CMake 3.25 Release Notes

Changes made since CMake 3.24 include the following.

New Features

Presets

• The cmake-presets(7) schema version has been bumped to 6.

• The cmake-presets(7) format now supports a packagePresets field to specify presets for cpack --preset.

• The cmake-presets(7) format now supports a workflowPresets field to specify presets for cmake --workflow.

• The cmake-presets(7) format now supports an outputJUnitFile field to specify JUnit output in test presets.

Languages

• The Compile Features functionality is now aware of C++26, and defines a cxx_std_26 meta-feature. C++26 compiler modes may also be specified via the CXX_STANDARD, CUDA_STANDARD, HIP_STANDARD, or OBJCXX_STANDARD target properties.

• CUDA language support now includes device link-time optimization when using nvcc. The CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION variable and the associated INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION target property will activate device LTO.

Command-Line

• A cmake --workflow --preset mode was added to drive sequences of configure, build, test, and package operations through a single command.

• The cmake -E capabilities command gained a new tls field that tells whether or not TLS is enabled.

• The cmake -E env command-line tool gained a --modify flag to support ENVIRONMENT_MODIFICATION operations.

• The cmake --debug-trycompile option now prints log messages reporting the directory in which each try-compile check is done.

Compilers

• Support for the Tasking compiler toolsets (SmartCode, TriCore, Standalone: ARM, MCS, 8051) was added with compiler id Tasking. See the CMAKE_TASKING_TOOLSET variable.

Commands

• The add_subdirectory() command gained a SYSTEM option to enable the SYSTEM directory property in the subdirectory.

• The block() and endblock() commands were added to manage specific scopes (policy or variable) for a contained block of commands.

• The cmake_language() command gained a new GET_MESSAGE_LOG_LEVEL sub-command. It can be used to query the current message logging level.

• The find_file(), find_path(), find_library(), and find_program() commands gained a VALIDATOR option to specify a function to be called for each candidate item to validate it.

• The find_package() command now considers paths of the form <prefix>/<name>*/(cmake|CMake)/<name>*/ when searching for package configuration files.

• The return() command gained a PROPAGATE option to propagate variables to the scope to which control returns. See policy CMP0140.

• The try_compile() and try_run() commands gained new signatures that more consistently use keyword dispatch and do not require a binary directory to be specified. Additionally, these signatures use a unique directory for each invocation, which allows multiple outputs to be preserved when using cmake --debug-trycompile.

• The try_compile() and try_run() commands gained the option NO_CACHE to store results in normal variables.

• The try_run() command gained RUN_OUTPUT_STDOUT_VARIABLE and RUN_OUTPUT_STDERR_VARIABLE options to capture stdout and stderr separately from the output of the compiled program.

Variables

• The BSD and CMAKE_HOST_BSD variables are now set to a string value when the target or host system is BSD, respectively.

• The LINUX and CMAKE_HOST_LINUX variables are now set to true when the target or host system is Linux, respectively.

• The CMAKE_MSVC_DEBUG_INFORMATION_FORMAT variable and MSVC_DEBUG_INFORMATION_FORMAT target property were introduced to select the debug information format for compilers targeting the MSVC ABI. See policy CMP0141.

• The CMAKE_XCODE_SCHEME_ENABLE_GPU_API_VALIDATION variable and corresponding XCODE_SCHEME_ENABLE_GPU_API_VALIDATION target property were added to tell the Xcode generator what to put in the scheme's Metal: API Validation setting.

• The CMAKE_XCODE_SCHEME_ENABLE_GPU_SHADER_VALIDATION variable and corresponding XCODE_SCHEME_ENABLE_GPU_SHADER_VALIDATION target property were added to tell the Xcode generator what to put in the scheme's Metal: Shader Validation setting.

• The CMAKE_XCODE_SCHEME_LAUNCH_MODE variable and corresponding XCODE_SCHEME_LAUNCH_MODE target property were added to tell the Xcode generator what to put in the scheme's "Launch" mode setting.

• The CMAKE_XCODE_SCHEME_LAUNCH_CONFIGURATION variable and corresponding XCODE_SCHEME_LAUNCH_CONFIGURATION target property were added to tell the Xcode generator what configuration to put in the scheme's Launch action.

Properties

• The <LANG>_COMPILER_LAUNCHER target property now supports generator expressions.

• The EXPORT_NO_SYSTEM target property was added to specify that install(EXPORT) and export() commands will generate na imported target with SYSTEM property OFF.

• The SYSTEM target property was added to specify whether a target should be treated as a system library (i.e. its include directories are automatically SYSTEM when compiling consumers). If not set, the default is the previous behavior: on for imported targets and off for other targets.

• The SYSTEM directory property was added to initialize the SYSTEM target property for targets created in that directory.

Modules

• The FetchContent module's FetchContent_Declare() command gained a SYSTEM option which sets the SYSTEM directory property on subdirectories created by FetchContent_MakeAvailable().

• The FindCUDAToolkit module now provides a target for nvtx3 for CUDA 10.0+, which supersedes nvToolsExt. A deprecation warning is emitted when using nvToolsExt if the project requires CMake 3.25 and CUDA 10.0+ is used.

• The FindDoxygen module's version handling has been improved:

  • Multiple candidate installations will now be considered, if needed, to satisfy version constraints. Previously, only the first one encountered would be considered.

  • Version ranges are supported.

  • Variations in the version format reported by Doxygen are now tolerated (e.g. a trailing git commit hash).

• The FindOpenAL module now provides an imported target.

• The FindOpenSP module was added to find the OpenSP library.

• The FindVulkan module gained support for new components:

  dxc

  DirectX Shader Compiler.

  volk

  Volk open-source vulkan meta-loader.

CPack

• The CPack Archive Generator gained a new CPACK_ARCHIVE_FILE_EXTENSION variable to control the package file name extension.

• The CPack NSIS Generator gained two new variables CPACK_NSIS_EXECUTABLE_PRE_ARGUMENTS and CPACK_NSIS_EXECUTABLE_POST_ARGUMENTS to provide arguments to the nsis executable invocation.

• The CPack module gained the CPACK_READELF_EXECUTABLE, CPACK_OBJCOPY_EXECUTABLE, and CPACK_OBJDUMP_EXECUTABLE variables to control the locations of binutils used by cpack(1).

Deprecated and Removed Features

• The IMPORTED_NO_SYSTEM target property has been deprecated in favor of SYSTEM and EXPORT_NO_SYSTEM.

• The Visual Studio 10 2010 generator has been removed.

• The Visual Studio 11 2012 generator is now deprecated and will be removed in a future version of CMake.

Other Changes

• The SSL_CERT_FILE and SSL_CERT_DIR environment variables can now be used to override where to find certificate authorities for TLS/SSL operations.

• If <LANG>_CLANG_TIDY includes a -p argument, the full compiler command line is no longer appended after --.

• The Xcode generator no longer adds the per-config suffix $(CONFIGURATION)$(EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME) to library search paths. See policy CMP0142.

Updates

Changes made since CMake 3.25.0 include the following.

3.25.1

• On Windows, when targeting the MSVC ABI, the find_library() command no longer accepts .a file names. This behavior was added in CMake 3.25.0, but has been reverted due finding GNU-ABI libraries in cases we did not previously.

3.25.2

• CUDA language level 20 (corresponding to C++20) is now supported with NVCC 12.0 and above.

• On Windows, the icpx compiler now provided by Intel oneAPI 2023.0 and above is no longer selected because its GNU-like command-line is not yet supported by CMake.

3.25.3

• This version made no changes to documented features or interfaces. Some implementation updates were made to support ecosystem changes and/or fix regressions.