project

Sets project details such as name, version, etc. and enables languages.

project(<PROJECT-NAME> [LANGUAGES] [<language-name>...])
project(<PROJECT-NAME>
        [VERSION <major>[.<minor>[.<patch>[.<tweak>]]]]
        [DESCRIPTION <project-description-string>]
        [HOMEPAGE_URL <url-string>]
        [LANGUAGES <language-name>...])

Sets the name of the project and stores the name in the PROJECT_NAME variable. Additionally this sets variables

• PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR, <PROJECT-NAME>_SOURCE_DIR

• PROJECT_BINARY_DIR, <PROJECT-NAME>_BINARY_DIR

If VERSION is specified, given components must be non-negative integers. If VERSION is not specified, the default version is the empty string. The VERSION option may not be used unless policy CMP0048 is set to NEW.

The project() command stores the version number and its components in variables

• PROJECT_VERSION, <PROJECT-NAME>_VERSION

• PROJECT_VERSION_MAJOR, <PROJECT-NAME>_VERSION_MAJOR

• PROJECT_VERSION_MINOR, <PROJECT-NAME>_VERSION_MINOR

• PROJECT_VERSION_PATCH, <PROJECT-NAME>_VERSION_PATCH

• PROJECT_VERSION_TWEAK, <PROJECT-NAME>_VERSION_TWEAK

Variables corresponding to unspecified versions are set to the empty string (if policy CMP0048 is set to NEW).

If the optional DESCRIPTION is given, then PROJECT_DESCRIPTION and <PROJECT-NAME>_DESCRIPTION will be set to its argument. These variables will be cleared if DESCRIPTION is not given. The description is expected to be a relatively short string, usually no more than a few words.

The optional HOMEPAGE_URL sets the analogous variables PROJECT_HOMEPAGE_URL and <PROJECT-NAME>_HOMEPAGE_URL. When this option is given, the URL provided should be the canonical home for the project. These variables will be cleared if HOMEPAGE_URL is not given.

Note that the description and homepage URL may be used as defaults for things like packaging meta-data, documentation, etc.

Optionally you can specify which languages your project supports. Example languages include C, CXX (i.e. C++), CUDA, Fortran, and ASM. By default C and CXX are enabled if no language options are given. Specify language NONE, or use the LANGUAGES keyword and list no languages, to skip enabling any languages.

If enabling ASM, list it last so that CMake can check whether compilers for other languages like C work for assembly too.

If a variable exists called CMAKE_PROJECT_<PROJECT-NAME>_INCLUDE, the file pointed to by that variable will be included as the last step of the project command.

The top-level CMakeLists.txt file for a project must contain a literal, direct call to the project() command; loading one through the include() command is not sufficient. If no such call exists CMake will implicitly add one to the top that enables the default languages (C and CXX). The name of the project set in the top level CMakeLists.txt file is available from the CMAKE_PROJECT_NAME variable, its description from CMAKE_PROJECT_DESCRIPTION, its homepage URL from CMAKE_PROJECT_HOMEPAGE_URL and its version from CMAKE_PROJECT_VERSION.

Note

Call the cmake_minimum_required() command at the beginning of the top-level CMakeLists.txt file even before calling the project() command. It is important to establish version and policy settings before invoking other commands whose behavior they may affect. See also policy CMP0000.