ALLOW_DUPLICATE_CUSTOM_TARGETS¶

Allow duplicate custom targets to be created.

Normally CMake requires that all targets built in a project have globally unique logical names (see policy CMP0002). This is necessary to generate meaningful project file names in Xcode and Visual Studio Generators IDE generators. It also allows the target names to be referenced unambiguously.

Makefile generators are capable of supporting duplicate add_custom_target() names. For projects that care only about Makefile Generators and do not wish to support Xcode or Visual Studio Generators IDE generators, one may set this property to True to allow duplicate custom targets. The property allows multiple add_custom_target() command calls in different directories to specify the same target name. However, setting this property will cause non-Makefile generators to produce an error and refuse to generate the project.

AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP¶

New in version 3.9.

Name of the source_group() for AUTOMOC, AUTORCC and AUTOUIC generated files.

Files generated by AUTOMOC, AUTORCC and AUTOUIC are not always known at configure time and therefore can't be passed to source_group(). AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP can be used instead to generate or select a source group for AUTOMOC, AUTORCC and AUTOUIC generated files.

For AUTOMOC, AUTORCC and AUTOUIC specific overrides see AUTOMOC_SOURCE_GROUP, AUTORCC_SOURCE_GROUP and AUTOUIC_SOURCE_GROUP respectively.

AUTOGEN_TARGETS_FOLDER¶

Name of FOLDER for *_autogen targets that are added automatically by CMake for targets for which AUTOMOC is enabled.

If not set, CMake uses the FOLDER property of the parent target as a default value for this property. See also the documentation for the FOLDER target property and the AUTOMOC target property.

AUTOMOC_SOURCE_GROUP¶

New in version 3.9.

Name of the source_group() for AUTOMOC generated files.

When set this is used instead of AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP for files generated by AUTOMOC.

AUTOMOC_TARGETS_FOLDER¶

Name of FOLDER for *_autogen targets that are added automatically by CMake for targets for which AUTOMOC is enabled.

This property is obsolete. Use AUTOGEN_TARGETS_FOLDER instead.

If not set, CMake uses the FOLDER property of the parent target as a default value for this property. See also the documentation for the FOLDER target property and the AUTOMOC target property.

AUTORCC_SOURCE_GROUP¶

New in version 3.9.

Name of the source_group() for AUTORCC generated files.

When set this is used instead of AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP for files generated by AUTORCC.

AUTOUIC_SOURCE_GROUP¶

New in version 3.21.

Name of the source_group() for AUTOUIC generated files.

When set this is used instead of AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP for files generated by AUTOUIC.

CMAKE_C_KNOWN_FEATURES¶

New in version 3.1.

List of C features known to this version of CMake.

The features listed in this global property may be known to be available to the C compiler. If the feature is available with the C compiler, it will be listed in the CMAKE_C_COMPILE_FEATURES variable.

The features listed here may be used with the target_compile_features() command. See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

The features known to this version of CMake are listed below.

High level meta features indicating C standard support¶

New in version 3.8.

NOTE:

Low level individual compile features¶

CMAKE_CUDA_KNOWN_FEATURES¶

New in version 3.17.

List of CUDA features known to this version of CMake.

The features listed in this global property may be known to be available to the CUDA compiler. If the feature is available with the C++ compiler, it will be listed in the CMAKE_CUDA_COMPILE_FEATURES variable.

The features listed here may be used with the target_compile_features() command. See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

The features known to this version of CMake are:

NOTE:

CMAKE_CXX_KNOWN_FEATURES¶

New in version 3.1.

List of C++ features known to this version of CMake.

The features listed in this global property may be known to be available to the C++ compiler. If the feature is available with the C++ compiler, it will be listed in the CMAKE_CXX_COMPILE_FEATURES variable.

The features listed here may be used with the target_compile_features() command. See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

The features known to this version of CMake are listed below.

High level meta features indicating C++ standard support¶

New in version 3.8.

The following meta features indicate general support for the associated language standard. It reflects the language support claimed by the compiler, but it does not necessarily imply complete conformance to that standard.

NOTE:

Low level individual compile features¶

For C++ 11 and C++ 14, compilers were sometimes slow to implement certain language features. CMake provided some individual compile features to help projects determine whether specific features were available. These individual features are now less relevant and projects should generally prefer to use the high level meta features instead. Individual compile features are not provided for C++ 17 or later.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for further discussion of the use of individual compile features.

Individual features from C++ 98¶

Individual features from C++ 11¶

Individual features from C++ 14¶

CMAKE_ROLE¶

New in version 3.14.

Tells what mode the current running script is in. Could be one of several values:

DEBUG_CONFIGURATIONS¶

Specify which configurations are for debugging.

The value must be a semi-colon separated list of configuration names. Currently this property is used only by the target_link_libraries() command. Additional uses may be defined in the future.

This property must be set at the top level of the project and before the first target_link_libraries() command invocation. If any entry in the list does not match a valid configuration for the project the behavior is undefined.

DISABLED_FEATURES¶

List of features which are disabled during the CMake run.

List of features which are disabled during the CMake run. By default it contains the names of all packages which were not found. This is determined using the <NAME>_FOUND variables. Packages which are searched QUIET are not listed. A project can add its own features to this list. This property is used by the macros in FeatureSummary.cmake.

ECLIPSE_EXTRA_CPROJECT_CONTENTS¶

New in version 3.12.

Additional contents to be inserted into the generated Eclipse cproject file.

The cproject file defines the CDT specific information. Some third party IDE's are based on Eclipse with the addition of other information specific to that IDE. Through this property, it is possible to add this additional contents to the generated project. It is expected to contain valid XML.

Also see the ECLIPSE_EXTRA_NATURES property.

ECLIPSE_EXTRA_NATURES¶

List of natures to add to the generated Eclipse project file.

Eclipse projects specify language plugins by using natures. This property should be set to the unique identifier for a nature (which looks like a Java package name).

Also see the ECLIPSE_EXTRA_CPROJECT_CONTENTS property.

ENABLED_FEATURES¶

List of features which are enabled during the CMake run.

List of features which are enabled during the CMake run. By default it contains the names of all packages which were found. This is determined using the <NAME>_FOUND variables. Packages which are searched QUIET are not listed. A project can add its own features to this list. This property is used by the macros in FeatureSummary.cmake.

ENABLED_LANGUAGES¶

Read-only property that contains the list of currently enabled languages

Set to list of currently enabled languages.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB32_PATHS¶

New in version 3.7.

Whether the find_library() command should automatically search lib32 directories.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB32_PATHS is a boolean specifying whether the find_library() command should automatically search the lib32 variant of directories called lib in the search path when building 32-bit binaries.

See also the CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_CUSTOM_LIB_SUFFIX variable.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB64_PATHS¶

Whether find_library() should automatically search lib64 directories.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB64_PATHS is a boolean specifying whether the find_library() command should automatically search the lib64 variant of directories called lib in the search path when building 64-bit binaries.

See also the CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_CUSTOM_LIB_SUFFIX variable.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIBX32_PATHS¶

New in version 3.9.

Whether the find_library() command should automatically search libx32 directories.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIBX32_PATHS is a boolean specifying whether the find_library() command should automatically search the libx32 variant of directories called lib in the search path when building x32-abi binaries.

See also the CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_CUSTOM_LIB_SUFFIX variable.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_OPENBSD_VERSIONING¶

Whether find_library() should find OpenBSD-style shared libraries.

This property is a boolean specifying whether the find_library() command should find shared libraries with OpenBSD-style versioned extension: ".so.<major>.<minor>". The property is set to true on OpenBSD and false on other platforms.

GENERATOR_IS_MULTI_CONFIG¶

New in version 3.9.

Read-only property that is true on multi-configuration generators.

True when using a multi-configuration generator such as:

Multi-config generators use CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES as the set of configurations and ignore CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE.

GLOBAL_DEPENDS_DEBUG_MODE¶

Enable global target dependency graph debug mode.

CMake automatically analyzes the global inter-target dependency graph at the beginning of native build system generation. This property causes it to display details of its analysis to stderr.

GLOBAL_DEPENDS_NO_CYCLES¶

Disallow global target dependency graph cycles.

CMake automatically analyzes the global inter-target dependency graph at the beginning of native build system generation. It reports an error if the dependency graph contains a cycle that does not consist of all STATIC library targets. This property tells CMake to disallow all cycles completely, even among static libraries.

IN_TRY_COMPILE¶

Read-only property that is true during a try-compile configuration.

True when building a project inside a try_compile() or try_run() command.

JOB_POOLS¶

Ninja only: List of available pools.

A pool is a named integer property and defines the maximum number of concurrent jobs which can be started by a rule assigned to the pool. The JOB_POOLS property is a semicolon-separated list of pairs using the syntax NAME=integer (without a space after the equality sign).

For instance:

set_property(GLOBAL PROPERTY JOB_POOLS two_jobs=2 ten_jobs=10)

Defined pools could be used globally by setting CMAKE_JOB_POOL_COMPILE and CMAKE_JOB_POOL_LINK or per target by setting the target properties JOB_POOL_COMPILE and JOB_POOL_LINK. Custom commands and custom targets can specify pools using the option JOB_POOL. Using a pool that is not defined by JOB_POOLS causes an error by ninja at build time.

If not set, this property uses the value of the CMAKE_JOB_POOLS variable.

Build targets provided by CMake that are meant for individual interactive use, such as install, are placed in the console pool automatically.

PACKAGES_FOUND¶

List of packages which were found during the CMake run.

List of packages which were found during the CMake run. Whether a package has been found is determined using the <NAME>_FOUND variables.

PACKAGES_NOT_FOUND¶

List of packages which were not found during the CMake run.

List of packages which were not found during the CMake run. Whether a package has been found is determined using the <NAME>_FOUND variables.

PREDEFINED_TARGETS_FOLDER¶

Name of FOLDER for targets that are added automatically by CMake.

If not set, CMake uses "CMakePredefinedTargets" as a default value for this property. Targets such as INSTALL, PACKAGE and RUN_TESTS will be organized into this FOLDER. See also the documentation for the FOLDER target property.

REPORT_UNDEFINED_PROPERTIES¶

If set, report any undefined properties to this file.

If this property is set to a filename then when CMake runs it will report any properties or variables that were accessed but not defined into the filename specified in this property.

RULE_LAUNCH_COMPILE¶

Specify a launcher for compile rules.

NOTE:

Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator prefix compiler commands with the given launcher command line. This is intended to allow launchers to intercept build problems with high granularity. Other generators ignore this property because their underlying build systems provide no hook to wrap individual commands with a launcher.

RULE_LAUNCH_CUSTOM¶

Specify a launcher for custom rules.

Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator prefix custom commands with the given launcher command line. This is intended to allow launchers to intercept build problems with high granularity. Other generators ignore this property because their underlying build systems provide no hook to wrap individual commands with a launcher.

RULE_LAUNCH_LINK¶

Specify a launcher for link rules.

NOTE:

Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator prefix link and archive commands with the given launcher command line. This is intended to allow launchers to intercept build problems with high granularity. Other generators ignore this property because their underlying build systems provide no hook to wrap individual commands with a launcher.

RULE_MESSAGES¶

Specify whether to report a message for each make rule.

This property specifies whether Makefile generators should add a progress message describing what each build rule does. If the property is not set the default is ON. Set the property to OFF to disable granular messages and report only as each target completes. This is intended to allow scripted builds to avoid the build time cost of detailed reports. If a CMAKE_RULE_MESSAGES cache entry exists its value initializes the value of this property. Non-Makefile generators currently ignore this property.

TARGET_ARCHIVES_MAY_BE_SHARED_LIBS¶

Set if shared libraries may be named like archives.

On AIX shared libraries may be named "lib<name>.a". This property is set to true on such platforms.

TARGET_MESSAGES¶

New in version 3.4.

Specify whether to report the completion of each target.

This property specifies whether Makefile Generators should add a progress message describing that each target has been completed. If the property is not set the default is ON. Set the property to OFF to disable target completion messages.

This option is intended to reduce build output when little or no work needs to be done to bring the build tree up to date.

If a CMAKE_TARGET_MESSAGES cache entry exists its value initializes the value of this property.

Non-Makefile generators currently ignore this property.

See the counterpart property RULE_MESSAGES to disable everything except for target completion messages.

TARGET_SUPPORTS_SHARED_LIBS¶

Does the target platform support shared libraries.

TARGET_SUPPORTS_SHARED_LIBS is a boolean specifying whether the target platform supports shared libraries. Basically all current general general purpose OS do so, the exception are usually embedded systems with no or special OSs.

USE_FOLDERS¶

Use the FOLDER target property to organize targets into folders.

If not set, CMake treats this property as OFF by default. CMake generators that are capable of organizing into a hierarchy of folders use the values of the FOLDER target property to name those folders. See also the documentation for the FOLDER target property.

XCODE_EMIT_EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME¶

New in version 3.8.

Control emission of EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME by the Xcode generator.

It is required for building the same target with multiple SDKs. A common use case is the parallel use of iphoneos and iphonesimulator SDKs.

Three different states possible that control when the Xcode generator emits the EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME variable:

NOTE:

ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES¶

New in version 3.15.

A ;-list of files or directories that will be removed as a part of the global clean target. It is useful for specifying generated files or directories that are used by multiple targets or by CMake itself, or that are generated in ways which cannot be captured as outputs or byproducts of custom commands.

If an additional clean file is specific to a single target only, then the ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES target property would usually be a better choice than this directory property.

Relative paths are allowed and are interpreted relative to the current binary directory.

Contents of ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES may use generator expressions.

This property only works for the Ninja and the Makefile generators. It is ignored by other generators.

BINARY_DIR¶

New in version 3.7.

This read-only directory property reports absolute path to the binary directory corresponding to the source on which it is read.

BUILDSYSTEM_TARGETS¶

New in version 3.7.

This read-only directory property contains a semicolon-separated list of buildsystem targets added in the directory by calls to the add_library(), add_executable(), and add_custom_target() commands. The list does not include any Imported Targets or Alias Targets, but does include Interface Libraries. Each entry in the list is the logical name of a target, suitable to pass to the get_property() command TARGET option.

See also the IMPORTED_TARGETS directory property.

CACHE_VARIABLES¶

List of cache variables available in the current directory.

This read-only property specifies the list of CMake cache variables currently defined. It is intended for debugging purposes.

CLEAN_NO_CUSTOM¶

Set to true to tell Makefile Generators not to remove the outputs of custom commands for this directory during the make clean operation. This is ignored on other generators because it is not possible to implement.

CMAKE_CONFIGURE_DEPENDS¶

Tell CMake about additional input files to the configuration process. If any named file is modified the build system will re-run CMake to re-configure the file and generate the build system again.

Specify files as a semicolon-separated list of paths. Relative paths are interpreted as relative to the current source directory.

COMPILE_DEFINITIONS¶

Preprocessor definitions for compiling a directory's sources.

This property specifies the list of options given so far to the add_compile_definitions() (or add_definitions()) command.

The COMPILE_DEFINITIONS property may be set to a semicolon-separated list of preprocessor definitions using the syntax VAR or VAR=value. Function-style definitions are not supported. CMake will automatically escape the value correctly for the native build system (note that CMake language syntax may require escapes to specify some values).

This property will be initialized in each directory by its value in the directory's parent.

CMake will automatically drop some definitions that are not supported by the native build tool.

Disclaimer: Most native build tools have poor support for escaping certain values. CMake has work-arounds for many cases but some values may just not be possible to pass correctly. If a value does not seem to be escaped correctly, do not attempt to work-around the problem by adding escape sequences to the value. Your work-around may break in a future version of CMake that has improved escape support. Instead consider defining the macro in a (configured) header file. Then report the limitation. Known limitations include:

#          - broken almost everywhere
;          - broken in VS IDE 7.0 and Borland Makefiles
,          - broken in VS IDE
%          - broken in some cases in NMake
& |        - broken in some cases on MinGW
^ < > \"   - broken in most Make tools on Windows

CMake does not reject these values outright because they do work in some cases. Use with caution.

Contents of 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.

The corresponding COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_<CONFIG> property may be set to specify per-configuration definitions. Generator expressions should be preferred instead of setting the alternative property.

COMPILE_OPTIONS¶

List of options to pass to the compiler.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of options given so far to the add_compile_options() command.

This property is used to initialize the COMPILE_OPTIONS target property when a target is created, which is used by the generators to set the options for the compiler.

Contents of COMPILE_OPTIONS 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.

DEFINITIONS¶

For CMake 2.4 compatibility only. Use COMPILE_DEFINITIONS instead.

This read-only property specifies the list of flags given so far to the add_definitions() command. It is intended for debugging purposes. Use the COMPILE_DEFINITIONS directory property instead.

This built-in read-only property does not exist if policy CMP0059 is set to NEW.

EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL¶

Set this directory property to a true value on a subdirectory to exclude its targets from the "all" target of its ancestors. If excluded, running e.g. make in the parent directory will not build targets the subdirectory by default. This does not affect the "all" target of the subdirectory itself. Running e.g. make inside the subdirectory will still build its targets.

If the EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL target property is set on a target then its value determines whether the target is included in the "all" target of this directory and its ancestors.

IMPLICIT_DEPENDS_INCLUDE_TRANSFORM¶

Specify #include line transforms for dependencies in a directory.

This property specifies rules to transform macro-like #include lines during implicit dependency scanning of C and C++ source files. The list of rules must be semicolon-separated with each entry of the form A_MACRO(%)=value-with-% (the % must be literal). During dependency scanning occurrences of A_MACRO(...) on #include lines will be replaced by the value given with the macro argument substituted for %. For example, the entry

MYDIR(%)=<mydir/%>

will convert lines of the form

#include MYDIR(myheader.h)

to

#include <mydir/myheader.h>

allowing the dependency to be followed.

This property applies to sources in all targets within a directory. The property value is initialized in each directory by its value in the directory's parent.

IMPORTED_TARGETS¶

New in version 3.21.

This read-only directory property contains a semicolon-separated list of Imported Targets added in the directory by calls to the add_library() and add_executable() commands. Each entry in the list is the logical name of a target, suitable to pass to the get_property() command TARGET option when called in the same directory.

See also the BUILDSYSTEM_TARGETS directory property.

INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES¶

List of preprocessor include file search directories.

This property specifies the list of directories given so far to the include_directories() command.

This property is used to populate the INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES target property, which is used by the generators to set the include directories for the compiler.

In addition to accepting values from that command, values may be set directly on any directory using the set_property() command, and can be set on the current directory using the set_directory_properties() command. A directory gets its initial value from its parent directory if it has one. The initial value of the INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES target property comes from the value of this property. Both directory and target property values are adjusted by calls to the include_directories() command. Calls to set_property() or set_directory_properties(), however, will update the directory property value without updating target property values. Therefore direct property updates must be made before calls to add_executable() or add_library() for targets they are meant to affect.

The target property values are used by the generators to set the include paths for the compiler.

Contents of INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES 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.

INCLUDE_REGULAR_EXPRESSION¶

Include file scanning regular expression.

This property specifies the regular expression used during dependency scanning to match include files that should be followed. See the include_regular_expression() command for a high-level interface to set this property.

INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION¶

Enable interprocedural optimization for targets in a directory.

If set to true, enables interprocedural optimizations if they are known to be supported by the compiler.

INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration interprocedural optimization for a directory.

This is a per-configuration version of INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION. If set, this property overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

LABELS¶

New in version 3.10.

Specify a list of text labels associated with a directory and all of its subdirectories. This is equivalent to setting the LABELS target property and the LABELS test property on all targets and tests in the current directory and subdirectories. Note: Launchers must enabled to propagate labels to targets.

The CMAKE_DIRECTORY_LABELS variable can be used to initialize this property.

The list is reported in dashboard submissions.

LINK_DIRECTORIES¶

List of linker search directories.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of directories and is typically populated using the link_directories() command. It gets its initial value from its parent directory, if it has one.

The directory property is used to initialize the LINK_DIRECTORIES target property when a target is created. That target property is used by the generators to set the library search directories for the linker.

Contents of LINK_DIRECTORIES 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.

LINK_OPTIONS¶

New in version 3.13.

List of options to use for the link step of shared library, module and executable targets as well as the device link step.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of options given so far to the add_link_options() command.

This property is used to initialize the LINK_OPTIONS target property when a target is created, which is used by the generators to set the options for the compiler.

Contents of LINK_OPTIONS 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.

LISTFILE_STACK¶

The current stack of listfiles being processed.

This property is mainly useful when trying to debug errors in your CMake scripts. It returns a list of what list files are currently being processed, in order. So if one listfile does an include() command then that is effectively pushing the included listfile onto the stack.

MACROS¶

List of macro commands available in the current directory.

This read-only property specifies the list of CMake macros currently defined. It is intended for debugging purposes. See the macro() command.

PARENT_DIRECTORY¶

Source directory that added current subdirectory.

This read-only property specifies the source directory that added the current source directory as a subdirectory of the build. In the top-level directory the value is the empty-string.

RULE_LAUNCH_COMPILE¶

Specify a launcher for compile rules.

NOTE:

See the global property of the same name for details. This overrides the global property for a directory.

RULE_LAUNCH_CUSTOM¶

Specify a launcher for custom rules.

See the global property of the same name for details. This overrides the global property for a directory.

RULE_LAUNCH_LINK¶

Specify a launcher for link rules.

NOTE:

See the global property of the same name for details. This overrides the global property for a directory.

SOURCE_DIR¶

New in version 3.7.

This read-only directory property reports absolute path to the source directory on which it is read.

SUBDIRECTORIES¶

New in version 3.7.

This read-only directory property contains a semicolon-separated list of subdirectories processed so far by the add_subdirectory() or subdirs() commands. Each entry is the absolute path to the source directory (containing the CMakeLists.txt file). This is suitable to pass to the get_property() command DIRECTORY option.

NOTE:

SYSTEM¶

New in version 3.25.

This directory property is used to initialize the SYSTEM target property for targets created in that directory. It is set to true by add_subdirectory() and FetchContent_Declare() when the SYSTEM option is given as an argument to those commands.

TESTS¶

New in version 3.12.

List of tests.

This read-only property holds a semicolon-separated list of tests defined so far, in the current directory, by the add_test() command.

TEST_INCLUDE_FILES¶

New in version 3.10.

A list of cmake files that will be included when ctest is run.

If you specify TEST_INCLUDE_FILES, those files will be included and processed when ctest is run on the directory.

VARIABLES¶

List of variables defined in the current directory.

This read-only property specifies the list of CMake variables currently defined. It is intended for debugging purposes.

VS_GLOBAL_SECTION_POST_<section>¶

Specify a postSolution global section in Visual Studio.

Setting a property like this generates an entry of the following form in the solution file:

GlobalSection(<section>) = postSolution


  <contents based on property value>
EndGlobalSection

The property must be set to a semicolon-separated list of key=value pairs. Each such pair will be transformed into an entry in the solution global section. Whitespace around key and value is ignored. List elements which do not contain an equal sign are skipped.

This property only works for Visual Studio 9 and above; it is ignored on other generators. The property only applies when set on a directory whose CMakeLists.txt contains a project() command.

Note that CMake generates postSolution sections ExtensibilityGlobals and ExtensibilityAddIns by default. If you set the corresponding property, it will override the default section. For example, setting VS_GLOBAL_SECTION_POST_ExtensibilityGlobals will override the default contents of the ExtensibilityGlobals section, while keeping ExtensibilityAddIns on its default. However, CMake will always add a SolutionGuid to the ExtensibilityGlobals section if it is not specified explicitly.

VS_GLOBAL_SECTION_PRE_<section>¶

Specify a preSolution global section in Visual Studio.

Setting a property like this generates an entry of the following form in the solution file:

GlobalSection(<section>) = preSolution


  <contents based on property value>
EndGlobalSection

The property must be set to a semicolon-separated list of key=value pairs. Each such pair will be transformed into an entry in the solution global section. Whitespace around key and value is ignored. List elements which do not contain an equal sign are skipped.

This property only works for Visual Studio 9 and above; it is ignored on other generators. The property only applies when set on a directory whose CMakeLists.txt contains a project() command.

VS_STARTUP_PROJECT¶

New in version 3.6.

Specify the default startup project in a Visual Studio solution.

The Visual Studio Generators create a .sln file for each directory whose CMakeLists.txt file calls the project() command. Set this property in the same directory as a project() command call (e.g. in the top-level CMakeLists.txt file) to specify the default startup project for the corresponding solution file.

The property must be set to the name of an existing target. This will cause that project to be listed first in the generated solution file causing Visual Studio to make it the startup project if the solution has never been opened before.

If this property is not specified, then the ALL_BUILD project will be the default.

ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES¶

New in version 3.15.

A ;-list of files or directories that will be removed as a part of the global clean target. It can be used to specify files and directories that are generated as part of building the target or that are directly associated with the target in some way (e.g. created as a result of running the target).

For custom targets, if such files can be captured as outputs or byproducts instead, then that should be preferred over adding them to this property. If an additional clean file is used by multiple targets or isn't target-specific, then the ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES directory property may be the more appropriate property to use.

Relative paths are allowed and are interpreted relative to the current binary directory.

Contents of ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES may use generator expressions.

This property only works for the Ninja and the Makefile generators. It is ignored by other generators.

AIX_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS¶

New in version 3.17.

On AIX, CMake automatically exports all symbols from shared libraries, and from executables with the ENABLE_EXPORTS target property set. Explicitly disable this boolean property to suppress the behavior and export no symbols by default. In this case it is expected that the project will use other means to export some symbols.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AIX_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS variable if it is set when a target is created.

ALIAS_GLOBAL¶

New in version 3.18.

Read-only property indicating of whether an ALIAS target is globally visible.

The boolean value of this property is TRUE for aliases to IMPORTED targets created with the GLOBAL options to add_executable() or add_library(), FALSE otherwise. It is undefined for targets built within the project.

NOTE:

ALIASED_TARGET¶

Name of target aliased by this target.

If this is an Alias Target, this property contains the name of the target aliased.

ANDROID_ANT_ADDITIONAL_OPTIONS¶

New in version 3.4.

Set the additional options for Android Ant build system. This is a string value containing all command line options for the Ant build. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_ANT_ADDITIONAL_OPTIONS variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_API¶

New in version 3.1.

When Cross Compiling for Android with NVIDIA Nsight Tegra Visual Studio Edition, this property sets the Android target API version (e.g. 15). The version number must be a positive decimal integer. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_API variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_API_MIN¶

New in version 3.2.

Set the Android MIN API version (e.g. 9). The version number must be a positive decimal integer. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_API_MIN variable if it is set when a target is created. Native code builds using this API version.

ANDROID_ARCH¶

New in version 3.4.

When Cross Compiling for Android with NVIDIA Nsight Tegra Visual Studio Edition, this property sets the Android target architecture.

This is a string property that could be set to the one of the following values:

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_ARCH variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_ASSETS_DIRECTORIES¶

New in version 3.4.

Set the Android assets directories to copy into the main assets folder before build. This a string property that contains the directory paths separated by semicolon. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_ASSETS_DIRECTORIES variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_GUI¶

New in version 3.1.

When Cross Compiling for Android with NVIDIA Nsight Tegra Visual Studio Edition, this property specifies whether to build an executable as an application package on Android.

When this property is set to true the executable when built for Android will be created as an application package. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_GUI variable if it is set when a target is created.

Add the AndroidManifest.xml source file explicitly to the target add_executable() command invocation to specify the root directory of the application package source.

ANDROID_JAR_DEPENDENCIES¶

New in version 3.4.

Set the Android property that specifies JAR dependencies. This is a string value property. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_JAR_DEPENDENCIES variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_JAR_DIRECTORIES¶

New in version 3.4.

Set the Android property that specifies directories to search for the JAR libraries.

This a string property that contains the directory paths separated by semicolons. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_JAR_DIRECTORIES variable if it is set when a target is created.

Contents of ANDROID_JAR_DIRECTORIES may use "generator expressions" with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.

ANDROID_JAVA_SOURCE_DIR¶

New in version 3.4.

Set the Android property that defines the Java source code root directories. This a string property that contains the directory paths separated by semicolon. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_JAVA_SOURCE_DIR variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DEPENDENCIES¶

New in version 3.4.

Set the Android property that specifies the .so dependencies. This is a string property.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DEPENDENCIES variable if it is set when a target is created.

Contents of ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DEPENDENCIES may use "generator expressions" with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.

ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DIRECTORIES¶

New in version 3.4.

Set the Android property that specifies directories to search for the .so libraries.

This a string property that contains the directory paths separated by semicolons.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DIRECTORIES variable if it is set when a target is created.

Contents of ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DIRECTORIES may use "generator expressions" with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.

ANDROID_PROCESS_MAX¶

New in version 3.4.

Set the Android property that defines the maximum number of a parallel Android NDK compiler processes (e.g. 4). This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_PROCESS_MAX variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_PROGUARD¶

New in version 3.4.

When this property is set to true that enables the ProGuard tool to shrink, optimize, and obfuscate the code by removing unused code and renaming classes, fields, and methods with semantically obscure names. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_PROGUARD variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_PROGUARD_CONFIG_PATH¶

New in version 3.4.

Set the Android property that specifies the location of the ProGuard config file. Leave empty to use the default one. This a string property that contains the path to ProGuard config file. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_PROGUARD_CONFIG_PATH variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_SECURE_PROPS_PATH¶

New in version 3.4.

Set the Android property that states the location of the secure properties file. This is a string property that contains the file path. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_SECURE_PROPS_PATH variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_SKIP_ANT_STEP¶

New in version 3.4.

Set the Android property that defines whether or not to skip the Ant build step. This is a boolean property initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_SKIP_ANT_STEP variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_STL_TYPE¶

New in version 3.4.

When Cross Compiling for Android with NVIDIA Nsight Tegra Visual Studio Edition, this property specifies the type of STL support for the project. This is a string property that could set to the one of the following values:

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_STL_TYPE variable if it is set when a target is created.

ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY¶

Output directory in which to build ARCHIVE target files.

This property specifies the directory into which archive target files should be built. The property value may use generator expressions. Multi-configuration generators (Visual Studio, Xcode, Ninja Multi-Config) append a per-configuration subdirectory to the specified directory unless a generator expression is used.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY variable if it is set when a target is created.

See also the ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> target property.

ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration output directory for ARCHIVE target files.

This is a per-configuration version of the ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY target property, but multi-configuration generators (VS, Xcode) do NOT append a per-configuration subdirectory to the specified directory. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> variable if it is set when a target is created.

Contents of ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> may use generator expressions.

ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_NAME¶

Output name for ARCHIVE target files.

This property specifies the base name for archive target files. It overrides OUTPUT_NAME and OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG> properties.

See also the ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG> target property.

ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration output name for ARCHIVE target files.

This is the configuration-specific version of the ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_NAME target property.

AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR¶

New in version 3.9.

Directory where AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC generate files for the target.

The directory is created on demand and automatically added to the ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES target property.

When unset or empty the directory <dir>/<target-name>_autogen is used where <dir> is CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR and <target-name> is NAME.

By default AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR is unset.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS¶

New in version 3.14.

Switch for forwarding origin target dependencies to the corresponding _autogen target.

Targets which have their AUTOMOC or AUTOUIC property ON have a corresponding _autogen target which generates moc and uic files. As this _autogen target is created at generate-time, it is not possible to define dependencies of it using e.g. add_dependencies(). Instead the AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS target property decides whether the origin target dependencies should be forwarded to the _autogen target or not.

By default AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS is initialized from CMAKE_AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS which is ON by default.

In total the dependencies of the _autogen target are composed from

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

Note¶

Disabling AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS is useful to avoid building of origin target dependencies when building the _autogen target only. This is especially interesting when a global autogen target is enabled.

When the _autogen target doesn't require all the origin target's dependencies, and AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS is disabled, it might be necessary to extend AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS to add missing dependencies.

AUTOGEN_PARALLEL¶

New in version 3.11.

Number of parallel moc or uic processes to start when using AUTOMOC and AUTOUIC.

The custom <origin>_autogen target starts a number of threads of which each one parses a source file and on demand starts a moc or uic process. AUTOGEN_PARALLEL controls how many parallel threads (and therefore moc or uic processes) are started.

By default AUTOGEN_PARALLEL is initialized from CMAKE_AUTOGEN_PARALLEL.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS¶

Additional target dependencies of the corresponding _autogen target.

Targets which have their AUTOMOC or AUTOUIC property ON have a corresponding _autogen target which generates moc and uic files. As this _autogen target is created at generate-time, it is not possible to define dependencies of it using e.g. add_dependencies(). Instead the AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS target property can be set to a ;-list of additional dependencies for the _autogen target. Dependencies can be target names or file names.

In total the dependencies of the _autogen target are composed from

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

Use cases¶

If AUTOMOC or AUTOUIC depends on a file that is either

it must be added to AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS.

AUTOMOC¶

Should the target be processed with auto-moc (for Qt projects).

AUTOMOC is a boolean specifying whether CMake will handle the Qt moc preprocessor automatically, i.e. without having to use commands like QT4_WRAP_CPP(), QT5_WRAP_CPP(), etc. Currently, Qt versions 4 to 6 are supported.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AUTOMOC variable if it is set when a target is created.

When this property is set ON, CMake will scan the header and source files at build time and invoke moc accordingly.

Header file processing¶

At configuration time, a list of header files that should be scanned by AUTOMOC is computed from the target's sources.

At build time, CMake scans each unknown or modified header file from the list and searches for

If a Qt macro is found, then the header will be compiled by the moc to the output file moc_<base_name>.cpp. The complete output file path is described in the section Output file location.

The header will be moc compiled again if a file from the additional file dependencies changes.

Header moc output files moc_<base_name>.cpp can be included in source files. In the section Including header moc files in sources there is more information on that topic.

Source file processing¶

At build time, CMake scans each unknown or modified C++ source file from the target's sources for

If a Qt macro is found, then the C++ source file <base>.<source_extension> is expected to as well contain an include statement

#include <<base>.moc> // or
#include "<base>.moc"

The source file then will be compiled by the moc to the output file <base>.moc. A description of the complete output file path is in section Output file location.

The source will be moc compiled again if a file from the additional file dependencies changes.

Including header moc files in sources¶

A source file can include the moc output file of a header <header_base>.<header_extension> by using an include statement of the form

#include <moc_<header_base>.cpp> // or
#include "moc_<header_base>.cpp"

If the moc output file of a header is included by a source, it will be generated in a different location than if it was not included. This is described in the section Output file location.

Output file location¶

Included moc output files¶

moc output files that are included by a source file will be generated in

Where <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR> is the value of the target property AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR.

The include directory is automatically added to the target's INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.

Not included moc output files¶

moc output files that are not included in a source file will be generated in

Where <SOURCE_DIR_CHECKSUM> is a checksum computed from the relative parent directory path of the moc input file. This scheme allows to have moc input files with the same name in different directories.

All not included moc output files will be included automatically by the CMake generated file

which is added to the target's sources.

Qt version detection¶

AUTOMOC enabled targets need to know the Qt major and minor version they're working with. The major version usually is provided by the INTERFACE_QT_MAJOR_VERSION property of the Qt[456]Core library, that the target links to. To find the minor version, CMake builds a list of available Qt versions from

in the context of the add_executable() or add_library() call.

Assumed INTERFACE_QT_MAJOR_VERSION is a valid number, the first entry in the list with a matching major version is taken. If no matching major version was found, an error is generated. If INTERFACE_QT_MAJOR_VERSION is not a valid number, the first entry in the list is taken.

A find_package(Qt[456]...) call sets the QT/Qt[56]Core_VERSION_MAJOR/MINOR variables. If the call is in a different context than the add_executable() or add_library() call, e.g. in a function, then the version variables might not be available to the AUTOMOC enabled target. In that case the version variables can be forwarded from the find_package(Qt[456]...) calling context to the add_executable() or add_library() calling context as directory properties. The following Qt5 example demonstrates the procedure.

function (add_qt5_client)


  find_package(Qt5 REQUIRED QUIET COMPONENTS Core Widgets)


  ...


  set_property(DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}"


    PROPERTY Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR "${Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR}")


  set_property(DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}"


    PROPERTY Qt5Core_VERSION_MINOR "${Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR}")


  ...
endfunction ()
...
add_qt5_client()
add_executable(myTarget main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(myTarget Qt5::QtWidgets)
set_property(TARGET myTarget PROPERTY AUTOMOC ON)

Modifiers¶

AUTOMOC_EXECUTABLE: The moc executable will be detected automatically, but can be forced to a certain binary using this target property.

AUTOMOC_MOC_OPTIONS: Additional command line options for moc can be set in this target property.

AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES: This list of Qt macro names can be extended to search for additional macros in headers and sources.

AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS: moc dependency file names can be extracted from headers or sources by defining file name filters in this target property.

AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES: Compiler pre definitions for moc are written to the moc_predefs.h file. The generation of this file can be enabled or disabled in this target property.

SKIP_AUTOMOC: Sources and headers can be excluded from AUTOMOC processing by setting this source file property.

SKIP_AUTOGEN: Source files can be excluded from AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC processing by setting this source file property.

AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP: This global property can be used to group files generated by AUTOMOC or AUTORCC together in an IDE, e.g. in MSVS.

AUTOGEN_TARGETS_FOLDER: This global property can be used to group AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC targets together in an IDE, e.g. in MSVS.

CMAKE_GLOBAL_AUTOGEN_TARGET: A global autogen target, that depends on all AUTOMOC or AUTOUIC generated <ORIGIN>_autogen targets in the project, will be generated when this variable is ON.

AUTOGEN_PARALLEL: This target property controls the number of moc or uic processes to start in parallel during builds.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES¶

New in version 3.10.

Boolean value used by AUTOMOC to determine if the compiler pre definitions file moc_predefs.h should be generated.

CMake generates a moc_predefs.h file with compiler pre definitions from the output of the command defined in CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_PREDEFINES_COMMAND when

The moc_predefs.h file, which is generated in AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR, is passed to moc as the argument to the --include option.

By default AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES is initialized from CMAKE_AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES, which is ON by default.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS¶

New in version 3.9.

Filter definitions used by AUTOMOC to extract file names from a source file that are registered as additional dependencies for the moc file of the source file.

Filters are defined as KEYWORD;REGULAR_EXPRESSION pairs. First the file content is searched for KEYWORD. If it is found at least once, then file names are extracted by successively searching for REGULAR_EXPRESSION and taking the first match group.

The file name found in the first match group is searched for

If any of the extracted files changes, then the moc file for the source file gets rebuilt even when the source file itself doesn't change.

If any of the extracted files is GENERATED or if it is not in the target's sources, then it might be necessary to add it to the _autogen target dependencies. See AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS for reference.

By default AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS is initialized from CMAKE_AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS, which is empty by default.

From Qt 5.15.0 on this variable is ignored as moc is able to output the correct dependencies.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

Example 1¶

A header file my_class.hpp uses a custom macro JSON_FILE_MACRO which is defined in an other header macros.hpp. We want the moc file of my_class.hpp to depend on the file name argument of JSON_FILE_MACRO:

// my_class.hpp
class My_Class : public QObject
{


  Q_OBJECT


  JSON_FILE_MACRO ( "info.json" )
...
};

In CMakeLists.txt we add a filter to CMAKE_AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS like this:

list( APPEND CMAKE_AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS


  "JSON_FILE_MACRO"


  "[\n][ \t]*JSON_FILE_MACRO[ \t]*\\([ \t]*\"([^\"]+)\""
)

We assume info.json is a plain (not GENERATED) file that is listed in the target's source. Therefore we do not need to add it to AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS.

Example 2¶

In the target my_target a header file complex_class.hpp uses a custom macro JSON_BASED_CLASS which is defined in an other header macros.hpp:

// macros.hpp
...
#define JSON_BASED_CLASS(name, json) \
class name : public QObject \
{ \


  Q_OBJECT \


  Q_PLUGIN_METADATA(IID "demo" FILE json) \


  name() {} \
};
...

// complex_class.hpp
#pragma once
JSON_BASED_CLASS(Complex_Class, "meta.json")
// end of file

Since complex_class.hpp doesn't contain a Q_OBJECT macro it would be ignored by AUTOMOC. We change this by adding JSON_BASED_CLASS to CMAKE_AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES:

list(APPEND CMAKE_AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES "JSON_BASED_CLASS")

We want the moc file of complex_class.hpp to depend on meta.json. So we add a filter to CMAKE_AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS:

list(APPEND CMAKE_AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS


  "JSON_BASED_CLASS"


  "[\n^][ \t]*JSON_BASED_CLASS[ \t]*\\([^,]*,[ \t]*\"([^\"]+)\""
)

Additionally we assume meta.json is GENERATED which is why we have to add it to AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS:

set_property(TARGET my_target APPEND PROPERTY AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS "meta.json")

AUTOMOC_EXECUTABLE¶

New in version 3.14.

AUTOMOC_EXECUTABLE is file path pointing to the moc executable to use for AUTOMOC enabled files. Setting this property will make CMake skip the automatic detection of the moc binary as well as the sanity-tests normally run to ensure that the binary is available and working as expected.

Usually this property does not need to be set. Only consider this property if auto-detection of moc can not work -- e.g. because you are building the moc binary as part of your project.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES¶

New in version 3.10.

A semicolon-separated list list of macro names used by AUTOMOC to determine if a C++ file needs to be processed by moc.

This property is only used if the AUTOMOC property is ON for this target.

When running AUTOMOC, CMake searches for the strings listed in AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES in C++ source and header files. If any of the strings is found

then the file will be processed by moc.

By default AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES is initialized from CMAKE_AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

Example¶

In this case the Q_OBJECT macro is hidden inside another macro called CUSTOM_MACRO. To let CMake know that source files that contain CUSTOM_MACRO need to be moc processed, we call:

set_property(TARGET tgt APPEND PROPERTY AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES "CUSTOM_MACRO")

AUTOMOC_MOC_OPTIONS¶

Additional options for moc when using AUTOMOC

This property is only used if the AUTOMOC property is ON for this target. In this case, it holds additional command line options which will be used when moc is executed during the build, i.e. it is equivalent to the optional OPTIONS argument of the qt4_wrap_cpp() macro.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AUTOMOC_MOC_OPTIONS variable if it is set when a target is created, or an empty string otherwise.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOMOC_PATH_PREFIX¶

New in version 3.16.

When this property is ON, CMake will generate the -p path prefix option for moc on AUTOMOC enabled Qt targets.

To generate the path prefix, CMake tests if the header compiled by moc is in any of the target include directories. If so, CMake will compute the relative path accordingly. If the header is not in the include directories, CMake will omit the -p path prefix option. moc usually generates a relative include path in that case.

AUTOMOC_PATH_PREFIX is initialized from the variable CMAKE_AUTOMOC_PATH_PREFIX, which is OFF by default.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

Reproducible builds¶

For reproducible builds it is recommended to keep headers that are moc compiled in one of the target include directories and set AUTOMOC_PATH_PREFIX to ON. This ensures that:

AUTORCC¶

Should the target be processed with auto-rcc (for Qt projects).

AUTORCC is a boolean specifying whether CMake will handle the Qt rcc code generator automatically, i.e. without having to use commands like QT4_ADD_RESOURCES(), QT5_ADD_RESOURCES(), etc. Currently, Qt versions 4 to 6 are supported.

When this property is ON, CMake will handle .qrc files added as target sources at build time and invoke rcc accordingly. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AUTORCC variable if it is set when a target is created.

By default AUTORCC is processed by a custom command. If the .qrc file is GENERATED, a custom target is used instead.

When there are multiple .qrc files with the same name, CMake will generate unspecified unique output file names for rcc. Therefore, if Q_INIT_RESOURCE() or Q_CLEANUP_RESOURCE() need to be used, the .qrc file name must be unique.

Modifiers¶

AUTORCC_EXECUTABLE: The rcc executable will be detected automatically, but can be forced to a certain binary by setting this target property.

AUTORCC_OPTIONS: Additional command line options for rcc can be set via this target property. The corresponding AUTORCC_OPTIONS source file property can be used to specify options to be applied only to a specific .qrc file.

SKIP_AUTORCC: .qrc files can be excluded from AUTORCC processing by setting this source file property.

SKIP_AUTOGEN: Source files can be excluded from AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC processing by setting this source file property.

AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP: This global property can be used to group files generated by AUTOMOC or AUTORCC together in an IDE, e.g. in MSVS.

AUTOGEN_TARGETS_FOLDER: This global property can be used to group AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC targets together in an IDE, e.g. in MSVS.

CMAKE_GLOBAL_AUTORCC_TARGET: A global autorcc target that depends on all AUTORCC targets in the project will be generated when this variable is ON.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTORCC_EXECUTABLE¶

New in version 3.14.

AUTORCC_EXECUTABLE is file path pointing to the rcc executable to use for AUTORCC enabled files. Setting this property will make CMake skip the automatic detection of the rcc binary as well as the sanity-tests normally run to ensure that the binary is available and working as expected.

Usually this property does not need to be set. Only consider this property if auto-detection of rcc can not work -- e.g. because you are building the rcc binary as part of your project.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTORCC_OPTIONS¶

Additional options for rcc when using AUTORCC

This property holds additional command line options which will be used when rcc is executed during the build via AUTORCC, i.e. it is equivalent to the optional OPTIONS argument of the qt4_add_resources() macro.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AUTORCC_OPTIONS variable if it is set when a target is created, or an empty string otherwise.

The options set on the target may be overridden by AUTORCC_OPTIONS set on the .qrc source file.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

EXAMPLE¶

# ...
set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY AUTORCC_OPTIONS "--compress;9")
# ...

AUTOUIC¶

Should the target be processed with auto-uic (for Qt projects).

AUTOUIC is a boolean specifying whether CMake will handle the Qt uic code generator automatically, i.e. without having to use commands like QT4_WRAP_UI(), QT5_WRAP_UI(), etc. Currently, Qt versions 4 to 6 are supported.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AUTOUIC variable if it is set when a target is created.

When this property is ON, CMake will scan the header and source files at build time and invoke uic accordingly.

Header and source file processing¶

At build time, CMake scans each header and source file from the target's sources for include statements of the form

#include "ui_<ui_base>.h"

Once such an include statement is found in a file, CMake searches for the uic input file <ui_base>.ui

If the <ui_base>.ui file was found, uic is called on it to generate ui_<ui_base>.h in the directory

Where <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR> is the value of the target property AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR.

The include directory is automatically added to the target's INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.

Modifiers¶

AUTOUIC_EXECUTABLE: The uic executable will be detected automatically, but can be forced to a certain binary using this target property.

AUTOUIC_OPTIONS: Additional command line options for uic can be set via this target property. The corresponding AUTOUIC_OPTIONS source file property can be used to specify options to be applied only to a specific <base_name>.ui file.

SKIP_AUTOUIC: Source files can be excluded from AUTOUIC processing by setting this source file property.

SKIP_AUTOGEN: Source files can be excluded from AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC processing by setting this source file property.

AUTOGEN_TARGETS_FOLDER: This global property can be used to group AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC targets together in an IDE, e.g. in MSVS.

CMAKE_GLOBAL_AUTOGEN_TARGET: A global autogen target, that depends on all AUTOMOC or AUTOUIC generated <ORIGIN>_autogen targets in the project, will be generated when this variable is ON.

AUTOGEN_PARALLEL: This target property controls the number of moc or uic processes to start in parallel during builds.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOUIC_EXECUTABLE¶

New in version 3.14.

AUTOUIC_EXECUTABLE is file path pointing to the uic executable to use for AUTOUIC enabled files. Setting this property will make CMake skip the automatic detection of the uic binary as well as the sanity-tests normally run to ensure that the binary is available and working as expected.

Usually this property does not need to be set. Only consider this property if auto-detection of uic can not work -- e.g. because you are building the uic binary as part of your project.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOUIC_OPTIONS¶

Additional options for uic when using AUTOUIC

This property holds additional command line options which will be used when uic is executed during the build via AUTOUIC, i.e. it is equivalent to the optional OPTIONS argument of the qt4_wrap_ui() macro.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AUTOUIC_OPTIONS variable if it is set when a target is created, or an empty string otherwise.

The options set on the target may be overridden by AUTOUIC_OPTIONS set on the .ui source file.

This property may use "generator expressions" with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

EXAMPLE¶

# ...
set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY AUTOUIC_OPTIONS "--no-protection")
# ...

AUTOUIC_SEARCH_PATHS¶

New in version 3.9.

Search path list used by AUTOUIC to find included .ui files.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AUTOUIC_SEARCH_PATHS variable if it is set when a target is created. Otherwise it is empty.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

BINARY_DIR¶

New in version 3.4.

This read-only property reports the value of the CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR variable in the directory in which the target was defined.

BUILD_RPATH¶

New in version 3.8.

A semicolon-separated list specifying runtime path (RPATH) entries to add to binaries linked in the build tree (for platforms that support it). The entries will not be used for binaries in the install tree. See also the INSTALL_RPATH target property.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_BUILD_RPATH if it is set when a target is created.

This property supports generator expressions.

BUILD_RPATH_USE_ORIGIN¶

New in version 3.14.

Whether to use relative paths for the build RPATH.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_BUILD_RPATH_USE_ORIGIN.

On platforms that support runtime paths (RPATH) with the $ORIGIN token, setting this property to TRUE enables relative paths in the build RPATH for executables and shared libraries that point to shared libraries in the same build tree.

Normally the build RPATH of a binary contains absolute paths to the directory of each shared library it links to. The RPATH entries for directories contained within the build tree can be made relative to enable relocatable builds and to help achieve reproducible builds by omitting the build directory from the build environment.

This property has no effect on platforms that do not support the $ORIGIN token in RPATH, or when the CMAKE_SKIP_RPATH variable is set. The runtime path set through the BUILD_RPATH target property is also unaffected by this property.

BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_NAME_DIR¶

New in version 3.9.

BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_NAME_DIR is a boolean specifying whether the macOS install_name of a target in the build tree uses the directory given by INSTALL_NAME_DIR. This setting only applies to targets on macOS.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_NAME_DIR if it is set when a target is created.

If this property is not set and policy CMP0068 is not NEW, the value of BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_RPATH is used in its place.

BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_RPATH¶

BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_RPATH is a boolean specifying whether to link the target in the build tree with the INSTALL_RPATH. This takes precedence over SKIP_BUILD_RPATH and avoids the need for relinking before installation.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_RPATH variable if it is set when a target is created.

If policy CMP0068 is not NEW, this property also controls use of INSTALL_NAME_DIR in the build tree on macOS. Either way, the BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_NAME_DIR target property takes precedence.

BUNDLE¶

This target is a CFBundle on the macOS.

If a module library target has this property set to true it will be built as a CFBundle when built on the mac. It will have the directory structure required for a CFBundle and will be suitable to be used for creating Browser Plugins or other application resources.

BUNDLE_EXTENSION¶

The file extension used to name a BUNDLE, a FRAMEWORK, or a MACOSX_BUNDLE target on the macOS and iOS.

The default value is bundle, framework, or app for the respective target types.

C_EXTENSIONS¶

New in version 3.1.

Boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested.

This property specifies whether compiler specific extensions should be used. For some compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu11 instead of -std=c11 to the compile line. This property is ON by default. The basic C standard level is controlled by the C_STANDARD target property.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_C_EXTENSIONS variable if set when a target is created and otherwise by the value of CMAKE_C_EXTENSIONS_DEFAULT (see CMP0128).

C_STANDARD¶

New in version 3.1.

The C standard whose features are requested to build this target.

This property specifies the C standard whose features are requested to build this target. For some compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu11 to the compile line. For compilers that have no notion of a C standard level, such as Microsoft Visual C++ before VS 16.7, this property has no effect.

Supported values are:

If the value requested does not result in a compile flag being added for the compiler in use, a previous standard flag will be added instead. This means that using:

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY C_STANDARD 11)

with a compiler which does not support -std=gnu11 or an equivalent flag will not result in an error or warning, but will instead add the -std=gnu99 or -std=gnu90 flag if supported. This "decay" behavior may be controlled with the C_STANDARD_REQUIRED target property. Additionally, the C_EXTENSIONS target property may be used to control whether compiler-specific extensions are enabled on a per-target basis.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_C_STANDARD variable if it is set when a target is created.

C_STANDARD_REQUIRED¶

New in version 3.1.

Boolean describing whether the value of C_STANDARD is a requirement.

If this property is set to ON, then the value of the C_STANDARD target property is treated as a requirement. If this property is OFF or unset, the C_STANDARD target property is treated as optional and may "decay" to a previous standard if the requested is not available. For compilers that have no notion of a C standard level, such as Microsoft Visual C++ before VS 16.7, this property has no effect.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_C_STANDARD_REQUIRED variable if it is set when a target is created.

COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME¶

New in version 3.12.

By setting this target property, the target is configured to build with C++/CLI support.

The Visual Studio generator defines the clr parameter depending on the value of COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME:

Supported values: "", "pure", "safe"

This property is only evaluated Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above.

To be able to build managed C++ targets with VS 2017 and above the component C++/CLI support must be installed, which may not be done by default.

See also IMPORTED_COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME

COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_BOOL¶

Properties which must be compatible with their link interface

The COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_BOOL property may contain a list of properties for this target which must be consistent when evaluated as a boolean with the INTERFACE variant of the property in all linked dependees. For example, if a property FOO appears in the list, then for each dependee, the INTERFACE_FOO property content in all of its dependencies must be consistent with each other, and with the FOO property in the depender.

Consistency in this sense has the meaning that if the property is set, then it must have the same boolean value as all others, and if the property is not set, then it is ignored.

Note that for each dependee, the set of properties specified in this property must not intersect with the set specified in any of the other Compatible Interface Properties.

COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_NUMBER_MAX¶

Properties whose maximum value from the link interface will be used.

The COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_NUMBER_MAX property may contain a list of properties for this target whose maximum value may be read at generate time when evaluated in the INTERFACE variant of the property in all linked dependees. For example, if a property FOO appears in the list, then for each dependee, the INTERFACE_FOO property content in all of its dependencies will be compared with each other and with the FOO property in the depender. When reading the FOO property at generate time, the maximum value will be returned. If the property is not set, then it is ignored.

Note that for each dependee, the set of properties specified in this property must not intersect with the set specified in any of the other Compatible Interface Properties.

COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_NUMBER_MIN¶

Properties whose maximum value from the link interface will be used.

The COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_NUMBER_MIN property may contain a list of properties for this target whose minimum value may be read at generate time when evaluated in the INTERFACE variant of the property of all linked dependees. For example, if a property FOO appears in the list, then for each dependee, the INTERFACE_FOO property content in all of its dependencies will be compared with each other and with the FOO property in the depender. When reading the FOO property at generate time, the minimum value will be returned. If the property is not set, then it is ignored.

Note that for each dependee, the set of properties specified in this property must not intersect with the set specified in any of the other Compatible Interface Properties.

COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_STRING¶

Properties which must be string-compatible with their link interface

The COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_STRING property may contain a list of properties for this target which must be the same when evaluated as a string in the INTERFACE variant of the property all linked dependees. For example, if a property FOO appears in the list, then for each dependee, the INTERFACE_FOO property content in all of its dependencies must be equal with each other, and with the FOO property in the depender. If the property is not set, then it is ignored.

Note that for each dependee, the set of properties specified in this property must not intersect with the set specified in any of the other Compatible Interface Properties.

COMPILE_DEFINITIONS¶

Preprocessor definitions for compiling a target's sources.

The COMPILE_DEFINITIONS property may be set to a semicolon-separated list of preprocessor definitions using the syntax VAR or VAR=value. Function-style definitions are not supported. CMake will automatically escape the value correctly for the native build system (note that CMake language syntax may require escapes to specify some values).

CMake will automatically drop some definitions that are not supported by the native build tool.

Disclaimer: Most native build tools have poor support for escaping certain values. CMake has work-arounds for many cases but some values may just not be possible to pass correctly. If a value does not seem to be escaped correctly, do not attempt to work-around the problem by adding escape sequences to the value. Your work-around may break in a future version of CMake that has improved escape support. Instead consider defining the macro in a (configured) header file. Then report the limitation. Known limitations include:

#          - broken almost everywhere
;          - broken in VS IDE 7.0 and Borland Makefiles
,          - broken in VS IDE
%          - broken in some cases in NMake
& |        - broken in some cases on MinGW
^ < > \"   - broken in most Make tools on Windows

CMake does not reject these values outright because they do work in some cases. Use with caution.

Contents of 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.

The corresponding COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_<CONFIG> property may be set to specify per-configuration definitions. Generator expressions should be preferred instead of setting the alternative property.

COMPILE_FEATURES¶

New in version 3.1.

Compiler features enabled for this target.

The list of features in this property are a subset of the features listed in the CMAKE_C_COMPILE_FEATURES, CMAKE_CUDA_COMPILE_FEATURES, and CMAKE_CXX_COMPILE_FEATURES variables.

Contents of COMPILE_FEATURES may use "generator expressions" with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

COMPILE_FLAGS¶

Additional flags to use when compiling this target's sources.

The COMPILE_FLAGS property sets additional compiler flags used to build sources within the target. Use COMPILE_DEFINITIONS to pass additional preprocessor definitions.

This property is deprecated. Use the COMPILE_OPTIONS property or the target_compile_options() command instead.

COMPILE_OPTIONS¶

List of options to pass to the compiler.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of options specified so far for its target. Use the target_compile_options() command to append more options. The options will be added after after flags in the CMAKE_<LANG>_FLAGS and CMAKE_<LANG>_FLAGS_<CONFIG> variables, but before those propagated from dependencies by the INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS property.

This property is initialized by the COMPILE_OPTIONS directory property when a target is created, and is used by the generators to set the options for the compiler.

Contents of COMPILE_OPTIONS 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.

Option De-duplication¶

The final set of options used for a target is constructed by accumulating options from the current target and the usage requirements of its dependencies. The set of options is de-duplicated to avoid repetition.

New in version 3.12: While beneficial for individual options, the de-duplication step can break up option groups. For example, -option A -option B becomes -option A B. One may specify a group of options using shell-like quoting along with a SHELL: prefix. The SHELL: prefix is dropped, and the rest of the option string is parsed using the separate_arguments() UNIX_COMMAND mode. For example, "SHELL:-option A" "SHELL:-option B" becomes -option A -option B.

COMPILE_PDB_NAME¶

New in version 3.1.

Output name for the MS debug symbol .pdb file generated by the compiler while building source files.

This property specifies the base name for the debug symbols file. If not set, the default is unspecified.

NOTE:

COMPILE_PDB_NAME_<CONFIG>¶

New in version 3.1.

Per-configuration output name for the MS debug symbol .pdb file generated by the compiler while building source files.

This is the configuration-specific version of COMPILE_PDB_NAME.

NOTE:

COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY¶

New in version 3.1.

Output directory for the MS debug symbol .pdb file generated by the compiler while building source files.

This property specifies the directory into which the MS debug symbols will be placed by the compiler. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY variable if it is set when a target is created.

NOTE:

COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG>¶

New in version 3.1.

Per-configuration output directory for the MS debug symbol .pdb file generated by the compiler while building source files.

This is a per-configuration version of COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, but multi-configuration generators (Visual Studio, Xcode) do NOT append a per-configuration subdirectory to the specified directory. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> variable if it is set when a target is created.

NOTE:

COMPILE_WARNING_AS_ERROR¶

New in version 3.24.

Specify whether to treat warnings on compile as errors. If enabled, adds a flag to treat warnings on compile as errors. If the cmake --compile-no-warning-as-error option is given on the cmake(1) command line, this property is ignored.

This property is not implemented for all compilers. It is silently ignored if there is no implementation for the compiler being used. The currently implemented compiler IDs are:

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_COMPILE_WARNING_AS_ERROR if it is set when a target is created.

<CONFIG>_OUTPUT_NAME¶

Old per-configuration target file base name. Use OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG> instead.

This is a configuration-specific version of the OUTPUT_NAME target property.

<CONFIG>_POSTFIX¶

Postfix to append to the target file name for configuration <CONFIG>.

When building with configuration <CONFIG> the value of this property is appended to the target file name built on disk. For non-executable targets, this property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<CONFIG>_POSTFIX variable if it is set when a target is created. This property is ignored on macOS for Frameworks and App Bundles.

For macOS see also the FRAMEWORK_MULTI_CONFIG_POSTFIX_<CONFIG> target property.

CROSSCOMPILING_EMULATOR¶

New in version 3.3.

Use the given emulator to run executables created when crosscompiling. This command will be added as a prefix to add_test(), add_custom_command(), and add_custom_target() commands for built target system executables.

New in version 3.15: If this property contains a semicolon-separated list, then the first value is the command and remaining values are its arguments.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING_EMULATOR variable if it is set when a target is created.

CUDA_ARCHITECTURES¶

New in version 3.18.

List of architectures to generate device code for.

An architecture can be suffixed by either -real or -virtual to specify the kind of architecture to generate code for. If no suffix is given then code is generated for both real and virtual architectures.

A non-empty false value (e.g. OFF) disables adding architectures. This is intended to support packagers and rare cases where full control over the passed flags is required.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CUDA_ARCHITECTURES variable if it is set when a target is created.

The CUDA_ARCHITECTURES target property must be set to a non-empty value on targets that compile CUDA sources, or it is an error. See policy CMP0104.

The CUDA_ARCHITECTURES may be set to one of the following special values:

Examples¶

set_target_properties(tgt PROPERTIES CUDA_ARCHITECTURES "35;50;72")

Generates code for real and virtual architectures 30, 50 and 72.

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY CUDA_ARCHITECTURES 70-real 72-virtual)

Generates code for real architecture 70 and virtual architecture 72.

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY CUDA_ARCHITECTURES OFF)

CMake will not pass any architecture flags to the compiler.

CUDA_EXTENSIONS¶

New in version 3.8.

Boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested.

This property specifies whether compiler specific extensions should be used. For some compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu++11 instead of -std=c++11 to the compile line. This property is ON by default. The basic CUDA/C++ standard level is controlled by the CUDA_STANDARD target property.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CUDA_EXTENSIONS variable if set when a target is created and otherwise by the value of CMAKE_CUDA_EXTENSIONS_DEFAULT (see CMP0128).

CUDA_PTX_COMPILATION¶

New in version 3.9.

Compile CUDA sources to .ptx files instead of .obj files within Object Libraries.

For example:

add_library(myptx OBJECT a.cu b.cu)
set_property(TARGET myptx PROPERTY CUDA_PTX_COMPILATION ON)

CUDA_RESOLVE_DEVICE_SYMBOLS¶

New in version 3.9.

CUDA only: Enables device linking for the specific library target where required.

If set, this will tell the required compilers to enable device linking on the library target. Device linking is an additional link step required by some CUDA compilers when CUDA_SEPARABLE_COMPILATION is enabled. Normally device linking is deferred until a shared library or executable is generated, allowing for multiple static libraries to resolve device symbols at the same time when they are used by a shared library or executable.

By default static library targets have this property is disabled, while shared, module, and executable targets have this property enabled.

Note that device linking is not supported for Object Libraries.

For instance:

set_property(TARGET mystaticlib PROPERTY CUDA_RESOLVE_DEVICE_SYMBOLS ON)

CUDA_RUNTIME_LIBRARY¶

New in version 3.17.

Select the CUDA runtime library for use by compilers targeting the CUDA language.

The allowed case insensitive values are:

Contents of CUDA_RUNTIME_LIBRARY may use generator expressions.

If that property is not set then CMake uses an appropriate default value based on the compiler to select the CUDA runtime library.

NOTE:

CUDA_SEPARABLE_COMPILATION¶

New in version 3.8.

CUDA only: Enables separate compilation of device code

If set this will enable separable compilation for all CUDA files for the given target.

For instance:

set_property(TARGET myexe PROPERTY CUDA_SEPARABLE_COMPILATION ON)

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CUDA_SEPARABLE_COMPILATION variable if it is set when a target is created.

CUDA_STANDARD¶

New in version 3.8.

The CUDA/C++ standard whose features are requested to build this target.

This property specifies the CUDA/C++ standard whose features are requested to build this target. For some compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu++11 to the compile line.

Supported values are:

If the value requested does not result in a compile flag being added for the compiler in use, a previous standard flag will be added instead. This means that using:

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY CUDA_STANDARD 11)

with a compiler which does not support -std=gnu++11 or an equivalent flag will not result in an error or warning, but will instead add the -std=gnu++03 flag if supported. This "decay" behavior may be controlled with the CUDA_STANDARD_REQUIRED target property. Additionally, the CUDA_EXTENSIONS target property may be used to control whether compiler-specific extensions are enabled on a per-target basis.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CUDA_STANDARD variable if it is set when a target is created.

CUDA_STANDARD_REQUIRED¶

New in version 3.8.

Boolean describing whether the value of CUDA_STANDARD is a requirement.

If this property is set to ON, then the value of the CUDA_STANDARD target property is treated as a requirement. If this property is OFF or unset, the CUDA_STANDARD target property is treated as optional and may "decay" to a previous standard if the requested is not available. For compilers that have no notion of a standard level, such as MSVC 1800 (Visual Studio 2013) and lower, this has no effect.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CUDA_STANDARD_REQUIRED variable if it is set when a target is created.

CXX_EXTENSIONS¶

New in version 3.1.

Boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested.

This property specifies whether compiler specific extensions should be used. For some compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu++11 instead of -std=c++11 to the compile line. This property is ON by default. The basic C++ standard level is controlled by the CXX_STANDARD target property.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CXX_EXTENSIONS variable if set when a target is created and otherwise by the value of CMAKE_CXX_EXTENSIONS_DEFAULT (see CMP0128).

CXX_MODULE_DIRS¶

New in version 3.25.

NOTE:

Semicolon-separated list of base directories of the target's default C++ module set (i.e. the file set with name and type CXX_MODULES). The property supports generator expressions.

This property is normally only set by target_sources(FILE_SET) rather than being manipulated directly.

See CXX_MODULE_DIRS_<NAME> for the list of base directories in other C++ module sets.

CXX_MODULE_DIRS_<NAME>¶

New in version 3.25.

NOTE:

Semicolon-separated list of base directories of the target's <NAME> C++ module set, which has the set type CXX_MODULES. The property supports generator expressions.

This property is normally only set by target_sources(FILE_SET) rather than being manipulated directly.

See CXX_MODULE_DIRS for the list of base directories in the default C++ module set. See CXX_MODULE_SETS for the file set names of all C++ module sets.

CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_DIRS¶

New in version 3.25.

NOTE:

Semicolon-separated list of base directories of the target's default C++ module header set (i.e. the file set with name and type CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNITS). The property supports generator expressions.

This property is normally only set by target_sources(FILE_SET) rather than being manipulated directly.

See CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_DIRS_<NAME> for the list of base directories in other C++ module header sets.

CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_DIRS_<NAME>¶

New in version 3.25.

NOTE:

Semicolon-separated list of base directories of the target's <NAME> C++ module header set, which has the set type CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNITS. The property supports generator expressions.

This property is normally only set by target_sources(FILE_SET) rather than being manipulated directly.

See CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_DIRS for the list of base directories in the default C++ module header set. See CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SETS for the file set names of all C++ module header sets.

CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SET¶

New in version 3.25.

NOTE:

Semicolon-separated list of files in the target's default C++ module header set, (i.e. the file set with name and type CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNITS). If any of the paths are relative, they are computed relative to the target's source directory. The property supports generator expressions.

This property is normally only set by target_sources(FILE_SET) rather than being manipulated directly.

See CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SET_<NAME> for the list of files in other C++ module header sets.

CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SET_<NAME>¶

New in version 3.25.

NOTE:

Semicolon-separated list of files in the target's <NAME> C++ module header set, which has the set type CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNITS. If any of the paths are relative, they are computed relative to the target's source directory. The property supports generator expressions.

This property is normally only set by target_sources(FILE_SET) rather than being manipulated directly.

See CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SET for the list of files in the default C++ module header set. See CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SETS for the file set names of all C++ module header sets.

CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SETS¶

New in version 3.25.

NOTE:

Read-only list of the target's PRIVATE and PUBLIC C++ module header sets (i.e. all file sets with the type CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNITS). Files listed in these file sets are treated as source files for the purpose of IDE integration.

C++ module header sets may be defined using the target_sources() command FILE_SET option with type CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNITS.

See also CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SET_<NAME>, CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SET and INTERFACE_CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SETS.

CXX_MODULE_SET¶

New in version 3.25.

NOTE:

Semicolon-separated list of files in the target's default C++ module set, (i.e. the file set with name and type CXX_MODULES). If any of the paths are relative, they are computed relative to the target's source directory. The property supports generator expressions.

This property is normally only set by target_sources(FILE_SET) rather than being manipulated directly.

See CXX_MODULE_SET_<NAME> for the list of files in other C++ module sets.

CXX_MODULE_SET_<NAME>¶

New in version 3.25.

NOTE:

Semicolon-separated list of files in the target's <NAME> C++ module set, which has the set type CXX_MODULES. If any of the paths are relative, they are computed relative to the target's source directory. The property supports generator expressions.

This property is normally only set by target_sources(FILE_SET) rather than being manipulated directly.

See CXX_MODULE_SET for the list of files in the default C++ module set. See CXX_MODULE_SETS for the file set names of all C++ module sets.

CXX_MODULE_SETS¶

New in version 3.25.

NOTE:

Read-only list of the target's PRIVATE and PUBLIC C++ module sets (i.e. all file sets with the type CXX_MODULES). Files listed in these file sets are treated as source files for the purpose of IDE integration.

C++ module sets may be defined using the target_sources() command FILE_SET option with type CXX_MODULES.

See also CXX_MODULE_SET_<NAME>, CXX_MODULE_SET and INTERFACE_CXX_MODULE_SETS.

CXX_STANDARD¶

New in version 3.1.

The C++ standard whose features are requested to build this target.

This property specifies the C++ standard whose features are requested to build this target. For some compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu++11 to the compile line. For compilers that have no notion of a standard level, such as Microsoft Visual C++ before 2015 Update 3, this has no effect.

Supported values are:

If the value requested does not result in a compile flag being added for the compiler in use, a previous standard flag will be added instead. This means that using:

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY CXX_STANDARD 11)

with a compiler which does not support -std=gnu++11 or an equivalent flag will not result in an error or warning, but will instead add the -std=gnu++98 flag if supported. This "decay" behavior may be controlled with the CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED target property. Additionally, the CXX_EXTENSIONS target property may be used to control whether compiler-specific extensions are enabled on a per-target basis.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD variable if it is set when a target is created.

CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED¶

New in version 3.1.

Boolean describing whether the value of CXX_STANDARD is a requirement.

If this property is set to ON, then the value of the CXX_STANDARD target property is treated as a requirement. If this property is OFF or unset, the CXX_STANDARD target property is treated as optional and may "decay" to a previous standard if the requested is not available. For compilers that have no notion of a standard level, such as MSVC 1800 (Visual Studio 2013) and lower, this has no effect.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED variable if it is set when a target is created.

DEBUG_POSTFIX¶

See target property <CONFIG>_POSTFIX.

This property is a special case of the more-general <CONFIG>_POSTFIX property for the DEBUG configuration.

DEFINE_SYMBOL¶

Define a symbol when compiling this target's sources.

DEFINE_SYMBOL sets the name of the preprocessor symbol defined when compiling sources in a shared library. If not set here then it is set to target_EXPORTS by default (with some substitutions if the target is not a valid C identifier). This is useful for headers to know whether they are being included from inside their library or outside to properly setup dllexport/dllimport decorations.

DEPLOYMENT_ADDITIONAL_FILES¶

New in version 3.13.

Set the WinCE project AdditionalFiles in DeploymentTool in .vcproj files generated by the Visual Studio 9 2008 generator. This is useful when you want to debug on remote WinCE device. Specify additional files that will be copied to the device. For example:

set_property(TARGET ${TARGET} PROPERTY


  DEPLOYMENT_ADDITIONAL_FILES "english.lng|local_folder|remote_folder|0"


  "german.lng|local_folder|remote_folder|0")

produces:

<DeploymentTool AdditionalFiles="english.lng|local_folder|remote_folder|0;german.lng|local_folder|remote_folder|0" ... />

DEPLOYMENT_REMOTE_DIRECTORY¶

New in version 3.6.

Set the WinCE project RemoteDirectory in DeploymentTool and RemoteExecutable in DebuggerTool in .vcproj files generated by the Visual Studio 9 2008 generator. This is useful when you want to debug on remote WinCE device. For example:

set_property(TARGET ${TARGET} PROPERTY


  DEPLOYMENT_REMOTE_DIRECTORY "\\FlashStorage")

produces:

<DeploymentTool RemoteDirectory="\FlashStorage" ... />
<DebuggerTool RemoteExecutable="\FlashStorage\target_file" ... />

DEPRECATION¶

New in version 3.17.

Deprecation message from imported target's developer.

DEPRECATION is the message regarding a deprecation status to be displayed to downstream users of a target.

The message is formatted as follows:

DISABLE_PRECOMPILE_HEADERS¶

New in version 3.16.

Disables the precompilation of header files specified by PRECOMPILE_HEADERS property.

If the property is not set, CMake will use the value provided by CMAKE_DISABLE_PRECOMPILE_HEADERS.

DOTNET_SDK¶

New in version 3.23.

Specify the .NET SDK for C# projects. For example: Microsoft.NET.Sdk.

This property tells Visual Studio Generators for VS 2019 and above to generate a .NET SDK-style project using the specified SDK. The property is meaningful only to these generators, and only in C# targets. It is ignored for C++ projects, even if they are managed (e.g. using COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME).

This property must be a non-empty string to generate .NET SDK-style projects. CMake does not perform any validations for the value of the property.

This property may be initialized for all targets using the CMAKE_DOTNET_SDK variable.

NOTE:

DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK¶

New in version 3.17.

Specify the .NET target framework.

Used to specify the .NET target framework for C++/CLI and C#. For example: netcoreapp2.1.

This property is only evaluated for Visual Studio Generators VS 2010 and above.

Can be initialized for all targets using the variable CMAKE_DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK.

DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK_VERSION¶

New in version 3.12.

Specify the .NET target framework version.

Used to specify the .NET target framework version for C++/CLI and C#. For example: v4.5.

This property is only evaluated for Visual Studio Generators VS 2010 and above.

To initialize this variable for all targets set CMAKE_DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK or CMAKE_DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK_VERSION. If both are set, the latter is ignored.

EchoString¶

A message to be displayed when the target is built.

A message to display on some generators (such as Makefile Generators) when the target is built.

ENABLE_EXPORTS¶

Specify whether an executable exports symbols for loadable modules.

Normally an executable does not export any symbols because it is the final program. It is possible for an executable to export symbols to be used by loadable modules. When this property is set to true CMake will allow other targets to "link" to the executable with the target_link_libraries() command. On all platforms a target-level dependency on the executable is created for targets that link to it. Handling of the executable on the link lines of the loadable modules varies by platform:

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_ENABLE_EXPORTS if it is set when a target is created.

EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL¶

Set this target property to a true (or false) value to exclude (or include) the target from the "all" target of the containing directory and its ancestors. If excluded, running e.g. make in the containing directory or its ancestors will not build the target by default.

If this target property is not set then the target will be included in the "all" target of the containing directory. Furthermore, it will be included in the "all" target of its ancestor directories unless the EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL directory property is set.

With EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL set to false or not set at all, the target will be brought up to date as part of doing a make install or its equivalent for the CMake generator being used.

If a target has EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL set to true, it may still be listed in an install(TARGETS) command, but the user is responsible for ensuring that the target's build artifacts are not missing or outdated when an install is performed.

This property may use "generator expressions" with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.

Only the "Ninja Multi-Config" generator supports a property value that varies by configuration. For all other generators the value of this property must be the same for all configurations.

EXCLUDE_FROM_DEFAULT_BUILD¶

Exclude target from Build Solution.

This property is only used by Visual Studio generators. When set to TRUE, the target will not be built when you press Build Solution.

EXCLUDE_FROM_DEFAULT_BUILD_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration version of target exclusion from Build Solution.

This is the configuration-specific version of EXCLUDE_FROM_DEFAULT_BUILD. If the generic EXCLUDE_FROM_DEFAULT_BUILD is also set on a target, EXCLUDE_FROM_DEFAULT_BUILD_<CONFIG> takes precedence in configurations for which it has a value.

EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS¶

New in version 3.20.

Enable/Disable output of compile commands during generation for a target.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS if it is set when a target is created.

EXPORT_NAME¶

Exported name for target files.

This sets the name for the IMPORTED target generated by the install(EXPORT) and export() commands. If not set, the logical target name is used by default.

EXPORT_NO_SYSTEM¶

New in version 3.25.

Specifies that install(EXPORT) and export() commands will generate an imported target with SYSTEM property OFF.

See the NO_SYSTEM_FROM_IMPORTED target property to set this behavior on the target consuming the include directories rather than the one providing them.

EXPORT_PROPERTIES¶

New in version 3.12.

List additional properties to export for a target.

This property contains a list of property names that should be exported by the install(EXPORT) and export() commands. By default only a limited number of properties are exported. This property can be used to additionally export other properties as well.

Properties starting with INTERFACE_ or IMPORTED_ are not allowed as they are reserved for internal CMake use.

Properties containing generator expressions are also not allowed.

NOTE:

FOLDER¶

Set the folder name. Use to organize targets in an IDE.

Targets with no FOLDER property will appear as top level entities in IDEs like Visual Studio. Targets with the same FOLDER property value will appear next to each other in a folder of that name. To nest folders, use FOLDER values such as 'GUI/Dialogs' with '/' characters separating folder levels.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_FOLDER if it is set when a target is created.

Fortran_BUILDING_INSTRINSIC_MODULES¶

New in version 3.22.

Instructs the CMake Fortran preprocessor that the target is building Fortran intrinsics for building a Fortran compiler.

This property is off by default and should be turned only on projects that build a Fortran compiler. It should not be turned on for projects that use a Fortran compiler.

Turning this property on will correctly add dependencies for building Fortran intrinsic modules whereas turning the property off will ignore Fortran intrinsic modules in the dependency graph as they are supplied by the compiler itself.

Fortran_FORMAT¶

Set to FIXED or FREE to indicate the Fortran source layout.

This property tells CMake whether the Fortran source files in a target use fixed-format or free-format. CMake will pass the corresponding format flag to the compiler. Use the source-specific Fortran_FORMAT property to change the format of a specific source file. If the variable CMAKE_Fortran_FORMAT is set when a target is created its value is used to initialize this property.

Fortran_MODULE_DIRECTORY¶

Specify output directory for Fortran modules provided by the target.

If the target contains Fortran source files that provide modules and the compiler supports a module output directory this specifies the directory in which the modules will be placed. When this property is not set the modules will be placed in the build directory corresponding to the target's source directory. If the variable CMAKE_Fortran_MODULE_DIRECTORY is set when a target is created its value is used to initialize this property.

When using one of the Visual Studio Generators with the Intel Fortran plugin installed in Visual Studio, a subdirectory named after the configuration will be appended to the path where modules are created. For example, if Fortran_MODULE_DIRECTORY is set to C:/some/path, modules will end up in C:/some/path/Debug (or C:/some/path/Release etc.) when an Intel Fortran .vfproj file is generated, and in C:/some/path when any other generator is used.

Note that some compilers will automatically search the module output directory for modules USEd during compilation but others will not. If your sources USE modules their location must be specified by INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES regardless of this property.

Fortran_PREPROCESS¶

New in version 3.18.

Control whether the Fortran source file should be unconditionally preprocessed.

If unset or empty, rely on the compiler to determine whether the file should be preprocessed. If explicitly set to OFF then the file does not need to be preprocessed. If explicitly set to ON, then the file does need to be preprocessed as part of the compilation step.

When using the Ninja generator, all source files are first preprocessed in order to generate module dependency information. Setting this property to OFF will make Ninja skip this step.

Use the source-specific Fortran_PREPROCESS property if a single file needs to be preprocessed. If the variable CMAKE_Fortran_PREPROCESS is set when a target is created its value is used to initialize this property.

NOTE:

FRAMEWORK¶

Build SHARED or STATIC library as Framework Bundle on the macOS and iOS.

If such a library target has this property set to TRUE it will be built as a framework when built on the macOS and iOS. It will have the directory structure required for a framework and will be suitable to be used with the -framework option. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_FRAMEWORK variable if it is set when a target is created.

To customize Info.plist file in the framework, use MACOSX_FRAMEWORK_INFO_PLIST target property.

For macOS see also the FRAMEWORK_VERSION target property.

Example of creation dynamicFramework:

add_library(dynamicFramework SHARED


            dynamicFramework.c


            dynamicFramework.h
)
set_target_properties(dynamicFramework PROPERTIES


  FRAMEWORK TRUE


  FRAMEWORK_VERSION C


  MACOSX_FRAMEWORK_IDENTIFIER com.cmake.dynamicFramework


  MACOSX_FRAMEWORK_INFO_PLIST Info.plist


  # "current version" in semantic format in Mach-O binary file


  VERSION 16.4.0


  # "compatibility version" in semantic format in Mach-O binary file


  SOVERSION 1.0.0


  PUBLIC_HEADER dynamicFramework.h


  XCODE_ATTRIBUTE_CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY "iPhone Developer"
)

FRAMEWORK_MULTI_CONFIG_POSTFIX_<CONFIG>¶

New in version 3.18.

Postfix to append to the framework file name for configuration <CONFIG>, when using a multi-config generator (like Xcode and Ninja Multi-Config).

When building with configuration <CONFIG> the value of this property is appended to the framework file name built on disk.

For example, given a framework called my_fw, a value of _debug for the FRAMEWORK_MULTI_CONFIG_POSTFIX_DEBUG property, and Debug;Release in CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES, the following relevant files would be created for the Debug and Release configurations:

For framework targets, this property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_FRAMEWORK_MULTI_CONFIG_POSTFIX_<CONFIG> variable if it is set when a target is created.

This property is ignored for non-framework targets, and when using single config generators.

FRAMEWORK_VERSION¶

New in version 3.4.

Version of a framework created using the FRAMEWORK target property (e.g. A).

This property only affects macOS, as iOS doesn't have versioned directory structure.

GENERATOR_FILE_NAME¶

Generator's file for this target.

An internal property used by some generators to record the name of the project or dsp file associated with this target. Note that at configure time, this property is only set for targets created by include_external_msproject().

GHS_INTEGRITY_APP¶

New in version 3.14.

ON / OFF boolean to determine if an executable target should be treated as an Integrity Application.

If no value is set and if a .int file is added as a source file to the executable target it will be treated as an Integrity Application.

Supported on Green Hills MULTI.

GHS_NO_SOURCE_GROUP_FILE¶

New in version 3.14.

ON / OFF boolean to control if the project file for a target should be one single file or multiple files.

The default behavior or when the property is OFF is to generate a project file for the target and then a sub-project file for each source group.

When this property is ON or if CMAKE_GHS_NO_SOURCE_GROUP_FILE is ON then only a single project file is generated for the target.

Supported on Green Hills MULTI.

GNUtoMS¶

Convert GNU import library (.dll.a) to MS format (.lib).

When linking a shared library or executable that exports symbols using GNU tools on Windows (MinGW/MSYS) with Visual Studio installed convert the import library (.dll.a) from GNU to MS format (.lib). Both import libraries will be installed by install(TARGETS) and exported by install(EXPORT) and export() to be linked by applications with either GNU- or MS-compatible tools.

If the variable CMAKE_GNUtoMS is set when a target is created its value is used to initialize this property. The variable must be set prior to the first command that enables a language such as project() or enable_language(). CMake provides the variable as an option to the user automatically when configuring on Windows with GNU tools.

HAS_CXX¶

Link the target using the C++ linker tool (obsolete).

This is equivalent to setting the LINKER_LANGUAGE property to CXX.

HEADER_DIRS¶

New in version 3.23.

Semicolon-separated list of base directories of the target's default header set (i.e. the file set with name and type HEADERS). The property supports generator expressions.

This property is normally only set by target_sources(FILE_SET) rather than being manipulated directly.

See HEADER_DIRS_<NAME> for the list of base directories in other header sets.

HEADER_DIRS_<NAME>¶

New in version 3.23.

Semicolon-separated list of base directories of the target's <NAME> header set, which has the set type HEADERS. The property supports generator expressions.

This property is normally only set by target_sources(FILE_SET) rather than being manipulated directly.

See HEADER_DIRS for the list of base directories in the default header set. See HEADER_SETS for the file set names of all header sets.

HEADER_SET¶

New in version 3.23.

Semicolon-separated list of files in the target's default header set, (i.e. the file set with name and type HEADERS). If any of the paths are relative, they are computed relative to the target's source directory. The property supports generator expressions.

This property is normally only set by target_sources(FILE_SET) rather than being manipulated directly.

See HEADER_SET_<NAME> for the list of files in other header sets.

HEADER_SET_<NAME>¶

New in version 3.23.

Semicolon-separated list of files in the target's <NAME> header set, which has the set type HEADERS. If any of the paths are relative, they are computed relative to the target's source directory. The property supports generator expressions.

This property is normally only set by target_sources(FILE_SET) rather than being manipulated directly.

See HEADER_SET for the list of files in the default header set. See HEADER_SETS for the file set names of all header sets.

HEADER_SETS¶

New in version 3.23.

Read-only list of the target's PRIVATE and PUBLIC header sets (i.e. all file sets with the type HEADERS). Files listed in these file sets are treated as source files for the purpose of IDE integration. The files also have their HEADER_FILE_ONLY property set to TRUE.

Header sets may be defined using the target_sources() command FILE_SET option with type HEADERS.

See also HEADER_SET_<NAME>, HEADER_SET and INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS.

HIP_ARCHITECTURES¶

New in version 3.21.

List of AMD GPU architectures to generate device code for.

A non-empty false value (e.g. OFF) disables adding architectures. This is intended to support packagers and rare cases where full control over the passed flags is required.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_HIP_ARCHITECTURES variable if it is set when a target is created.

The HIP compilation model has two modes: whole and separable. Whole compilation generates device code at compile time. Separable compilation generates device code at link time. Therefore the HIP_ARCHITECTURES target property should be set on targets that compile or link with any HIP sources.

Examples¶

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY HIP_ARCHITECTURES gfx801 gfx900)

Generates code for both gfx801 and gfx900.

HIP_EXTENSIONS¶

New in version 3.21.

Boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested.

This property specifies whether compiler specific extensions should be used. For some compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu++11 instead of -std=c++11 to the compile line. This property is ON by default. The basic HIP/C++ standard level is controlled by the HIP_STANDARD target property.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_HIP_EXTENSIONS variable if set when a target is created and otherwise by the value of CMAKE_HIP_EXTENSIONS_DEFAULT (see CMP0128).

HIP_STANDARD¶

New in version 3.21.

The HIP/C++ standard requested to build this target.

Supported values are:

If the value requested does not result in a compile flag being added for the compiler in use, a previous standard flag will be added instead. This means that using:

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY HIP_STANDARD 11)

with a compiler which does not support -std=gnu++11 or an equivalent flag will not result in an error or warning, but will instead add the -std=gnu++98 flag if supported. This "decay" behavior may be controlled with the HIP_STANDARD_REQUIRED target property. Additionally, the HIP_EXTENSIONS target property may be used to control whether compiler-specific extensions are enabled on a per-target basis.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_HIP_STANDARD variable if it is set when a target is created.

HIP_STANDARD_REQUIRED¶

New in version 3.21.

Boolean describing whether the value of HIP_STANDARD is a requirement.

If this property is set to ON, then the value of the HIP_STANDARD target property is treated as a requirement. If this property is OFF or unset, the HIP_STANDARD target property is treated as optional and may "decay" to a previous standard if the requested is not available.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_HIP_STANDARD_REQUIRED variable if it is set when a target is created.

IMPLICIT_DEPENDS_INCLUDE_TRANSFORM¶

Specify #include line transforms for dependencies in a target.

This property specifies rules to transform macro-like #include lines during implicit dependency scanning of C and C++ source files. The list of rules must be semicolon-separated with each entry of the form A_MACRO(%)=value-with-% (the % must be literal). During dependency scanning occurrences of A_MACRO(...) on #include lines will be replaced by the value given with the macro argument substituted for %. For example, the entry

MYDIR(%)=<mydir/%>

will convert lines of the form

#include MYDIR(myheader.h)

to

#include <mydir/myheader.h>

allowing the dependency to be followed.

This property applies to sources in the target on which it is set.

IMPORTED¶

Read-only indication of whether a target is IMPORTED.

The boolean value of this property is True for targets created with the IMPORTED option to add_executable() or add_library(). It is False for targets built within the project.

IMPORTED_COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME¶

New in version 3.12.

Property to define if the target uses C++/CLI.

Ignored for non-imported targets.

See also the COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME target property.

IMPORTED_CONFIGURATIONS¶

Configurations provided for an IMPORTED target.

Set this to the list of configuration names available for an IMPORTED target. The names correspond to configurations defined in the project from which the target is imported. If the importing project uses a different set of configurations the names may be mapped using the MAP_IMPORTED_CONFIG_<CONFIG> property. Ignored for non-imported targets.

IMPORTED_GLOBAL¶

New in version 3.11.

Indication of whether an IMPORTED target is globally visible.

The boolean value of this property is True for targets created with the IMPORTED GLOBAL options to add_executable() or add_library(). It is always False for targets built within the project.

For targets created with the IMPORTED option to add_executable() or add_library() but without the additional option GLOBAL this is False, too. However, setting this property for such a locally IMPORTED target to True promotes that target to global scope. This promotion can only be done in the same directory where that IMPORTED target was created in the first place.

NOTE:

NOTE:

IMPORTED_IMPLIB¶

Full path to the import library for an IMPORTED target.

Set this to the location of the .lib part of a Windows DLL, or on AIX set it to an import file created for executables that export symbols (see the ENABLE_EXPORTS target property). Ignored for non-imported targets.

IMPORTED_IMPLIB_<CONFIG>¶

<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_IMPLIB property.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported.

IMPORTED_LIBNAME¶

New in version 3.8.

Specify the link library name for an imported Interface Library.

An interface library builds no library file itself but does specify usage requirements for its consumers. The IMPORTED_LIBNAME property may be set to specify a single library name to be placed on the link line in place of the interface library target name as a requirement for using the interface.

This property is intended for use in naming libraries provided by a platform SDK for which the full path to a library file may not be known. The value may be a plain library name such as foo but may not be a path (e.g. /usr/lib/libfoo.so) or a flag (e.g. -Wl,...). The name is never treated as a library target name even if it happens to name one.

The IMPORTED_LIBNAME property is allowed only on imported Interface Libraries and is rejected on targets of other types (for which the IMPORTED_LOCATION target property may be used).

IMPORTED_LIBNAME_<CONFIG>¶

New in version 3.8.

<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LIBNAME property.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported.

IMPORTED_LINK_DEPENDENT_LIBRARIES¶

Dependent shared libraries of an imported shared library.

Shared libraries may be linked to other shared libraries as part of their implementation. On some platforms the linker searches for the dependent libraries of shared libraries they are including in the link. Set this property to the list of dependent shared libraries of an imported library. The list should be disjoint from the list of interface libraries in the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES property. On platforms requiring dependent shared libraries to be found at link time CMake uses this list to add appropriate files or paths to the link command line. Ignored for non-imported targets.

IMPORTED_LINK_DEPENDENT_LIBRARIES_<CONFIG>¶

<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LINK_DEPENDENT_LIBRARIES.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported. If set, this property completely overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LANGUAGES¶

Languages compiled into an IMPORTED static library.

Set this to the list of languages of source files compiled to produce a STATIC IMPORTED library (such as C or CXX). CMake accounts for these languages when computing how to link a target to the imported library. For example, when a C executable links to an imported C++ static library CMake chooses the C++ linker to satisfy language runtime dependencies of the static library.

This property is ignored for targets that are not STATIC libraries. This property is ignored for non-imported targets.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LANGUAGES_<CONFIG>¶

<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LANGUAGES.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported. If set, this property completely overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES¶

Transitive link interface of an IMPORTED target.

Set this to the list of libraries whose interface is included when an IMPORTED library target is linked to another target. The libraries will be included on the link line for the target. Unlike the LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES property, this property applies to all imported target types, including STATIC libraries. This property is ignored for non-imported targets.

This property is ignored if the target also has a non-empty INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES property.

This property is deprecated. Use INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES instead.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES_<CONFIG>¶

<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported. If set, this property completely overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

This property is ignored if the target also has a non-empty INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES property.

This property is deprecated. Use INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES instead.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY¶

Repetition count for cycles of IMPORTED static libraries.

This is LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY for IMPORTED targets.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY_<CONFIG>¶

<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY.

If set, this property completely overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

IMPORTED_LOCATION¶

Full path to the main file on disk for an IMPORTED target.

Set this to the location of an IMPORTED target file on disk. For executables this is the location of the executable file. For STATIC libraries and modules this is the location of the library or module. For SHARED libraries on non-DLL platforms this is the location of the shared library. For application bundles on macOS this is the location of the executable file inside Contents/MacOS within the bundle folder. For frameworks on macOS this is the location of the library file symlink just inside the framework folder. For DLLs this is the location of the .dll part of the library. For UNKNOWN libraries this is the location of the file to be linked. Ignored for non-imported targets.

The IMPORTED_LOCATION target property may be overridden for a given configuration <CONFIG> by the configuration-specific IMPORTED_LOCATION_<CONFIG> target property. Furthermore, the MAP_IMPORTED_CONFIG_<CONFIG> target property may be used to map between a project's configurations and those of an imported target. If none of these is set then the name of any other configuration listed in the IMPORTED_CONFIGURATIONS target property may be selected and its IMPORTED_LOCATION_<CONFIG> value used.

To get the location of an imported target read one of the LOCATION or LOCATION_<CONFIG> properties.

For platforms with import libraries (e.g. Windows) see also IMPORTED_IMPLIB.

IMPORTED_LOCATION_<CONFIG>¶

<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LOCATION property.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported.

IMPORTED_NO_SONAME¶

Specifies that an IMPORTED shared library target has no soname.

Set this property to true for an imported shared library file that has no soname field. CMake may adjust generated link commands for some platforms to prevent the linker from using the path to the library in place of its missing soname. Ignored for non-imported targets.

IMPORTED_NO_SONAME_<CONFIG>¶

<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_NO_SONAME property.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported.

IMPORTED_NO_SYSTEM¶

New in version 3.23.

Deprecated since version 3.25: IMPORTED_NO_SYSTEM is deprecated. Set SYSTEM to OFF instead if you don't want target's include directories to be SYSTEM when compiling consumers. Set EXPORT_NO_SYSTEM to ON instead if you don't want the include directories of the imported target generated by install(EXPORT) and export() commands to be SYSTEM when compiling consumers.

Specifies that an Imported Target is not a SYSTEM library. This has the following effects:

This property can also be enabled on a non-imported target. Doing so does not affect the build system, but does tell the install(EXPORT) and export() commands to enable it on the imported targets they generate.

See the NO_SYSTEM_FROM_IMPORTED target property to set this behavior on the target consuming the include directories rather than providing them.

IMPORTED_OBJECTS¶

New in version 3.9.

A semicolon-separated list of absolute paths to the object files on disk for an imported object library.

Ignored for non-imported targets.

Projects may skip IMPORTED_OBJECTS if the configuration-specific property IMPORTED_OBJECTS_<CONFIG> is set instead, except in situations as noted in the section below.

Xcode Generator Considerations¶

New in version 3.20.

For Apple platforms, a project may be built for more than one architecture. This is controlled by the CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES variable. For all but the Xcode generator, CMake invokes compilers once per source file and passes multiple -arch flags, leading to a single object file which will be a universal binary. Such object files work well when listed in the IMPORTED_OBJECTS of a separate CMake build, even for the Xcode generator. But producing such object files with the Xcode generator is more difficult, since it invokes the compiler once per architecture for each source file. Unlike the other generators, it does not generate universal object file binaries.

A further complication with the Xcode generator is that when targeting device platforms (iOS, tvOS or watchOS), the Xcode generator has the ability to use either the device or simulator SDK without needing CMake to be re-run. The SDK can be selected at build time. But since some architectures can be supported by both the device and the simulator SDKs (e.g. arm64 with Xcode 12 or later), not all combinations can be represented in a single universal binary. The only solution in this case is to have multiple object files.

IMPORTED_OBJECTS doesn't support generator expressions, so every file it lists needs to be valid for every architecture and SDK. If incorporating object files that are not universal binaries, the path and/or file name of each object file has to somehow encapsulate the different architectures and SDKs. With the Xcode generator, Xcode variables of the form $(...) can be used to represent these aspects and Xcode will substitute the appropriate values at build time. CMake doesn't interpret these variables and embeds them unchanged in the Xcode project file. $(CURRENT_ARCH) can be used to represent the architecture, while $(EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME) can be used to differentiate between SDKs.

The following shows one example of how these two variables can be used to refer to an object file whose location depends on both the SDK and the architecture:

add_library(someObjs OBJECT IMPORTED)
set_property(TARGET someObjs PROPERTY IMPORTED_OBJECTS


  # Quotes are required because of the ()


  "/path/to/somewhere/objects$(EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME)/$(CURRENT_ARCH)/func.o"
)
# Example paths:
#   /path/to/somewhere/objects-iphoneos/arm64/func.o
#   /path/to/somewhere/objects-iphonesimulator/x86_64/func.o

In some cases, you may want to have configuration-specific object files as well. The $(CONFIGURATION) Xcode variable is often used for this and can be used in conjunction with the others mentioned above:

add_library(someObjs OBJECT IMPORTED)
set_property(TARGET someObjs PROPERTY IMPORTED_OBJECTS


  "/path/to/somewhere/$(CONFIGURATION)$(EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME)/$(CURRENT_ARCH)/func.o"
)
# Example paths:
#   /path/to/somewhere/Release-iphoneos/arm64/func.o
#   /path/to/somewhere/Debug-iphonesimulator/x86_64/func.o

When any Xcode variable is used, CMake is not able to fully evaluate the path(s) at configure time. One consequence of this is that the configuration-specific IMPORTED_OBJECTS_<CONFIG> properties cannot be used, since CMake cannot determine whether an object file exists at a particular <CONFIG> location. The IMPORTED_OBJECTS property must be used for these situations and the configuration-specific aspects of the path should be handled by the $(CONFIGURATION) Xcode variable.

IMPORTED_OBJECTS_<CONFIG>¶

New in version 3.9.

<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_OBJECTS property.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported.

Xcode Generator Considerations¶

Do not use this <CONFIG>-specific property if you need to use Xcode variables like $(CURRENT_ARCH) or $(EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME) in the value. The <CONFIG>-specific properties will be ignored in such cases because CMake cannot determine whether a file exists at the configuration-specific path at configuration time. For such cases, use IMPORTED_OBJECTS instead.

IMPORTED_SONAME¶

The soname of an IMPORTED target of shared library type.

Set this to the soname embedded in an imported shared library. This is meaningful only on platforms supporting the feature. Ignored for non-imported targets.

IMPORTED_SONAME_<CONFIG>¶

<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_SONAME property.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported.

IMPORT_PREFIX¶

What comes before the import library name.

Similar to the target property PREFIX, but used for import libraries (typically corresponding to a DLL) instead of regular libraries. A target property that can be set to override the prefix (such as lib) on an import library name.

IMPORT_SUFFIX¶

What comes after the import library name.

Similar to the target property SUFFIX, but used for import libraries (typically corresponding to a DLL) instead of regular libraries. A target property that can be set to override the suffix (such as .lib) on an import library name.

INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES¶

List of preprocessor include file search directories.

This property specifies the list of directories given so far to the target_include_directories() command. In addition to accepting values from that command, values may be set directly on any target using the set_property() command. A target gets its initial value for this property from the value of the INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES directory property. Both directory and target property values are adjusted by calls to the include_directories() command.

The value of this property is used by the generators to set the include paths for the compiler.

Relative paths should not be added to this property directly. Use one of the commands above instead to handle relative paths.

Contents of INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES may use cmake-generator-expressions(7) 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.

INSTALL_NAME_DIR¶

Directory name for installed targets on Apple platforms.

INSTALL_NAME_DIR is a string specifying the directory portion of the "install_name" field of shared libraries on Apple platforms for installed targets. When not set, the default directory used is determined by MACOSX_RPATH. Policies CMP0068 and CMP0042 are also relevant.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_INSTALL_NAME_DIR if it is set when a target is created.

This property supports generator expressions. In particular, the $<INSTALL_PREFIX> generator expression can be used to set the directory relative to the install-time prefix.

INSTALL_REMOVE_ENVIRONMENT_RPATH¶

New in version 3.16.

Controls whether toolchain-defined rpaths should be removed during installation.

When a target is being installed, CMake may need to rewrite its rpath information. This occurs when the install rpath (as specified by the INSTALL_RPATH target property) has different contents to the rpath that the target was built with. Some toolchains insert their own rpath contents into the binary as part of the build. By default, CMake will preserve those extra inserted contents in the install rpath. For those scenarios where such toolchain-inserted entries need to be discarded during install, set the INSTALL_REMOVE_ENVIRONMENT_RPATH target property to true.

This property is initialized by the value of CMAKE_INSTALL_REMOVE_ENVIRONMENT_RPATH when the target is created.

INSTALL_RPATH¶

The rpath to use for installed targets.

A semicolon-separated list specifying the rpath to use in installed targets (for platforms that support it). This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_INSTALL_RPATH if it is set when a target is created.

Because the rpath may contain ${ORIGIN}, which coincides with CMake syntax, the contents of INSTALL_RPATH are properly escaped in the cmake_install.cmake script (see policy CMP0095.)

This property supports generator expressions.

INSTALL_RPATH_USE_LINK_PATH¶

Add paths to linker search and installed rpath.

INSTALL_RPATH_USE_LINK_PATH is a boolean that if set to True will append to the runtime search path (rpath) of installed binaries any directories outside the project that are in the linker search path or contain linked library files. The directories are appended after the value of the INSTALL_RPATH target property.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_INSTALL_RPATH_USE_LINK_PATH if it is set when a target is created.

INTERFACE_AUTOUIC_OPTIONS¶

List of interface options to pass to uic.

Targets may populate this property to publish the options required to use when invoking uic. Consuming targets can add entries to their own AUTOUIC_OPTIONS property such as $<TARGET_PROPERTY:foo,INTERFACE_AUTOUIC_OPTIONS> to use the uic options specified in the interface of foo. This is done automatically by the target_link_libraries() command.

This property supports generator expressions. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.

INTERFACE_COMPILE_DEFINITIONS¶

List of public compile definitions requirements for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the compile definitions required to compile against the headers for the target. The target_compile_definitions() command populates this property with values given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_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.

INTERFACE_COMPILE_FEATURES¶

New in version 3.1.

List of public compile features requirements for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the compile features required to compile against the headers for the target. The target_compile_features() command populates this property with values given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_COMPILE_FEATURES 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.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS¶

List of public compile options requirements for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the compile options required to compile against the headers for the target. The target_compile_options() command populates this property with values given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS 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.

INTERFACE_CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SETS¶

New in version 3.25.

NOTE:

Read-only list of the target's PUBLIC C++ module header sets (i.e. all file sets with the type CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNITS). Files listed in these C++ module header sets can be installed with install(TARGETS) and exported with install(EXPORT) and export().

C++ module header sets may be defined using the target_sources() command FILE_SET option with type CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNITS.

See also CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SETS.

INTERFACE_CXX_MODULE_SETS¶

New in version 3.25.

NOTE:

Read-only list of the target's PUBLIC C++ module sets (i.e. all file sets with the type CXX_MODULES). Files listed in these C++ module sets can be installed with install(TARGETS) and exported with install(EXPORT) and export().

C++ module sets may be defined using the target_sources() command FILE_SET option with type CXX_MODULES.

See also CXX_MODULE_SETS.

INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS¶

New in version 3.23.

Read-only list of the target's INTERFACE and PUBLIC header sets (i.e. all file sets with the type HEADERS). Files listed in these header sets can be installed with install(TARGETS) and exported with install(EXPORT) and export().

Header sets may be defined using the target_sources() command FILE_SET option with type HEADERS.

See also HEADER_SETS.

INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS_TO_VERIFY¶

New in version 3.24.

Used to specify which PUBLIC and INTERFACE header sets of a target should be verified.

This property contains a semicolon-separated list of header sets which should be verified if VERIFY_INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS is set to TRUE. If the list is empty, all PUBLIC and INTERFACE header sets are verified. (If the project does not want to verify any header sets on the target, simply set VERIFY_INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS to FALSE.)

INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES¶

List of public include directories requirements for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the include directories required to compile against the headers for the target. The target_include_directories() command populates this property with values given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES 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.

Include directories usage requirements commonly differ between the build-tree and the install-tree. The BUILD_INTERFACE and INSTALL_INTERFACE generator expressions can be used to describe separate usage requirements based on the usage location. Relative paths are allowed within the INSTALL_INTERFACE expression and are interpreted relative to the installation prefix. For example:

target_include_directories(mylib INTERFACE


  $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/mylib>


  $<INSTALL_INTERFACE:include/mylib>  # <prefix>/include/mylib
)

Creating Relocatable Packages¶

Note that it is not advisable to populate the INSTALL_INTERFACE of the INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES of a target with absolute paths to the include directories of dependencies. That would hard-code into installed packages the include directory paths for dependencies as found on the machine the package was made on.

The INSTALL_INTERFACE of the INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES is only suitable for specifying the required include directories for headers provided with the target itself, not those provided by the transitive dependencies listed in its INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES target property. Those dependencies should themselves be targets that specify their own header locations in INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.

See the Creating Relocatable Packages section of the cmake-packages(7) manual for discussion of additional care that must be taken when specifying usage requirements while creating packages for redistribution.

INTERFACE_LINK_DEPENDS¶

New in version 3.13.

Additional public interface files on which a target binary depends for linking.

This property is supported only by Ninja and Makefile Generators. It is intended to specify dependencies on "linker scripts" for custom Makefile link rules.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_LINK_DEPENDS 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.

Link dependency files usage requirements commonly differ between the build-tree and the install-tree. The BUILD_INTERFACE and INSTALL_INTERFACE generator expressions can be used to describe separate usage requirements based on the usage location. Relative paths are allowed within the INSTALL_INTERFACE expression and are interpreted relative to the installation prefix. For example:

set_property(TARGET mylib PROPERTY INTERFACE_LINK_DEPENDS


  $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/mylinkscript>


  $<INSTALL_INTERFACE:mylinkscript>  # <prefix>/mylinkscript
)

INTERFACE_LINK_DIRECTORIES¶

New in version 3.13.

List of public link directories requirements for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the link directories required to compile against the headers for the target. The target_link_directories() command populates this property with values given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_LINK_DIRECTORIES 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.

INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES¶

List public interface libraries for a library.

This property contains the list of transitive link dependencies. When the target is linked into another target using the target_link_libraries() command, the libraries listed (and recursively their link interface libraries) will be provided to the other target also. This property is overridden by the LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES or LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES_<CONFIG> property if policy CMP0022 is OLD or unset.

The value of this property is used by the generators when constructing the link rule for a dependent target. A dependent target's direct link dependencies, specified by its LINK_LIBRARIES target property, are linked first, followed by indirect dependencies from the transitive closure of the direct dependencies' INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES properties. See policy CMP0022.

Contents of INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES 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.

NOTE:

INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES adds transitive link dependencies for a target's dependents. In advanced use cases, one may update the direct link dependencies of a target's dependents by using the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT and INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE target properties.

Creating Relocatable Packages¶

Note that it is not advisable to populate the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES of a target with absolute paths to dependencies. That would hard-code into installed packages the library file paths for dependencies as found on the machine the package was made on.

See the Creating Relocatable Packages section of the cmake-packages(7) manual for discussion of additional care that must be taken when specifying usage requirements while creating packages for redistribution.

INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT¶

New in version 3.24.

List of libraries that consumers of this library should treat as direct link dependencies.

This target property may be set to include items in a dependent target's final set of direct link dependencies. See the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE target property to exclude items.

The initial set of a dependent target's direct link dependencies is specified by its LINK_LIBRARIES target property. Indirect link dependencies are specified by the transitive closure of the direct link dependencies' INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES properties. Any link dependency may specify additional direct link dependencies using the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT target property. The set of direct link dependencies is then filtered to exclude items named by any dependency's INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE target property.

The value of INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT may use generator expressions.

NOTE:

Direct Link Dependencies as Usage Requirements¶

The INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT and INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE target properties are usage requirements. Their effects propagate to dependent targets transitively, and can therefore affect the direct link dependencies of every target in a chain of dependent libraries. Whenever some library target X links to another library target Y whose direct or transitive usage requirements contain INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT or INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE, the properties may affect X's list of direct link dependencies:

The properties may also affect the list of direct link dependencies on X's dependents:

target_link_libraries(X PUBLIC Y)

target_link_libraries(X PRIVATE Y)

target_link_libraries(X PRIVATE Y)

One may limit the effects of INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT and INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE to a subset of dependent targets by using the TARGET_PROPERTY generator expression. For example, to limit the effects to executable targets, use an entry of the form:

"$<$<STREQUAL:$<TARGET_PROPERTY:TYPE>,EXECUTABLE>:...>"

Similarly, to limit the effects to specific targets, use an entry of the form:

"$<$<BOOL:$<TARGET_PROPERTY:USE_IT>>:...>"

This entry will only affect targets that set their USE_IT target property to a true value.

Direct Link Dependency Ordering¶

The list of direct link dependencies for a target is computed from an initial ordered list in its LINK_LIBRARIES target property. For each item, additional direct link dependencies are discovered from its direct and transitive INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT usage requirements. Each discovered item is injected before the item that specified it. However, a discovered item is added at most once, and only if it did not appear anywhere in the initial list. This gives LINK_LIBRARIES control over ordering of those direct link dependencies that it explicitly specifies.

Once all direct link dependencies have been collected, items named by all of their INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE usage requirements are removed from the final list. This does not affect the order of the items that remain.

Example: Static Plugins¶

Consider a static library Foo that provides a static plugin FooPlugin to consuming application executables, where the implementation of the plugin depends on Foo and other things. In this case, the application should link to FooPlugin directly, before Foo. However, the application author only knows about Foo. We can express this as follows:

# Core library used by other components.
add_library(Core STATIC core.cpp)
# Foo is a static library for use by applications.
# Implementation of Foo depends on Core.
add_library(Foo STATIC foo.cpp foo_plugin_helper.cpp)
target_link_libraries(Foo PRIVATE Core)
# Extra parts of Foo for use by its static plugins.
# Implementation of Foo's extra parts depends on both Core and Foo.
add_library(FooExtras STATIC foo_extras.cpp)
target_link_libraries(FooExtras PRIVATE Core Foo)
# The Foo library has an associated static plugin
# that should be linked into the final executable.
# Implementation of the plugin depends on Core, Foo, and FooExtras.
add_library(FooPlugin STATIC foo_plugin.cpp)
target_link_libraries(FooPlugin PRIVATE Core Foo FooExtras)
# An app that links Foo should link Foo's plugin directly.
set_property(TARGET Foo PROPERTY INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT FooPlugin)
# An app does not need to link Foo directly because the plugin links it.
set_property(TARGET Foo PROPERTY INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE Foo)

An application app only needs to specify that it links to Foo:

add_executable(app main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(app PRIVATE Foo)

The INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT target property on Foo tells CMake to pretend that app also links directly to FooPlugin. The INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE target property on Foo tells CMake to pretend that app did not link directly to Foo. Instead, Foo will be linked as a dependency of FooPlugin. The final link line for app will link the libraries in the following order:

Note that without the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE target property, Foo would be linked twice: once as a direct dependency of app, and once as a dependency of FooPlugin.

Example: Opt-In Static Plugins¶

In the above Example: Static Plugins, the app executable specifies that it links directly to Foo. In a real application, there might be an intermediate library:

add_library(app_impl STATIC app_impl.cpp)
target_link_libraries(app_impl PRIVATE Foo)
add_executable(app main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(app PRIVATE app_impl)

In this case we do not want Foo's INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT and INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE target properties to affect the direct dependencies of app_impl. To avoid this, we can revise the property values to make their effects opt-in:

# An app that links Foo should link Foo's plugin directly.
set_property(TARGET Foo PROPERTY INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT


  "$<$<BOOL:$<TARGET_PROPERTY:FOO_STATIC_PLUGINS>>:FooPlugin>"
)
# An app does not need to link Foo directly because the plugin links it.
set_property(TARGET Foo PROPERTY INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE


  "$<$<BOOL:$<TARGET_PROPERTY:FOO_STATIC_PLUGINS>>:Foo>"
)

Now, the app executable can opt-in to get Foo's plugin(s):

set_property(TARGET app PROPERTY FOO_STATIC_PLUGINS 1)

The final link line for app will now link the libraries in the following order:

INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE¶

New in version 3.24.

List of libraries that consumers of this library should not treat as direct link dependencies.

This target property may be set to exclude items from a dependent target's final set of direct link dependencies. This property is processed after the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT target property of all other dependencies of the dependent target, so exclusion from direct link dependence takes priority over inclusion.

The initial set of a dependent target's direct link dependencies is specified by its LINK_LIBRARIES target property. Indirect link dependencies are specified by the transitive closure of the direct link dependencies' INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES properties. Any link dependency may specify additional direct link dependencies using the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT target property. The set of direct link dependencies is then filtered to exclude items named by any dependency's INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE target property.

Excluding an item from a dependent target's direct link dependencies does not mean the dependent target won't link the item. The item may still be linked as an indirect link dependency via the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES property on other dependencies.

The value of INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE may use generator expressions.

NOTE:

See the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT target property documentation for more details and examples.

INTERFACE_LINK_OPTIONS¶

New in version 3.13.

List of public link options requirements for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the link options required to compile against the headers for the target. The target_link_options() command populates this property with values given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_LINK_OPTIONS 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.

INTERFACE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE¶

Whether consumers need to create a position-independent target

The INTERFACE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE property informs consumers of this target whether they must set their POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE property to ON. If this property is set to ON, then the POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE property on all consumers will be set to ON. Similarly, if this property is set to OFF, then the POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE property on all consumers will be set to OFF. If this property is undefined, then consumers will determine their POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE property by other means. Consumers must ensure that the targets that they link to have a consistent requirement for their INTERFACE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE property.

Contents of INTERFACE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE 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.

INTERFACE_PRECOMPILE_HEADERS¶

New in version 3.16.

List of interface header files to precompile into consuming targets.

Targets may populate this property to publish the header files for consuming targets to precompile. The target_precompile_headers() command populates this property with values given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly. See the discussion in target_precompile_headers() for guidance on appropriate use of this property for installed or exported targets.

Contents of INTERFACE_PRECOMPILE_HEADERS 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.

INTERFACE_SOURCES¶

New in version 3.1.

List of interface sources to compile into consuming targets.

Targets may populate this property to publish the sources for consuming targets to compile. The target_sources() command populates this property with values given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from all target dependencies to determine the sources of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_SOURCES 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.

INTERFACE_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES¶

List of public system include directories for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the include directories which contain system headers, and therefore should not result in compiler warnings. Additionally, system include directories are searched after normal include directories regardless of the order specified.

The target_include_directories(SYSTEM) command signature populates this property with values given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords.

Projects may also get and set the property directly, but must be aware that adding directories to this property does not make those directories used during compilation. Adding directories to this property marks directories as SYSTEM which otherwise would be used in a non-SYSTEM manner. This can appear similar to 'duplication', so prefer the high-level target_include_directories(SYSTEM) command and avoid setting the property by low-level means.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from all target dependencies to mark the same include directories as containing system headers.

Contents of INTERFACE_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES 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.

INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION¶

Enable interprocedural optimization for a target.

If set to true, enables interprocedural optimizations if they are known to be supported by the compiler. Depending on value of policy CMP0069, the error will be reported or ignored, if interprocedural optimization is enabled but not supported.

This property is initialized by the CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION variable if it is set when a target is created.

INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration interprocedural optimization for a target.

This is a per-configuration version of INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION. If set, this property overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

This property is initialized by the CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION_<CONFIG> variable if it is set when a target is created.

IOS_INSTALL_COMBINED¶

New in version 3.5.

Build a combined (device and simulator) target when installing.

When this property is set to set to false (which is the default) then it will either be built with the device SDK or the simulator SDK depending on the SDK set. But if this property is set to true then the target will at install time also be built for the corresponding SDK and combined into one library.

NOTE:

This feature requires at least Xcode version 6.

ISPC_HEADER_DIRECTORY¶

New in version 3.19.

Specify relative output directory for ISPC headers provided by the target.

If the target contains ISPC source files, this specifies the directory in which the generated headers will be placed. Relative paths are treated with respect to the value of CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR. When this property is not set, the headers will be placed a generator defined build directory. If the variable CMAKE_ISPC_HEADER_DIRECTORY is set when a target is created its value is used to initialize this property.

ISPC_HEADER_SUFFIX¶

New in version 3.19.2.

Specify output suffix to be used for ISPC generated headers provided by the target.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ISPC_HEADER_SUFFIX variable if it is set when a target is created.

If the target contains ISPC source files, this specifies the header suffix to be used for the generated headers.

The default value is _ispc.h.

ISPC_INSTRUCTION_SETS¶

New in version 3.19.

List of instruction set architectures to generate code for.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ISPC_INSTRUCTION_SETS variable if it is set when a target is created.

The ISPC_INSTRUCTION_SETS target property must be used when generating for multiple instruction sets so that CMake can track what object files will be generated.

Examples¶

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY ISPC_INSTRUCTION_SETS avx2-i32x4 avx512skx-i32x835)

Generates code for avx2 and avx512skx target architectures.

JOB_POOL_COMPILE¶

Ninja only: Pool used for compiling.

The number of parallel compile processes could be limited by defining pools with the global JOB_POOLS property and then specifying here the pool name.

For instance:

set_property(TARGET myexe PROPERTY JOB_POOL_COMPILE ten_jobs)

This property is initialized by the value of CMAKE_JOB_POOL_COMPILE.

JOB_POOL_LINK¶

Ninja only: Pool used for linking.

The number of parallel link processes could be limited by defining pools with the global JOB_POOLS property and then specifying here the pool name.

For instance:

set_property(TARGET myexe PROPERTY JOB_POOL_LINK two_jobs)

This property is initialized by the value of CMAKE_JOB_POOL_LINK.

JOB_POOL_PRECOMPILE_HEADER¶

New in version 3.17.

Ninja only: Pool used for generating pre-compiled headers.

The number of parallel compile processes could be limited by defining pools with the global JOB_POOLS property and then specifying here the pool name.

For instance:

set_property(TARGET myexe PROPERTY JOB_POOL_PRECOMPILE_HEADER two_jobs)

This property is initialized by the value of CMAKE_JOB_POOL_PRECOMPILE_HEADER.

If neither JOB_POOL_PRECOMPILE_HEADER nor CMAKE_JOB_POOL_PRECOMPILE_HEADER are set then JOB_POOL_COMPILE will be used for this task.

LABELS¶

Specify a list of text labels associated with a target.

Target label semantics are currently unspecified.

<LANG>_CLANG_TIDY¶

New in version 3.6.

This property is implemented only when <LANG> is C, CXX, OBJC or OBJCXX.

Specify a semicolon-separated list containing a command line for the clang-tidy tool. The Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator will run this tool along with the compiler and report a warning if the tool reports any problems.

The specified clang-tidy command line will be invoked with additional arguments specifying the source file and, after --, the full compiler command line.

Changed in version 3.25: If the specified clang-tidy command line includes the -p option, it will be invoked without -- and the full compiler command line. clang-tidy will look up the source file in the specified compiler commands database.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_CLANG_TIDY variable if it is set when a target is created.

<LANG>_COMPILER_LAUNCHER¶

New in version 3.4.

This property is implemented only when <LANG> is C, CXX, Fortran, HIP, ISPC, OBJC, OBJCXX, or CUDA.

Specify a semicolon-separated list containing a command line for a compiler launching tool. The Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator will run this tool and pass the compiler and its arguments to the tool. Some example tools are distcc and ccache.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER_LAUNCHER variable if it is set when a target is created.

New in version 3.25: The property value may use generator expressions.

<LANG>_CPPCHECK¶

New in version 3.10.

This property is supported only when <LANG> is C or CXX.

Specify a semicolon-separated list containing a command line for the cppcheck static analysis tool. The Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator will run cppcheck along with the compiler and report any problems. If the command-line specifies the exit code options to cppcheck then the build will fail if the tool returns non-zero.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_CPPCHECK variable if it is set when a target is created.

<LANG>_CPPLINT¶

New in version 3.8.

This property is supported only when <LANG> is C or CXX.

Specify a semicolon-separated list containing a command line for the cpplint style checker. The Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator will run cpplint along with the compiler and report any problems.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_CPPLINT variable if it is set when a target is created.

<LANG>_EXTENSIONS¶

The variations are:

These properties specify whether compiler-specific extensions are requested.

These properties are initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_EXTENSIONS variable if it is set when a target is created and otherwise by the value of CMAKE_<LANG>_EXTENSIONS_DEFAULT (see CMP0128).

For supported CMake versions see the respective pages. To control language standard versions see <LANG>_STANDARD.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

<LANG>_INCLUDE_WHAT_YOU_USE¶

New in version 3.3.

This property is implemented only when <LANG> is C or CXX.

Specify a semicolon-separated list containing a command line for the include-what-you-use tool. The Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator will run this tool along with the compiler and report a warning if the tool reports any problems.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_INCLUDE_WHAT_YOU_USE variable if it is set when a target is created.

<LANG>_LINKER_LAUNCHER¶

New in version 3.21.

This property is implemented only when <LANG> is C, CXX, OBJC, or OBJCXX

Specify a semicolon-separated list containing a command line for a linker launching tool. The Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator will run this tool and pass the linker and its arguments to the tool. This is useful for tools such as static analyzers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_LINKER_LAUNCHER variable if it is set when a target is created.

<LANG>_STANDARD¶

The variations are:

These properties specify language standard versions which are requested. When a newer standard is specified than is supported by the compiler, then it will fallback to the latest supported standard. This "decay" behavior may be controlled with the <LANG>_STANDARD_REQUIRED target property.

Note that the actual language standard used may be higher than that specified by <LANG>_STANDARD, regardless of the value of <LANG>_STANDARD_REQUIRED. In particular, transitive usage requirements or the use of compile features can raise the required language standard above what <LANG>_STANDARD specifies.

These properties are initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_STANDARD variable if it is set when a target is created.

For supported values and CMake versions see the respective pages. To control compiler-specific extensions see <LANG>_EXTENSIONS.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

<LANG>_STANDARD_REQUIRED¶

The variations are:

These properties specify whether the value of <LANG>_STANDARD is a requirement. When false or unset, the <LANG>_STANDARD target property is treated as optional and may "decay" to a previous standard if the requested standard is not available. When <LANG>_STANDARD_REQUIRED is set to true, <LANG>_STANDARD becomes a hard requirement and a fatal error will be issued if that requirement cannot be met.

Note that the actual language standard used may be higher than that specified by <LANG>_STANDARD, regardless of the value of <LANG>_STANDARD_REQUIRED. In particular, transitive usage requirements or the use of compile features can raise the required language standard above what <LANG>_STANDARD specifies.

These properties are initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_STANDARD_REQUIRED variable if it is set when a target is created.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

<LANG>_VISIBILITY_PRESET¶

Value for symbol visibility compile flags

The <LANG>_VISIBILITY_PRESET property determines the value passed in a visibility related compile option, such as -fvisibility= for <LANG>. This property affects compilation in sources of all types of targets (subject to policy CMP0063).

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_VISIBILITY_PRESET variable if it is set when a target is created.

LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY¶

Output directory in which to build LIBRARY target files.

This property specifies the directory into which library target files should be built. The property value may use generator expressions. Multi-configuration generators (Visual Studio, Xcode, Ninja Multi-Config) append a per-configuration subdirectory to the specified directory unless a generator expression is used.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY variable if it is set when a target is created.

See also the LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> target property.

LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration output directory for LIBRARY target files.

This is a per-configuration version of the LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY target property, but multi-configuration generators (Visual Studio Generators, Xcode) do NOT append a per-configuration subdirectory to the specified directory. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> variable if it is set when a target is created.

Contents of LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> may use generator expressions.

LIBRARY_OUTPUT_NAME¶

Output name for LIBRARY target files.

This property specifies the base name for library target files. It overrides OUTPUT_NAME and OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG> properties.

See also the LIBRARY_OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG> target property.

LIBRARY_OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration output name for LIBRARY target files.

This is the configuration-specific version of the LIBRARY_OUTPUT_NAME target property.

LINK_DEPENDS¶

Additional files on which a target binary depends for linking.

Specifies a semicolon-separated list of full-paths to files on which the link rule for this target depends. The target binary will be linked if any of the named files is newer than it.

This property is supported only by Ninja and Makefile Generators. It is intended to specify dependencies on "linker scripts" for custom Makefile link rules.

Contents of LINK_DEPENDS 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.

LINK_DEPENDS_NO_SHARED¶

Do not depend on linked shared library files.

Set this property to true to tell CMake generators not to add file-level dependencies on the shared library files linked by this target. Modification to the shared libraries will not be sufficient to re-link this target. Logical target-level dependencies will not be affected so the linked shared libraries will still be brought up to date before this target is built.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_LINK_DEPENDS_NO_SHARED variable if it is set when a target is created.

LINK_DIRECTORIES¶

New in version 3.13.

List of directories to use for the link step of shared library, module and executable targets.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of directories specified so far for its target. Use the target_link_directories() command to append more search directories.

This property is initialized by the LINK_DIRECTORIES directory property when a target is created, and is used by the generators to set the search directories for the linker.

Contents of LINK_DIRECTORIES 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.

LINK_FLAGS¶

Additional flags to use when linking this target if it is a shared library, module library, or an executable. Static libraries need to use STATIC_LIBRARY_OPTIONS or STATIC_LIBRARY_FLAGS properties.

The LINK_FLAGS property, managed as a string, can be used to add extra flags to the link step of a target. LINK_FLAGS_<CONFIG> will add to the configuration <CONFIG>, for example, DEBUG, RELEASE, MINSIZEREL, RELWITHDEBINFO, ...

NOTE:

LINK_FLAGS_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration linker flags for a SHARED library, MODULE or EXECUTABLE target.

This is the configuration-specific version of LINK_FLAGS.

NOTE:

LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES¶

List public interface libraries for a shared library or executable.

By default linking to a shared library target transitively links to targets with which the library itself was linked. For an executable with exports (see the ENABLE_EXPORTS target property) no default transitive link dependencies are used. This property replaces the default transitive link dependencies with an explicit list. When the target is linked into another target using the target_link_libraries() command, the libraries listed (and recursively their link interface libraries) will be provided to the other target also. If the list is empty then no transitive link dependencies will be incorporated when this target is linked into another target even if the default set is non-empty. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES variable if it is set when a target is created. This property is ignored for STATIC libraries.

This property is overridden by the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES property if policy CMP0022 is NEW.

This property is deprecated. Use INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES instead.

Creating Relocatable Packages¶

Note that it is not advisable to populate the LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES of a target with absolute paths to dependencies. That would hard-code into installed packages the library file paths for dependencies as found on the machine the package was made on.

See the Creating Relocatable Packages section of the cmake-packages(7) manual for discussion of additional care that must be taken when specifying usage requirements while creating packages for redistribution.

LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration list of public interface libraries for a target.

This is the configuration-specific version of LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES. If set, this property completely overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

This property is overridden by the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES property if policy CMP0022 is NEW.

This property is deprecated. Use INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES instead.

Creating Relocatable Packages¶

Note that it is not advisable to populate the LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES_<CONFIG> of a target with absolute paths to dependencies. That would hard-code into installed packages the library file paths for dependencies as found on the machine the package was made on.

See the Creating Relocatable Packages section of the cmake-packages(7) manual for discussion of additional care that must be taken when specifying usage requirements while creating packages for redistribution.

LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY¶

Repetition count for STATIC libraries with cyclic dependencies.

When linking to a STATIC library target with cyclic dependencies the linker may need to scan more than once through the archives in the strongly connected component of the dependency graph. CMake by default constructs the link line so that the linker will scan through the component at least twice. This property specifies the minimum number of scans if it is larger than the default. CMake uses the largest value specified by any target in a component.

LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration repetition count for cycles of STATIC libraries.

This is the configuration-specific version of LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY. If set, this property completely overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

LINK_LIBRARIES¶

List of direct link dependencies.

This property specifies the list of libraries or targets which will be used for linking. In addition to accepting values from the target_link_libraries() command, values may be set directly on any target using the set_property() command.

The value of this property is used by the generators to construct the link rule for the target. The direct link dependencies are linked first, followed by indirect dependencies from the transitive closure of the direct dependencies' INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES properties. See policy CMP0022.

Contents of LINK_LIBRARIES may use generator expressions with the syntax $<...>. Policy CMP0131 affects the behavior of the LINK_ONLY generator expression for this property.

See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for more on defining buildsystem properties.

NOTE:

In advanced use cases, the list of direct link dependencies specified by this property may be updated by usage requirements from dependencies. See the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT and INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE target properties.

LINK_LIBRARIES_ONLY_TARGETS¶

New in version 3.23.

Enforce that link items that can be target names are actually existing targets.

Set this property to a true value to enable additional checks on the contents of the LINK_LIBRARIES and INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES target properties, typically populated by target_link_libraries(). Checks are also applied to libraries added to a target through the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT properties of its dependencies. CMake will verify that link items that might be target names actually name existing targets. An item is considered a possible target name if:

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARIES_ONLY_TARGETS variable when a non-imported target is created. The property may be explicitly enabled on an imported target to check its link interface.

In the following example, CMake will halt with an error at configure time because miLib is not a target:

set(CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARIES_ONLY_TARGETS ON)
add_library(myLib STATIC myLib.c)
add_executable(myExe myExe.c)
target_link_libraries(myExe PRIVATE miLib) # typo for myLib

In order to link toolchain-provided libraries by name while still enforcing LINK_LIBRARIES_ONLY_TARGETS, use an imported Interface Library with the IMPORTED_LIBNAME target property:

add_library(toolchain::m INTERFACE IMPORTED)
set_property(TARGET toolchain::m PROPERTY IMPORTED_LIBNAME "m")
target_link_libraries(myExe PRIVATE toolchain::m)

See also policy CMP0028.

NOTE:

LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE¶

New in version 3.24.

Override the library features associated with libraries from LINK_LIBRARY generator expressions. This can be used to resolve incompatible library features that result from specifying different features for the same library in different LINK_LIBRARY generator expressions.

This property supports overriding multiple libraries and features. It expects a semicolon-separated list, where each list item has the following form:

feature[,link-item]*

For each comma-separated link-item, any existing library feature associated with it will be ignored for the target this property is set on. The item will instead be associated with the specified feature. Each link-item can be anything that would be accepted as part of a library-list in a LINK_LIBRARY generator expression.

add_library(lib1 ...)
add_library(lib2 ...)
add_library(lib3 ...)
target_link_libraries(lib1 PUBLIC "$<LINK_LIBRARY:feature1,external>")
target_link_libraries(lib2 PUBLIC "$<LINK_LIBRARY:feature2,lib1>")
target_link_libraries(lib3 PRIVATE lib1 lib2)
# lib1 is associated with both feature2 and no feature. Without any override,
# this would result in a fatal error at generation time for lib3.
# Define an override to resolve the incompatible feature associations.
set_property(TARGET lib3 PROPERTY LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE "feature2,lib1,external")
# lib1 and external will now be associated with feature2 instead when linking lib3

It is also possible to override any feature with the pre-defined DEFAULT library feature. This effectively discards any feature for that link item, for that target only (lib3 in this example):

# When linking lib3, discard any library feature for lib1, and use feature2 for external
set_property(TARGET lib3 PROPERTY LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE


  "DEFAULT,lib1"


  "feature2,external"
)

The above example also demonstrates how to specify different feature overrides for different link items. See the LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE_<LIBRARY> target property for an alternative way of overriding library features for individual libraries, which may be simpler in some cases. If both properties are defined and specify an override for the same link item, LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE_<LIBRARY> takes precedence over LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE.

Contents of LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE may use generator expressions.

For more information about library features, see the CMAKE_<LANG>_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_<FEATURE> and CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_<FEATURE> variables.

LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE_<LIBRARY>¶

New in version 3.24.

Override the library feature associated with <LIBRARY> from LINK_LIBRARY generator expressions. This can be used to resolve incompatible library features that result from specifying different features for <LIBRARY> in different LINK_LIBRARY generator expressions.

When set on a target, this property holds a single library feature name, which will be applied to <LIBRARY> when linking that target.

add_library(lib1 ...)
add_library(lib2 ...)
add_library(lib3 ...)
target_link_libraries(lib1 PUBLIC "$<LINK_LIBRARY:feature1,external>")
target_link_libraries(lib2 PUBLIC "$<LINK_LIBRARY:feature2,lib1>")
target_link_libraries(lib3 PRIVATE lib1 lib2)
# lib1 is associated with both feature2 and no feature. Without any override,
# this would result in a fatal error at generation time for lib3.
# Define an override to resolve the incompatible feature associations.
set_property(TARGET lib3 PROPERTY LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE_lib1 feature2)
# lib1 will now be associated with feature2 instead when linking lib3

It is also possible to override any feature with the pre-defined DEFAULT library feature. This effectively discards any feature for that link item, for that target only (lib3 in this example):

# When linking lib3, discard any library feature for lib1
set_property(TARGET lib3 PROPERTY LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE_lib1 DEFAULT)

See the LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE target property for an alternative way of overriding library features for multiple libraries at once. If both properties are defined and specify an override for the same link item, LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE_<LIBRARY> takes precedence over LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE.

Contents of LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE_<LIBRARY> may use generator expressions.

For more information about library features, see the CMAKE_<LANG>_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_<FEATURE> and CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_<FEATURE> variables.

LINK_OPTIONS¶

New in version 3.13.

List of options to use for the link step of shared library, module and executable targets as well as the device link step. Targets that are static libraries need to use the STATIC_LIBRARY_OPTIONS target property.

These options are used for both normal linking and device linking (see policy CMP0105). To control link options for normal and device link steps, $<HOST_LINK> and $<DEVICE_LINK> generator expressions can be used.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of options specified so far for its target. Use the target_link_options() command to append more options.

This property is initialized by the LINK_OPTIONS directory property when a target is created, and is used by the generators to set the options for the compiler.

Contents of LINK_OPTIONS 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.

NOTE:

Host And Device Specific Link Options¶

New in version 3.18: When a device link step is involved, which is controlled by CUDA_SEPARABLE_COMPILATION and CUDA_RESOLVE_DEVICE_SYMBOLS properties and policy CMP0105, the raw options will be delivered to the host and device link steps (wrapped in -Xcompiler or equivalent for device link). Options wrapped with $<DEVICE_LINK:...> generator expression will be used only for the device link step. Options wrapped with $<HOST_LINK:...> generator expression will be used only for the host link step.

Option De-duplication¶

The final set of options used for a target is constructed by accumulating options from the current target and the usage requirements of its dependencies. The set of options is de-duplicated to avoid repetition.

New in version 3.12: While beneficial for individual options, the de-duplication step can break up option groups. For example, -option A -option B becomes -option A B. One may specify a group of options using shell-like quoting along with a SHELL: prefix. The SHELL: prefix is dropped, and the rest of the option string is parsed using the separate_arguments() UNIX_COMMAND mode. For example, "SHELL:-option A" "SHELL:-option B" becomes -option A -option B.

Handling Compiler Driver Differences¶

To pass options to the linker tool, each compiler driver has its own syntax. The LINKER: prefix and , separator can be used to specify, in a portable way, options to pass to the linker tool. LINKER: is replaced by the appropriate driver option and , by the appropriate driver separator. The driver prefix and driver separator are given by the values of the CMAKE_<LANG>_LINKER_WRAPPER_FLAG and CMAKE_<LANG>_LINKER_WRAPPER_FLAG_SEP variables.

For example, "LINKER:-z,defs" becomes -Xlinker -z -Xlinker defs for Clang and -Wl,-z,defs for GNU GCC.

The LINKER: prefix can be specified as part of a SHELL: prefix expression.

The LINKER: prefix supports, as an alternative syntax, specification of arguments using the SHELL: prefix and space as separator. The previous example then becomes "LINKER:SHELL:-z defs".

NOTE:

LINK_SEARCH_END_STATIC¶

End a link line such that static system libraries are used.

Some linkers support switches such as -Bstatic and -Bdynamic to determine whether to use static or shared libraries for -lXXX options. CMake uses these options to set the link type for libraries whose full paths are not known or (in some cases) are in implicit link directories for the platform. By default CMake adds an option at the end of the library list (if necessary) to set the linker search type back to its starting type. This property switches the final linker search type to -Bstatic regardless of how it started.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_LINK_SEARCH_END_STATIC if it is set when a target is created.

See also LINK_SEARCH_START_STATIC.

LINK_SEARCH_START_STATIC¶

Assume the linker looks for static libraries by default.

Some linkers support switches such as -Bstatic and -Bdynamic to determine whether to use static or shared libraries for -lXXX options. CMake uses these options to set the link type for libraries whose full paths are not known or (in some cases) are in implicit link directories for the platform. By default the linker search type is assumed to be -Bdynamic at the beginning of the library list. This property switches the assumption to -Bstatic. It is intended for use when linking an executable statically (e.g. with the GNU -static option).

See also LINK_SEARCH_END_STATIC.

LINK_WHAT_YOU_USE¶

New in version 3.7.

This is a boolean option that, when set to TRUE, will automatically run contents of variable CMAKE_LINK_WHAT_YOU_USE_CHECK on the target after it is linked. In addition, the linker flag specified by variable CMAKE_<LANG>_LINK_WHAT_YOU_USE_FLAG will be passed to the target with the link command so that all libraries specified on the command line will be linked into the target. This will result in the link producing a list of libraries that provide no symbols used by this target but are being linked to it.

NOTE:

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_LINK_WHAT_YOU_USE variable if it is set when a target is created.

LINKER_LANGUAGE¶

Specifies language whose compiler will invoke the linker.

For executables, shared libraries, and modules, this sets the language whose compiler is used to link the target (such as "C" or "CXX"). A typical value for an executable is the language of the source file providing the program entry point (main). If not set, the language with the highest linker preference value is the default. Details of the linker preferences are considered internal, but some limited discussion can be found under the internal CMAKE_<LANG>_LINKER_PREFERENCE variables.

If this property is not set by the user, it will be calculated at generate-time by CMake.

LOCATION¶

Read-only location of a target on disk.

For an imported target, this read-only property returns the value of the LOCATION_<CONFIG> property for an unspecified configuration <CONFIG> provided by the target.

For a non-imported target, this property is provided for compatibility with CMake 2.4 and below. It was meant to get the location of an executable target's output file for use in add_custom_command(). The path may contain a build-system-specific portion that is replaced at build time with the configuration getting built (such as $(ConfigurationName) in VS). In CMake 2.6 and above add_custom_command() automatically recognizes a target name in its COMMAND and DEPENDS options and computes the target location. In CMake 2.8.4 and above add_custom_command() recognizes generator expressions to refer to target locations anywhere in the command. Therefore this property is not needed for creating custom commands.

Do not set properties that affect the location of a target after reading this property. These include properties whose names match (RUNTIME|LIBRARY|ARCHIVE)_OUTPUT_(NAME|DIRECTORY)(_<CONFIG>)?, (IMPLIB_)?(PREFIX|SUFFIX), or "LINKER_LANGUAGE". Failure to follow this rule is not diagnosed and leaves the location of the target undefined.

LOCATION_<CONFIG>¶

Read-only property providing a target location on disk.

A read-only property that indicates where a target's main file is located on disk for the configuration <CONFIG>. The property is defined only for library and executable targets. An imported target may provide a set of configurations different from that of the importing project. By default CMake looks for an exact-match but otherwise uses an arbitrary available configuration. Use the MAP_IMPORTED_CONFIG_<CONFIG> property to map imported configurations explicitly.

Do not set properties that affect the location of a target after reading this property. These include properties whose names match (RUNTIME|LIBRARY|ARCHIVE)_OUTPUT_(NAME|DIRECTORY)(_<CONFIG>)?, (IMPLIB_)?(PREFIX|SUFFIX), or LINKER_LANGUAGE. Failure to follow this rule is not diagnosed and leaves the location of the target undefined.

MACHO_COMPATIBILITY_VERSION¶

New in version 3.17.

What compatibility version number is this target for Mach-O binaries.

For shared libraries on Mach-O systems (e.g. macOS, iOS) the MACHO_COMPATIBILITY_VERSION property corresponds to the compatibility version and MACHO_CURRENT_VERSION corresponds to the current version. These are both embedded in the shared library binary and can be checked with the otool -L <binary> command.

It should be noted that the MACHO_CURRENT_VERSION and MACHO_COMPATIBILITY_VERSION properties do not affect the file names or version-related symlinks that CMake generates for the library. The VERSION and SOVERSION target properties still control the file and symlink names. The install_name is also still controlled by SOVERSION.

When MACHO_CURRENT_VERSION and MACHO_COMPATIBILITY_VERSION are not given, VERSION and SOVERSION are used for the version details to be embedded in the binaries respectively. The MACHO_CURRENT_VERSION and MACHO_COMPATIBILITY_VERSION properties only need to be given if the project needs to decouple the file and symlink naming from the version details embedded in the binaries (e.g. to match libtool conventions).

MACHO_CURRENT_VERSION¶

New in version 3.17.

What current version number is this target for Mach-O binaries.

For shared libraries on Mach-O systems (e.g. macOS, iOS) the MACHO_COMPATIBILITY_VERSION property corresponds to the compatibility version and MACHO_CURRENT_VERSION corresponds to the current version. These are both embedded in the shared library binary and can be checked with the otool -L <binary> command.

It should be noted that the MACHO_CURRENT_VERSION and MACHO_COMPATIBILITY_VERSION properties do not affect the file names or version-related symlinks that CMake generates for the library. The VERSION and SOVERSION target properties still control the file and symlink names. The install_name is also still controlled by SOVERSION.

When MACHO_CURRENT_VERSION and MACHO_COMPATIBILITY_VERSION are not given, VERSION and SOVERSION are used for the version details to be embedded in the binaries respectively. The MACHO_CURRENT_VERSION and MACHO_COMPATIBILITY_VERSION properties only need to be given if the project needs to decouple the file and symlink naming from the version details embedded in the binaries (e.g. to match libtool conventions).

MACOSX_BUNDLE¶

Build an executable as an Application Bundle on macOS or iOS.

When this property is set to TRUE the executable when built on macOS or iOS will be created as an application bundle. This makes it a GUI executable that can be launched from the Finder. See the MACOSX_BUNDLE_INFO_PLIST target property for information about creation of the Info.plist file for the application bundle. This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_MACOSX_BUNDLE if it is set when a target is created.

MACOSX_BUNDLE_INFO_PLIST¶

Specify a custom Info.plist template for a macOS and iOS Application Bundle.

An executable target with MACOSX_BUNDLE enabled will be built as an application bundle on macOS. By default its Info.plist file is created by configuring a template called MacOSXBundleInfo.plist.in located in the CMAKE_MODULE_PATH. This property specifies an alternative template file name which may be a full path.

The following target properties may be set to specify content to be configured into the file:

CMake variables of the same name may be set to affect all targets in a directory that do not have each specific property set. If a custom Info.plist is specified by this property it may of course hard-code all the settings instead of using the target properties.

MACOSX_FRAMEWORK_INFO_PLIST¶

Specify a custom Info.plist template for a macOS and iOS Framework.

A library target with FRAMEWORK enabled will be built as a framework on macOS. By default its Info.plist file is created by configuring a template called MacOSXFrameworkInfo.plist.in located in the CMAKE_MODULE_PATH. This property specifies an alternative template file name which may be a full path.

The following target properties may be set to specify content to be configured into the file:

CMake variables of the same name may be set to affect all targets in a directory that do not have each specific property set. If a custom Info.plist is specified by this property it may of course hard-code all the settings instead of using the target properties.

MACOSX_RPATH¶

Whether this target on macOS or iOS is located at runtime using rpaths.

When this property is set to TRUE, the directory portion of the install_name field of this shared library will be @rpath unless overridden by INSTALL_NAME_DIR. This indicates the shared library is to be found at runtime using runtime paths (rpaths).

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_MACOSX_RPATH if it is set when a target is created.

Runtime paths will also be embedded in binaries using this target and can be controlled by the INSTALL_RPATH target property on the target linking to this target.

Policy CMP0042 was introduced to change the default value of MACOSX_RPATH to TRUE. This is because use of @rpath is a more flexible and powerful alternative to @executable_path and @loader_path.

MANUALLY_ADDED_DEPENDENCIES¶

New in version 3.8.

Get manually added dependencies to other top-level targets.

This read-only property can be used to query all dependencies that were added for this target with the add_dependencies() command.

MAP_IMPORTED_CONFIG_<CONFIG>¶

Map from project configuration to imported target's configuration.

Set this to the list of configurations of an imported target that may be used for the current project's <CONFIG> configuration. Targets imported from another project may not provide the same set of configuration names available in the current project. Setting this property tells CMake what imported configurations are suitable for use when building the <CONFIG> configuration. The first configuration in the list found to be provided by the imported target (i.e. via IMPORTED_LOCATION_<CONFIG> for the mapped-to <CONFIG>) is selected. As a special case, an empty list element refers to the configuration-less imported target location (i.e. IMPORTED_LOCATION).

If this property is set and no matching configurations are available, then the imported target is considered to be not found. This property is ignored for non-imported targets.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_MAP_IMPORTED_CONFIG_<CONFIG> variable if it is set when a target is created.

Example¶

For example creating imported C++ library foo:

add_library(foo STATIC IMPORTED)

Use foo_debug path for Debug build type:

set_property(


  TARGET foo APPEND PROPERTY IMPORTED_CONFIGURATIONS DEBUG


  )
set_target_properties(foo PROPERTIES


  IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LANGUAGES_DEBUG "CXX"


  IMPORTED_LOCATION_DEBUG "${foo_debug}"


  )

Use foo_release path for Release build type:

set_property(


  TARGET foo APPEND PROPERTY IMPORTED_CONFIGURATIONS RELEASE


  )
set_target_properties(foo PROPERTIES


  IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LANGUAGES_RELEASE "CXX"


  IMPORTED_LOCATION_RELEASE "${foo_release}"


  )

Use Release version of library for MinSizeRel and RelWithDebInfo build types:

set_target_properties(foo PROPERTIES


  MAP_IMPORTED_CONFIG_MINSIZEREL Release


  MAP_IMPORTED_CONFIG_RELWITHDEBINFO Release


  )

MSVC_DEBUG_INFORMATION_FORMAT¶

New in version 3.25.

Select debug information format when targeting the MSVC ABI.

The allowed values are:

The value is ignored on compilers not targeting the MSVC ABI, but an unsupported value will be rejected as an error when using a compiler targeting the MSVC ABI.

The value may also be the empty string (""), in which case no debug information format flag will be added explicitly by CMake.

Use generator expressions to support per-configuration specification. For example, the code:

add_executable(foo foo.c)
set_property(TARGET foo PROPERTY


  MSVC_DEBUG_INFORMATION_FORMAT "$<$<CONFIG:Debug,RelWithDebInfo>:ProgramDatabase>")

selects for the target foo the program database debug information format for the Debug configuration.

If this property is not set, CMake selects a debug information format using the default value $<$<CONFIG:Debug,RelWithDebInfo>:ProgramDatabase>, if supported by the compiler, and otherwise $<$<CONFIG:Debug,RelWithDebInfo>:Embedded>.

NOTE:

MSVC_RUNTIME_LIBRARY¶

New in version 3.15.

Select the MSVC runtime library for use by compilers targeting the MSVC ABI.

The allowed values are:

The value is ignored on compilers not targeting the MSVC ABI, but an unsupported value will be rejected as an error when using a compiler targeting the MSVC ABI.

The value may also be the empty string ("") in which case no runtime library selection flag will be added explicitly by CMake. Note that with Visual Studio Generators the native build system may choose to add its own default runtime library selection flag.

Use generator expressions to support per-configuration specification. For example, the code:

add_executable(foo foo.c)
set_property(TARGET foo PROPERTY


  MSVC_RUNTIME_LIBRARY "MultiThreaded$<$<CONFIG:Debug>:Debug>")

selects for the target foo a multi-threaded statically-linked runtime library with or without debug information depending on the configuration.

The property is initialized from the value of the CMAKE_MSVC_RUNTIME_LIBRARY variable, if it is set. If the property is not set, then CMake uses the default value MultiThreaded$<$<CONFIG:Debug>:Debug>DLL to select a MSVC runtime library.

NOTE:

NAME¶

Logical name for the target.

Read-only logical name for the target as used by CMake.

NO_SONAME¶

Whether to set soname when linking a shared library.

Enable this boolean property if a generated SHARED library should not have soname set. Default is to set soname on all shared libraries as long as the platform supports it. Generally, use this property only for leaf private libraries or plugins. If you use it on normal shared libraries which other targets link against, on some platforms a linker will insert a full path to the library (as specified at link time) into the dynamic section of the dependent binary. Therefore, once installed, dynamic loader may eventually fail to locate the library for the binary.

NO_SYSTEM_FROM_IMPORTED¶

Do not treat include directories from the interfaces of consumed Imported Targets as SYSTEM.

The contents of the INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES target property of imported targets are treated as SYSTEM includes by default. If this property is enabled on a target, compilation of sources in that target will not treat the contents of the INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES of consumed imported targets as system includes. Either way, entries of INTERFACE_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES are not affected, and will always be treated as SYSTEM include directories.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_NO_SYSTEM_FROM_IMPORTED variable if it is set when a target is created.

See the IMPORTED_NO_SYSTEM target property to set this behavior on the target providing the include directories rather than consuming them.

OBJC_EXTENSIONS¶

New in version 3.16.

Boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested.

This property specifies whether compiler specific extensions should be used. For some compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu11 instead of -std=c11 to the compile line. This property is ON by default. The basic OBJC standard level is controlled by the OBJC_STANDARD target property.

If the property is not set, and the project has set the C_EXTENSIONS, the value of C_EXTENSIONS is set for OBJC_EXTENSIONS.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_OBJC_EXTENSIONS variable if set when a target is created and otherwise by the value of CMAKE_OBJC_EXTENSIONS_DEFAULT (see CMP0128).

OBJC_STANDARD¶

New in version 3.16.

The OBJC standard whose features are requested to build this target.

This property specifies the OBJC standard whose features are requested to build this target. For some compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu11 to the compile line.

Supported values are:

If the value requested does not result in a compile flag being added for the compiler in use, a previous standard flag will be added instead. This means that using:

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY OBJC_STANDARD 11)

with a compiler which does not support -std=gnu11 or an equivalent flag will not result in an error or warning, but will instead add the -std=gnu99 or -std=gnu90 flag if supported. This "decay" behavior may be controlled with the OBJC_STANDARD_REQUIRED target property. Additionally, the OBJC_EXTENSIONS target property may be used to control whether compiler-specific extensions are enabled on a per-target basis.

If the property is not set, and the project has set the C_STANDARD, the value of C_STANDARD is set for OBJC_STANDARD.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_OBJC_STANDARD variable if it is set when a target is created.

OBJC_STANDARD_REQUIRED¶

New in version 3.16.

Boolean describing whether the value of OBJC_STANDARD is a requirement.

If this property is set to ON, then the value of the OBJC_STANDARD target property is treated as a requirement. If this property is OFF or unset, the OBJC_STANDARD target property is treated as optional and may "decay" to a previous standard if the requested is not available.

If the property is not set, and the project has set the C_STANDARD_REQUIRED, the value of C_STANDARD_REQUIRED is set for OBJC_STANDARD_REQUIRED.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_OBJC_STANDARD_REQUIRED variable if it is set when a target is created.

OBJCXX_EXTENSIONS¶

New in version 3.16.

Boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested.

This property specifies whether compiler specific extensions should be used. For some compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu++11 instead of -std=c++11 to the compile line. This property is ON by default. The basic ObjC++ standard level is controlled by the OBJCXX_STANDARD target property.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

If the property is not set, and the project has set the CXX_EXTENSIONS, the value of CXX_EXTENSIONS is set for OBJCXX_EXTENSIONS.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_OBJCXX_EXTENSIONS variable if set when a target is created and otherwise by the value of CMAKE_OBJCXX_EXTENSIONS_DEFAULT (see CMP0128).

OBJCXX_STANDARD¶

New in version 3.16.

The ObjC++ standard whose features are requested to build this target.

This property specifies the ObjC++ standard whose features are requested to build this target. For some compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu++11 to the compile line.

Supported values are:

If the value requested does not result in a compile flag being added for the compiler in use, a previous standard flag will be added instead. This means that using:

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY OBJCXX_STANDARD 11)

with a compiler which does not support -std=gnu++11 or an equivalent flag will not result in an error or warning, but will instead add the -std=gnu++98 flag if supported. This "decay" behavior may be controlled with the OBJCXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED target property. Additionally, the OBJCXX_EXTENSIONS target property may be used to control whether compiler-specific extensions are enabled on a per-target basis.

If the property is not set, and the project has set the CXX_STANDARD, the value of CXX_STANDARD is set for OBJCXX_STANDARD.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_OBJCXX_STANDARD variable if it is set when a target is created.

OBJCXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED¶

New in version 3.16.

Boolean describing whether the value of OBJCXX_STANDARD is a requirement.

If this property is set to ON, then the value of the OBJCXX_STANDARD target property is treated as a requirement. If this property is OFF or unset, the OBJCXX_STANDARD target property is treated as optional and may "decay" to a previous standard if the requested is not available.

If the property is not set, and the project has set the CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED, the value of CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED is set for OBJCXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_OBJCXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED variable if it is set when a target is created.

OPTIMIZE_DEPENDENCIES¶

New in version 3.19.

Activates dependency optimization of static and object libraries.

When this property is set to true, some dependencies for a static or object library may be removed at generation time if they are not necessary to build the library, since static and object libraries don't actually link against anything.

If a static or object library has dependency optimization enabled, it first discards all dependencies. Then, it looks through all of the direct and indirect dependencies that it initially had, and adds them back if they meet any of the following criteria:

As an example, assume you have a static Fortran library which depends on a static C library, which in turn depends on a static Fortran library. The top-level Fortran library has optimization enabled, but the middle C library does not. If you build the top Fortran library, the bottom Fortran library will also build, but not the middle C library, since the C library does not have any side effects that are relevant for the Fortran library. However, if you build the middle C library, the bottom Fortran library will also build, even though it does not have any side effects that are relevant to the C library, since the C library does not have optimization enabled.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_OPTIMIZE_DEPENDENCIES variable when the target is created.

OSX_ARCHITECTURES¶

Target specific architectures for macOS.

The OSX_ARCHITECTURES property sets the target binary architecture for targets on macOS (-arch). This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES if it is set when a target is created. Use OSX_ARCHITECTURES_<CONFIG> to set the binary architectures on a per-configuration basis, where <CONFIG> is an upper-case name (e.g. OSX_ARCHITECTURES_DEBUG).

OSX_ARCHITECTURES_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration macOS and iOS binary architectures for a target.

This property is the configuration-specific version of OSX_ARCHITECTURES.

OUTPUT_NAME¶

Output name for target files.

This sets the base name for output files created for an executable or library target. If not set, the logical target name is used by default during generation. The value is not set by default during configuration.

Contents of OUTPUT_NAME and the variants listed below may use generator expressions.

See also the variants:

OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration target file base name.

This is the configuration-specific version of the OUTPUT_NAME target property.

PCH_INSTANTIATE_TEMPLATES¶

New in version 3.19.

When this property is set to true, the precompiled header compiler options will contain a flag to instantiate templates during the generation of the PCH if supported. This can significantly improve compile times. Supported in Clang since version 11.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_PCH_INSTANTIATE_TEMPLATES variable if it is set when a target is created. If that variable is not set, the property defaults to ON.

PCH_WARN_INVALID¶

New in version 3.18.

When this property is set to true, the precompile header compiler options will contain a compiler flag which should warn about invalid precompiled headers e.g. -Winvalid-pch for GNU compiler.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_PCH_WARN_INVALID variable if it is set when a target is created. If that variable is not set, the property defaults to ON.

PDB_NAME¶

Output name for the MS debug symbol .pdb file generated by the linker for an executable or shared library target.

This property specifies the base name for the debug symbols file. If not set, the OUTPUT_NAME target property value or logical target name is used by default.

NOTE:

PDB_NAME_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration output name for the MS debug symbol .pdb file generated by the linker for an executable or shared library target.

This is the configuration-specific version of PDB_NAME.

NOTE:

PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY¶

Output directory for the MS debug symbols .pdb file generated by the linker for an executable or shared library target.

This property specifies the directory into which the MS debug symbols will be placed by the linker. The property value may use generator expressions. Multi-configuration generators append a per-configuration subdirectory to the specified directory unless a generator expression is used.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY variable if it is set when a target is created.

NOTE:

PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration output directory for the MS debug symbol .pdb file generated by the linker for an executable or shared library target.

This is a per-configuration version of PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, but multi-configuration generators (Visual Studio Generators, Xcode) do NOT append a per-configuration subdirectory to the specified directory. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> variable if it is set when a target is created.

Contents of PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> may use generator expressions.

NOTE:

POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE¶

Whether to create a position-independent target

The POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE property determines whether position independent executables or shared libraries will be created. This property is True by default for SHARED and MODULE library targets and False otherwise. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE variable if it is set when a target is created.

NOTE:

PRECOMPILE_HEADERS¶

New in version 3.16.

List of header files to precompile.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of header files to precompile specified so far for its target. Use the target_precompile_headers() command to append more header files.

This property supports generator expressions.

PRECOMPILE_HEADERS_REUSE_FROM¶

New in version 3.16.

Target from which to reuse the precompiled headers build artifact.

See the second signature of target_precompile_headers() command for more detailed information.

PREFIX¶

What comes before the library name.

A target property that can be set to override the prefix (such as lib) on a library name.

PRIVATE_HEADER¶

Specify private header files in a FRAMEWORK shared library target.

Shared library targets marked with the FRAMEWORK property generate frameworks on macOS, iOS and normal shared libraries on other platforms. This property may be set to a list of header files to be placed in the PrivateHeaders directory inside the framework folder. On non-Apple platforms these headers may be installed using the PRIVATE_HEADER option to the install(TARGETS) command.

PROJECT_LABEL¶

Change the name of a target in an IDE.

Can be used to change the name of the target in an IDE like Visual Studio.

PUBLIC_HEADER¶

Specify public header files in a FRAMEWORK shared library target.

Shared library targets marked with the FRAMEWORK property generate frameworks on macOS, iOS and normal shared libraries on other platforms. This property may be set to a list of header files to be placed in the Headers directory inside the framework folder. On non-Apple platforms these headers may be installed using the PUBLIC_HEADER option to the install(TARGETS) command.

RESOURCE¶

Specify resource files in a FRAMEWORK or BUNDLE.

Target marked with the FRAMEWORK or BUNDLE property generate framework or application bundle (both macOS and iOS is supported) or normal shared libraries on other platforms. This property may be set to a list of files to be placed in the corresponding directory (eg. Resources directory for macOS) inside the bundle. On non-Apple platforms these files may be installed using the RESOURCE option to the install(TARGETS) command.

Following example of Application Bundle:

add_executable(ExecutableTarget


  addDemo.c


  resourcefile.txt


  appresourcedir/appres.txt)
target_link_libraries(ExecutableTarget heymath mul)
set(RESOURCE_FILES


  resourcefile.txt


  appresourcedir/appres.txt)
set_target_properties(ExecutableTarget PROPERTIES


  MACOSX_BUNDLE TRUE


  MACOSX_FRAMEWORK_IDENTIFIER org.cmake.ExecutableTarget


  RESOURCE "${RESOURCE_FILES}")

will produce flat structure for iOS systems:

ExecutableTarget.app


  appres.txt


  ExecutableTarget


  Info.plist


  resourcefile.txt

For macOS systems it will produce following directory structure:

ExecutableTarget.app/


  Contents


    Info.plist


    MacOS


      ExecutableTarget


    Resources


      appres.txt


      resourcefile.txt

For Linux, such CMake script produce following files:

ExecutableTarget
Resources


  appres.txt


  resourcefile.txt

RULE_LAUNCH_COMPILE¶

Specify a launcher for compile rules.

NOTE:

See the global property of the same name for details. This overrides the global and directory property for a target.

RULE_LAUNCH_CUSTOM¶

Specify a launcher for custom rules.

See the global property of the same name for details. This overrides the global and directory property for a target.

RULE_LAUNCH_LINK¶

Specify a launcher for link rules.

NOTE:

See the global property of the same name for details. This overrides the global and directory property for a target.

RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY¶

Output directory in which to build RUNTIME target files.

This property specifies the directory into which runtime target files should be built. The property value may use generator expressions. Multi-configuration generators (Visual Studio, Xcode, Ninja Multi-Config) append a per-configuration subdirectory to the specified directory unless a generator expression is used.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY variable if it is set when a target is created.

See also the RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> target property.

RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration output directory for RUNTIME target files.

This is a per-configuration version of the RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY target property, but multi-configuration generators (Visual Studio Generators, Xcode) do NOT append a per-configuration subdirectory to the specified directory. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> variable if it is set when a target is created.

Contents of RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> may use generator expressions.

RUNTIME_OUTPUT_NAME¶

Output name for RUNTIME target files.

This property specifies the base name for runtime target files. It overrides OUTPUT_NAME and OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG> properties.

See also the RUNTIME_OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG> target property.

RUNTIME_OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration output name for RUNTIME target files.

This is the configuration-specific version of the RUNTIME_OUTPUT_NAME target property.

SKIP_BUILD_RPATH¶

Should rpaths be used for the build tree.

SKIP_BUILD_RPATH is a boolean specifying whether to skip automatic generation of an rpath allowing the target to run from the build tree. This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_SKIP_BUILD_RPATH if it is set when a target is created.

SOURCE_DIR¶

New in version 3.4.

This read-only property reports the value of the CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR variable in the directory in which the target was defined.

SOURCES¶

This specifies the list of paths to source files for the target. The following commands all set or add to the SOURCES target property and are the usual way to manipulate it:

Contents of SOURCES may use generator expressions. If a path starts with a generator expression, it is expected to evaluate to an absolute path. Not doing so is considered undefined behavior.

Paths that are for files generated by the build will be treated as relative to the build directory of the target, if the path is not already specified as an absolute path. Note that whether a file is seen as generated may be affected by policy CMP0118.

If a path does not start with a generator expression, is not an absolute path and is not a generated file, it will be treated as relative to the location selected by the first of the following that matches:

Note that the above decisions are made at generation time, not build time.

See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for more on defining buildsystem properties.

SOVERSION¶

What version number is this target.

For shared libraries VERSION and SOVERSION can be used to specify the build version and API version respectively. When building or installing appropriate symlinks are created if the platform supports symlinks and the linker supports so-names. If only one of both is specified the missing is assumed to have the same version number. SOVERSION is ignored if NO_SONAME property is set.

Windows Versions¶

For shared libraries and executables on Windows the VERSION attribute is parsed to extract a <major>.<minor> version number. These numbers are used as the image version of the binary.

Mach-O Versions¶

For shared libraries and executables on Mach-O systems (e.g. macOS, iOS), the SOVERSION property corresponds to the compatibility version and VERSION corresponds to the current version (unless Mach-O specific overrides are provided, as discussed below). See the FRAMEWORK target property for an example.

For shared libraries, the MACHO_COMPATIBILITY_VERSION and MACHO_CURRENT_VERSION properties can be used to override the compatibility version and current version respectively. Note that SOVERSION will still be used to form the install_name and both SOVERSION and VERSION may also affect the file and symlink names.

Versions of Mach-O binaries may be checked with the otool -L <binary> command.

STATIC_LIBRARY_FLAGS¶

Archiver (or MSVC librarian) flags for a static library target. Targets that are shared libraries, modules, or executables need to use the LINK_OPTIONS or LINK_FLAGS target properties.

The STATIC_LIBRARY_FLAGS property, managed as a string, can be used to add extra flags to the link step of a static library target. STATIC_LIBRARY_FLAGS_<CONFIG> will add to the configuration <CONFIG>, for example, DEBUG, RELEASE, MINSIZEREL, RELWITHDEBINFO, ...

NOTE:

STATIC_LIBRARY_FLAGS_<CONFIG>¶

Per-configuration archiver (or MSVC librarian) flags for a static library target.

This is the configuration-specific version of STATIC_LIBRARY_FLAGS.

NOTE:

STATIC_LIBRARY_OPTIONS¶

New in version 3.13.

Archiver (or MSVC librarian) flags for a static library target. Targets that are shared libraries, modules, or executables need to use the LINK_OPTIONS target property.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of options specified so far for its target. Use set_target_properties() or set_property() commands to set its content.

Contents of STATIC_LIBRARY_OPTIONS 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.

NOTE:

Option De-duplication¶

The final set of options used for a target is constructed by accumulating options from the current target and the usage requirements of its dependencies. The set of options is de-duplicated to avoid repetition.

New in version 3.12: While beneficial for individual options, the de-duplication step can break up option groups. For example, -option A -option B becomes -option A B. One may specify a group of options using shell-like quoting along with a SHELL: prefix. The SHELL: prefix is dropped, and the rest of the option string is parsed using the separate_arguments() UNIX_COMMAND mode. For example, "SHELL:-option A" "SHELL:-option B" becomes -option A -option B.

SUFFIX¶

What comes after the target name.

A target property that can be set to override the suffix (such as .so or .exe) on the name of a library, module or executable.

Swift_DEPENDENCIES_FILE¶

New in version 3.15.

This property sets the path for the Swift dependency file (swiftdep) for the target. If one is not specified, it will default to <TARGET>.swiftdeps.

Swift_LANGUAGE_VERSION¶

New in version 3.16.

This property sets the language version for the Swift sources in the target. If one is not specified, it will default to <CMAKE_Swift_LANGUAGE_VERSION> if specified, otherwise it is the latest version supported by the compiler.

Swift_MODULE_DIRECTORY¶

New in version 3.15.

Specify output directory for Swift modules provided by the target.

If the target contains Swift source files, this specifies the directory in which the modules will be placed. When this property is not set, the modules will be placed in the build directory corresponding to the target's source directory. If the variable CMAKE_Swift_MODULE_DIRECTORY is set when a target is created its value is used to initialize this property.

Swift_MODULE_NAME¶

New in version 3.15.

This property specifies the name of the Swift module. It is defaulted to the name of the target.

SYSTEM¶

New in version 3.25.

Specifies that a target is a SYSTEM library. This has the following effects:

For imported targets, this property defaults to true, which means that their INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES are treated as SYSTEM by default. If their SYSTEM property is false, then their INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES will not be treated as SYSTEM, regardless of the value of the IMPORTED_NO_SYSTEM property.

This target property is initialized from the SYSTEM directory property when the target is created.

TYPE¶

The type of the target.

This read-only property can be used to test the type of the given target. It will be one of STATIC_LIBRARY, MODULE_LIBRARY, SHARED_LIBRARY, OBJECT_LIBRARY, INTERFACE_LIBRARY, EXECUTABLE or one of the internal target types.

UNITY_BUILD¶

New in version 3.16.

When this property is set to true, the target source files will be combined into batches for faster compilation. This is done by creating a (set of) unity sources which #include the original sources, then compiling these unity sources instead of the originals. This is known as a Unity or Jumbo build.

CMake provides different algorithms for selecting which sources are grouped together into a bucket. Algorithm selection is decided by the UNITY_BUILD_MODE target property, which has the following acceptable values:

If no explicit UNITY_BUILD_MODE has been specified, CMake will default to BATCH.

Unity builds are not currently supported for all languages. CMake version 3.25.1 supports combining C and CXX source files. For targets that mix source files from more than one language, CMake will separate the languages such that each generated unity source file only contains sources for a single language.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_UNITY_BUILD variable when a target is created.

NOTE:

ODR (One definition rule) errors¶

When multiple source files are included into one source file, as is done for unity builds, it can potentially lead to ODR errors. CMake provides a number of measures to help address such problems:

UNITY_BUILD_BATCH_SIZE¶

New in version 3.16.

Specifies the maximum number of source files that can be combined into any one unity source file when unity builds are enabled by the UNITY_BUILD target property. The original source files will be distributed across as many unity source files as necessary to honor this limit.

The initial value for this property is taken from the CMAKE_UNITY_BUILD_BATCH_SIZE variable when the target is created. If that variable has not been set, the initial value will be 8.

The batch size needs to be selected carefully. If set too high, the size of the combined source files could result in the compiler using excessive memory or hitting other similar limits. In extreme cases, this can even result in build failure. On the other hand, if the batch size is too low, there will be little gain in build performance.

Although strongly discouraged, the batch size may be set to a value of 0 to combine all the sources for the target into a single unity file, regardless of how many sources are involved. This runs the risk of creating an excessively large unity source file and negatively impacting the build performance, so a value of 0 is not generally recommended.

UNITY_BUILD_CODE_AFTER_INCLUDE¶

New in version 3.16.

Code snippet which is included verbatim by the UNITY_BUILD feature just after every #include statement in the generated unity source files. For example:

set(after [[
#if defined(NOMINMAX)
#undef NOMINMAX
#endif
]])
set_target_properties(myTarget PROPERTIES


  UNITY_BUILD_CODE_AFTER_INCLUDE "${after}"
)

See also UNITY_BUILD_CODE_BEFORE_INCLUDE.

UNITY_BUILD_CODE_BEFORE_INCLUDE¶

New in version 3.16.

Code snippet which is included verbatim by the UNITY_BUILD feature just before every #include statement in the generated unity source files. For example:

set(before [[
#if !defined(NOMINMAX)
#define NOMINMAX
#endif
]])
set_target_properties(myTarget PROPERTIES


  UNITY_BUILD_CODE_BEFORE_INCLUDE "${before}"
)

See also UNITY_BUILD_CODE_AFTER_INCLUDE.

UNITY_BUILD_MODE¶

New in version 3.18.

CMake provides different algorithms for selecting which sources are grouped together into a bucket. Selection is decided by this property, which has the following acceptable values:

add_library(example_library


            source1.cxx


            source2.cxx


            source3.cxx


            source4.cxx)
set_target_properties(example_library PROPERTIES


                      UNITY_BUILD_MODE BATCH


                      UNITY_BUILD_BATCH_SIZE 2


                      )

add_library(example_library


            source1.cxx


            source2.cxx


            source3.cxx


            source4.cxx)
set_target_properties(example_library PROPERTIES


                      UNITY_BUILD_MODE GROUP


                      )
set_source_files_properties(source1.cxx source2.cxx source3.cxx


                            PROPERTIES UNITY_GROUP "bucket1"


                            )
set_source_files_properties(source4.cxx


                            PROPERTIES UNITY_GROUP "bucket2"


                            )

If no explicit UNITY_BUILD_MODE has been specified, CMake will default to BATCH.

UNITY_BUILD_UNIQUE_ID¶

New in version 3.20.

The name of a valid C-identifier which is set to a unique per-file value during unity builds.

When this property is populated and when UNITY_BUILD is true, the property value is used to define a compiler definition of the specified name. The value of the defined symbol is unspecified, but it is unique per file path.

Given:

set_target_properties(myTarget PROPERTIES


  UNITY_BUILD "ON"


  UNITY_BUILD_UNIQUE_ID "MY_UNITY_ID"
)

the MY_UNITY_ID symbol is defined to a unique per-file value.

One known use case for this identifier is to disambiguate the variables in an anonymous namespace in a limited scope. Anonymous namespaces present a problem for unity builds because they are used to ensure that certain variables and declarations are scoped to a translation unit which is approximated by a single source file. When source files are combined in a unity build file, those variables in different files are combined in a single translation unit and the names clash. This property can be used to avoid that with code like the following:

// Needed for when unity builds are disabled
#ifndef MY_UNITY_ID
#define MY_UNITY_ID
#endif
namespace { namespace MY_UNITY_ID {


  // The name 'i' clashes (or could clash) with other


  // variables in other anonymous namespaces


  int i = 42;
}}
int use_var()
{


  return MY_UNITY_ID::i;
}

The pseudonymous namespace is used within a truly anonymous namespace. On many platforms, this maintains the invariant that the symbols within do not get external linkage when performing a unity build.

VERIFY_INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS¶

New in version 3.24.

Used to verify that all headers in a target's PUBLIC and INTERFACE header sets can be included on their own.

When this property is set to true, and the target is an object library, static library, shared library, interface library, or executable with exports enabled, and the target has one or more PUBLIC or INTERFACE header sets, an object library target named <target_name>_verify_interface_header_sets is created. This verification target has one source file per header in the PUBLIC and INTERFACE header sets. Each source file only includes its associated header file. The verification target links against the original target to get all of its usage requirements. The verification target has its EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL and DISABLE_PRECOMPILE_HEADERS properties set to true, and its AUTOMOC, AUTORCC, AUTOUIC, and UNITY_BUILD properties set to false.

If the header's LANGUAGE property is set, the value of that property is used to determine the language with which to compile the header file. Otherwise, if the target has any C++ sources, the header is compiled as C++. Otherwise, if the target has any C sources, the header is compiled as C. Otherwise, if C++ is enabled globally, the header is compiled as C++. Otherwise, if C is enabled globally, the header is compiled as C. Otherwise, the header file is not compiled.

If any verification targets are created, a top-level target called all_verify_interface_header_sets is created which depends on all verification targets.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_VERIFY_INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS variable if it is set when a target is created.

If the project wishes to control which header sets are verified by this property, it can set INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS_TO_VERIFY.

VERSION¶

What version number is this target.

For shared libraries VERSION and SOVERSION can be used to specify the build version and API version respectively. When building or installing appropriate symlinks are created if the platform supports symlinks and the linker supports so-names. If only one of both is specified the missing is assumed to have the same version number. For executables VERSION can be used to specify the build version. When building or installing appropriate symlinks are created if the platform supports symlinks.

Windows Versions¶

For shared libraries and executables on Windows the VERSION attribute is parsed to extract a <major>.<minor> version number. These numbers are used as the image version of the binary.

Mach-O Versions¶

For shared libraries and executables on Mach-O systems (e.g. macOS, iOS), the SOVERSION property corresponds to the compatibility version and VERSION corresponds to the current version (unless Mach-O specific overrides are provided, as discussed below). See the FRAMEWORK target property for an example.

For shared libraries, the MACHO_COMPATIBILITY_VERSION and MACHO_CURRENT_VERSION properties can be used to override the compatibility version and current version respectively. Note that SOVERSION will still be used to form the install_name and both SOVERSION and VERSION may also affect the file and symlink names.

Versions of Mach-O binaries may be checked with the otool -L <binary> command.

VISIBILITY_INLINES_HIDDEN¶

Whether to add a compile flag to hide symbols of inline functions

The VISIBILITY_INLINES_HIDDEN property determines whether a flag for hiding symbols for inline functions, such as -fvisibility-inlines-hidden, should be used when invoking the compiler. This property affects compilation in sources of all types of targets (subject to policy CMP0063).

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_VISIBILITY_INLINES_HIDDEN variable if it is set when a target is created.

VS_CONFIGURATION_TYPE¶

New in version 3.6.

Visual Studio project configuration type.