find_programΒΆ
A short-hand signature is:
find_program (<VAR> name1 [path1 path2 ...])
The general signature is:
find_program ( <VAR> name | NAMES name1 [name2 ...] [NAMES_PER_DIR] [HINTS [path | ENV var]... ] [PATHS [path | ENV var]... ] [REGISTRY_VIEW (64|32|64_32|32_64|HOST|TARGET|BOTH)] [PATH_SUFFIXES suffix1 [suffix2 ...]] [VALIDATOR function] [DOC "cache documentation string"] [NO_CACHE] [REQUIRED] [NO_DEFAULT_PATH] [NO_PACKAGE_ROOT_PATH] [NO_CMAKE_PATH] [NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH] [NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH] [NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH] [NO_CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX] [CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH | ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH | NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH] )
This command is used to find a program.
A cache entry, or a normal variable if NO_CACHE
is specified,
named by <VAR>
is created to store the result of this command.
If the program is found the result is stored in the variable
and the search will not be repeated unless the variable is cleared.
If nothing is found, the result will be <VAR>-NOTFOUND
.
Options include:
NAMES
Specify one or more possible names for the program.
When using this to specify names with and without a version suffix, we recommend specifying the unversioned name first so that locally-built packages can be found before those provided by distributions.
HINTS
,PATHS
Specify directories to search in addition to the default locations. The
ENV var
sub-option reads paths from a system environment variable.Changed in version 3.24: On
Windows
platform, it is possible to include registry queries as part of the directories, using a dedicated syntax. Such specifications will be ignored on all other platforms.REGISTRY_VIEW
New in version 3.24.
Specify which registry views must be queried. This option is only meaningful on
Windows
platforms and will be ignored on other ones. When not specified, theBOTH
view is used when theCMP0134
policy isNEW
. Refer toCMP0134
for the default view when the policy isOLD
.64
Query the 64-bit registry. On 32-bit Windows, it always returns the string
/REGISTRY-NOTFOUND
.32
Query the 32-bit registry.
64_32
Query both views (
64
and32
) and generate a path for each.32_64
Query both views (
32
and64
) and generate a path for each.HOST
Query the registry matching the architecture of the host:
64
on 64-bit Windows and32
on 32-bit Windows.TARGET
Query the registry matching the architecture specified by the
CMAKE_SIZEOF_VOID_P
variable. If not defined, fall back toHOST
view.BOTH
Query both views (
32
and64
). The order depends on the following rules: If theCMAKE_SIZEOF_VOID_P
variable is defined, use the following view depending on the content of this variable:8
:64_32
4
:32_64
If the
CMAKE_SIZEOF_VOID_P
variable is not defined, rely on the architecture of the host:64-bit:
64_32
32-bit:
32
PATH_SUFFIXES
Specify additional subdirectories to check below each directory location otherwise considered.
VALIDATOR
New in version 3.25.
Specify a
function()
to be called for each candidate item found (amacro()
cannot be provided, that will result in an error). Two arguments will be passed to the validator function: the name of a result variable, and the absolute path to the candidate item. The item will be accepted and the search will end unless the function sets the value in the result variable to false in the calling scope. The result variable will hold a true value when the validator function is entered.function(my_check validator_result_var item) if(NOT item MATCHES ...) set(${validator_result_var} FALSE PARENT_SCOPE) endif() endfunction() find_program (result NAMES ... VALIDATOR my_check)
Note that if a cached result is used, the search is skipped and any
VALIDATOR
is ignored. The cached result is not required to pass the validation function.DOC
Specify the documentation string for the
<VAR>
cache entry.NO_CACHE
New in version 3.21.
The result of the search will be stored in a normal variable rather than a cache entry.
Note
If the variable is already set before the call (as a normal or cache variable) then the search will not occur.
Warning
This option should be used with caution because it can greatly increase the cost of repeated configure steps.
REQUIRED
New in version 3.18.
Stop processing with an error message if nothing is found, otherwise the search will be attempted again the next time find_program is invoked with the same variable.
If NO_DEFAULT_PATH
is specified, then no additional paths are
added to the search.
If NO_DEFAULT_PATH
is not specified, the search process is as follows:
New in version 3.12: If called from within a find module or any other script loaded by a call to
find_package(<PackageName>)
, search prefixes unique to the current package being found. Specifically, look in the<PackageName>_ROOT
CMake variable and the<PackageName>_ROOT
environment variable. The package root variables are maintained as a stack, so if called from nested find modules or config packages, root paths from the parent's find module or config package will be searched after paths from the current module or package. In other words, the search order would be<CurrentPackage>_ROOT
,ENV{<CurrentPackage>_ROOT}
,<ParentPackage>_ROOT
,ENV{<ParentPackage>_ROOT}
, etc. This can be skipped ifNO_PACKAGE_ROOT_PATH
is passed or by setting theCMAKE_FIND_USE_PACKAGE_ROOT_PATH
toFALSE
. See policyCMP0074
.<prefix>/[s]bin
for each<prefix>
in the<PackageName>_ROOT
CMake variable and the<PackageName>_ROOT
environment variable if called from within a find module loaded byfind_package(<PackageName>)
Search paths specified in cmake-specific cache variables. These are intended to be used on the command line with a
-DVAR=value
. The values are interpreted as semicolon-separated lists. This can be skipped ifNO_CMAKE_PATH
is passed or by setting theCMAKE_FIND_USE_CMAKE_PATH
toFALSE
.<prefix>/[s]bin
for each<prefix>
inCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
Search paths specified in cmake-specific environment variables. These are intended to be set in the user's shell configuration, and therefore use the host's native path separator (
;
on Windows and:
on UNIX). This can be skipped ifNO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH
is passed or by setting theCMAKE_FIND_USE_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH
toFALSE
.<prefix>/[s]bin
for each<prefix>
inCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
Search the paths specified by the
HINTS
option. These should be paths computed by system introspection, such as a hint provided by the location of another item already found. Hard-coded guesses should be specified with thePATHS
option.Search the standard system environment variables. This can be skipped if
NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH
is passed or by setting theCMAKE_FIND_USE_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH
toFALSE
.The directories in
PATH
itself.On Windows hosts no extra search paths are included
Search cmake variables defined in the Platform files for the current system. The searching of
CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX
andCMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX
can be skipped ifNO_CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX
is passed or by setting theCMAKE_FIND_USE_INSTALL_PREFIX
toFALSE
. All these locations can be skipped ifNO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH
is passed or by setting theCMAKE_FIND_USE_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH
toFALSE
.<prefix>/[s]bin
for each<prefix>
inCMAKE_SYSTEM_PREFIX_PATH
The platform paths that these variables contain are locations that typically include installed software. An example being
/usr/local
for UNIX based platforms.Search the paths specified by the PATHS option or in the short-hand version of the command. These are typically hard-coded guesses.
The CMAKE_IGNORE_PATH
, CMAKE_IGNORE_PREFIX_PATH
,
CMAKE_SYSTEM_IGNORE_PATH
and
CMAKE_SYSTEM_IGNORE_PREFIX_PATH
variables can also cause some
of the above locations to be ignored.
New in version 3.16: Added CMAKE_FIND_USE_<CATEGORY>_PATH
variables to globally disable
various search locations.
On macOS the CMAKE_FIND_FRAMEWORK
and
CMAKE_FIND_APPBUNDLE
variables determine the order of
preference between Apple-style and unix-style package components.
The CMake variable CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
specifies one or more
directories to be prepended to all other search directories. This
effectively "re-roots" the entire search under given locations.
Paths which are descendants of the CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX
are excluded
from this re-rooting, because that variable is always a path on the host system.
By default the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
is empty.
The CMAKE_SYSROOT
variable can also be used to specify exactly one
directory to use as a prefix. Setting CMAKE_SYSROOT
also has other
effects. See the documentation for that variable for more.
These variables are especially useful when cross-compiling to
point to the root directory of the target environment and CMake will
search there too. By default at first the directories listed in
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
are searched, then the CMAKE_SYSROOT
directory is searched, and then the non-rooted directories will be
searched. The default behavior can be adjusted by setting
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PROGRAM
. This behavior can be manually
overridden on a per-call basis using options:
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH
Search in the order described above.
NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
Do not use the
CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
variable.ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
Search only the re-rooted directories and directories below
CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX
.
The default search order is designed to be most-specific to
least-specific for common use cases.
Projects may override the order by simply calling the command
multiple times and using the NO_*
options:
find_program (<VAR> NAMES name PATHS paths... NO_DEFAULT_PATH) find_program (<VAR> NAMES name)
Once one of the calls succeeds the result variable will be set and stored in the cache so that no call will search again.
When more than one value is given to the NAMES
option this command by
default will consider one name at a time and search every directory
for it. The NAMES_PER_DIR
option tells this command to consider one
directory at a time and search for all names in it.