target_compile_definitions

Add compile definitions to a target.

target_compile_definitions(<target>
  <INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items1...]
  [<INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items2...] ...])

Specifies compile definitions to use when compiling a given <target>. The named <target> must have been created by a command such as add_executable() or add_library() and must not be an ALIAS target.

The INTERFACE, PUBLIC and PRIVATE keywords are required to specify the scope of the following arguments. PRIVATE and PUBLIC items will populate the COMPILE_DEFINITIONS property of <target>. PUBLIC and INTERFACE items will populate the INTERFACE_COMPILE_DEFINITIONS property of <target>. The following arguments specify compile definitions. Repeated calls for the same <target> append items in the order called.

New in version 3.11: Allow setting INTERFACE items on IMPORTED targets.

Arguments to target_compile_definitions may use "generator expressions" with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for more on defining buildsystem properties.

Any leading -D on an item will be removed. Empty items are ignored. For example, the following are all equivalent:

target_compile_definitions(foo PUBLIC FOO)
target_compile_definitions(foo PUBLIC -DFOO)  # -D removed
target_compile_definitions(foo PUBLIC "" FOO) # "" ignored
target_compile_definitions(foo PUBLIC -D FOO) # -D becomes "", then ignored

Definitions may optionally have values:

target_compile_definitions(foo PUBLIC FOO=1)

Note that many compilers treat -DFOO as equivalent to -DFOO=1, but other tools may not recognize this in all circumstances (e.g. IntelliSense).