CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_SORT_ORDERΒΆ

Added in version 3.7.

The default order for sorting directories which match a search path containing a glob expression found using find_package(). It can assume one of the following values:

NONE

Default. No attempt is done to sort directories. The first valid package found will be selected.

NAME

Sort directories lexicographically before searching.

NATURAL

Sort directories using natural order (see strverscmp(3) manual), i.e. such that contiguous digits are compared as whole numbers.

Natural sorting can be employed to return the highest version when multiple versions of the same library are available to be found by find_package(). For example suppose that the following libraries have package configuration files on disk, in a directory of the same name, with all such directories residing in the same parent directory:

  • libX-1.1.0

  • libX-1.2.9

  • libX-1.2.10

By setting NATURAL order we can select the one with the highest version number libX-1.2.10.

set(CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_SORT_ORDER NATURAL)
find_package(libX CONFIG)

The sort direction can be controlled using the CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_SORT_DIRECTION variable (by default descending, e.g. lib-B will be tested before lib-A).