honor the RETRY_COUNT, RETRY_DELAY, and QUIET options.

CPack

• The CPackIFWConfigureFile module was added to define a new cpack_ifw_configure_file() command to configure file templates prepared in QtIFW/SDK/Creator style.

• The CPackIFW module cpack_ifw_configure_component() and cpack_ifw_configure_component_group() commands gained a new DEFAULT, VIRTUAL, FORCED_INSTALLATION, REQUIRES_ADMIN_RIGHTS, DISPLAY_NAME, UPDATE_TEXT, DESCRIPTION, RELEASE_DATE, AUTO_DEPEND_ON and TRANSLATIONS options to more specific configuration.

• The CPackIFW module cpack_ifw_configure_component() command gained a new DEPENDENCIES alias for DEPENDS option.

• The CPackIFW module cpack_ifw_configure_component_group() command gained a new DEPENDS option. The DEPENDENCIES alias also added.

• The CPackIFW module cpack_ifw_configure_component() and cpack_ifw_configure_component_group() commands PRIORITY option now is deprecated and will be removed in a future version of CMake. Please use new SORTING_PRIORITY option instead.

• The CPack IFW Generator gained new CPACK_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, and CPACK_IFW_PACKAGE_TITLE_COLOR variables to customize a QtIFW installer look.

• The CPack productbuild Generator gained options to sign packages. See the variables CPACK_PRODUCTBUILD_IDENTITY_NAME, CPACK_PRODUCTBUILD_KEYCHAIN_PATH, CPACK_PKGBUILD_IDENTITY_NAME, and CPACK_PKGBUILD_KEYCHAIN_PATH.

• The CPack RPM Generator learned to omit tags that are not supported by provided rpmbuild tool. If unsupported tags are set they are ignored and a developer warning is printed out.

• The CPack RPM Generator learned to generate main component package which forces generation of a rpm for defined component without component suffix in filename and package name. See CPACK_RPM_MAIN_COMPONENT variable.

• The CPack RPM Generator learned to generate a single debuginfo package on demand even if components packaging is used. See CPACK_RPM_DEBUGINFO_SINGLE_PACKAGE variable.

• The CPack RPM Generator learned to support multiple directives per file when using CPACK_RPM_USER_FILELIST variable.

Other

• CMake functionality using cryptographic hashes now supports SHA-3 algorithms.

• A new generator expression $<IF:cond,true-value,false-value> was added. It resolves to the true-value if the condition is 1 and resolves to the false-value if the condition is 0.

Deprecated and Removed Features

• The FeatureSummary module commands set_package_info(), set_feature_info(), print_enabled_features(), and print_disabled_features() are now deprecated.

• The UseSWIG module swig_add_module command is now deprecated in favor of swig_add_library.

Other Changes

• If a command specified by the <LANG>_CLANG_TIDY target 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 adds leak_check=1 to the options used by AddressSanitizer. The default behavior of AddressSanitizer is to run LeakSanitizer to check leaks unless leak_check=0.

• The ctest_memcheck() command was fixed to correctly append extra sanitizer options read from the CTEST_MEMORYCHECK_SANITIZER_OPTIONS variable to the environment variables used internally by the sanitizers.

• The FeatureSummary module set_package_properties() command no longer forces the package type to OPTIONAL when the type is not explicitly set.

• The Compile Features functionality is now aware of features supported by Intel C++ compilers versions 12.1 through 17.0 on UNIX and Windows platforms.

• Calls to the FindPkgConfig module pkg_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 AUTOMOC or AUTOUIC, generated moc_*, *.moc and ui_* are placed in the <CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR>/<TARGETNAME>_autogen/include directory which is automatically added to the target's INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES. It is therefore not necessary anymore to have CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR in the target's INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.

• The Sublime Text 2 generator no longer runs the native build command (e.g. ninja or make) with verbose build output enabled.

• The try_compile() command source file signature now honors the CMAKE_WARN_DEPRECATED variable 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.org now records the installation directory in the Windows Registry under the key HKLM\Software\Kitware\CMake with a value named InstallDir.