block¶

New in version 3.25.

Evaluate a group of commands with a dedicated variable and/or policy scope.

block([SCOPE_FOR [POLICIES] [VARIABLES] ] [PROPAGATE <var-name>...])


  <commands>
endblock()

All commands between block() and the matching endblock() are recorded without being invoked. Once the endblock() is evaluated, the recorded list of commands is invoked inside the requested scopes, then the scopes created by the block() command are removed.

block(SCOPE_FOR VARIABLES POLICIES)

set(var1 "INIT1")
set(var2 "INIT2")
block(PROPAGATE var1 var2)


  set(var1 "VALUE1")


  unset(var2)
endblock()
# Now var1 holds VALUE1, and var2 is unset

When the block() is inside a foreach() or while() command, the break() and continue() commands can be used inside the block.

while(TRUE)


  block()


     ...


     # the break() command will terminate the while() command


     break()


  endblock()
endwhile()

See Also¶

break¶

Break from an enclosing foreach or while loop.

break()

Breaks from an enclosing foreach() or while() loop.

See also the continue() command.

cmake_host_system_information¶

Query various host system information.

Synopsis¶

Query host system specific information


  cmake_host_system_information(RESULT <variable> QUERY <key> ...)
Query Windows registry


  cmake_host_system_information(RESULT <variable> QUERY WINDOWS_REGISTRY <key> ...)

Query host system specific information¶

cmake_host_system_information(RESULT <variable> QUERY <key> ...)

Queries system information of the host system on which cmake runs. One or more <key> can be provided to select the information to be queried. The list of queried values is stored in <variable>.

<key> can be one of the following values:

cmake_host_system_information(RESULT PRETTY_NAME QUERY DISTRIB_PRETTY_NAME)
message(STATUS "${PRETTY_NAME}")
cmake_host_system_information(RESULT DISTRO QUERY DISTRIB_INFO)
foreach(VAR IN LISTS DISTRO)


  message(STATUS "${VAR}=`${${VAR}}`")
endforeach()

-- Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS
-- DISTRO_BUG_REPORT_URL=`https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/`
-- DISTRO_HOME_URL=`https://www.ubuntu.com/`
-- DISTRO_ID=`ubuntu`
-- DISTRO_ID_LIKE=`debian`
-- DISTRO_NAME=`Ubuntu`
-- DISTRO_PRETTY_NAME=`Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS`
-- DISTRO_PRIVACY_POLICY_URL=`https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy`
-- DISTRO_SUPPORT_URL=`https://help.ubuntu.com/`
-- DISTRO_UBUNTU_CODENAME=`focal`
-- DISTRO_VERSION=`20.04.2 LTS (Focal Fossa)`
-- DISTRO_VERSION_CODENAME=`focal`
-- DISTRO_VERSION_ID=`20.04`

If /etc/os-release file is not found, the command tries to gather OS identification via fallback scripts. The fallback script can use various distribution-specific files to collect OS identification data and map it into man 5 os-release variables.

Fallback Interface Variables¶

Example:

# Try to detect some old distribution
# See also
# - http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Admin/release-files.html
#
if(NOT EXISTS "${CMAKE_SYSROOT}/etc/foobar-release")


  return()
endif()
# Get the first string only
file(


    STRINGS "${CMAKE_SYSROOT}/etc/foobar-release" CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_CONTENT


    LIMIT_COUNT 1


  )
#
# Example:
#
#   Foobar distribution release 1.2.3 (server)
#
if(CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_CONTENT MATCHES "Foobar distribution release ([0-9\.]+) .*")


  set(CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_RESULT_NAME Foobar)


  set(CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_RESULT_PRETTY_NAME "${CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_CONTENT}")


  set(CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_RESULT_ID foobar)


  set(CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_RESULT_VERSION ${CMAKE_MATCH_1})


  set(CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_RESULT_VERSION_ID ${CMAKE_MATCH_1})


  list(


      APPEND CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_RESULT


      CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_RESULT_NAME


      CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_RESULT_PRETTY_NAME


      CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_RESULT_ID


      CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_RESULT_VERSION


      CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_RESULT_VERSION_ID


    )
endif()
unset(CMAKE_GET_OS_RELEASE_FALLBACK_CONTENT)

Query Windows registry¶

New in version 3.24.

cmake_host_system_information(RESULT <variable>


                              QUERY WINDOWS_REGISTRY <key> [VALUE_NAMES|SUBKEYS|VALUE <name>]


                              [VIEW (64|32|64_32|32_64|HOST|TARGET|BOTH)]


                              [SEPARATOR <separator>]


                              [ERROR_VARIABLE <result>])

Performs query operations on local computer registry subkey. Returns a list of subkeys or value names that are located under the specified subkey in the registry or the data of the specified value name. The result of the queried entity is stored in <variable>.

NOTE:

<key> specify the full path of a subkey on the local computer. The <key> must include a valid root key. Valid root keys for the local computer are:

And, optionally, the path to a subkey under the specified root key. The path separator can be the slash or the backslash. <key> is not case sensitive. For example:

cmake_host_system_information(RESULT result QUERY WINDOWS_REGISTRY "HKLM")
cmake_host_system_information(RESULT result QUERY WINDOWS_REGISTRY "HKLM/SOFTWARE/Kitware")
cmake_host_system_information(RESULT result QUERY WINDOWS_REGISTRY "HKCU\\SOFTWARE\\Kitware")

# query default value for HKLM/SOFTWARE/Kitware key
cmake_host_system_information(RESULT result


                              QUERY WINDOWS_REGISTRY "HKLM/SOFTWARE/Kitware")
# query default value for HKLM/SOFTWARE/Kitware key using special value name
cmake_host_system_information(RESULT result


                              QUERY WINDOWS_REGISTRY "HKLM/SOFTWARE/Kitware"


                              VALUE "(default)")

cmake_language¶

New in version 3.18.

Call meta-operations on CMake commands.

Synopsis¶

cmake_language(CALL <command> [<arg>...])
cmake_language(EVAL CODE <code>...)
cmake_language(DEFER <options>... CALL <command> [<arg>...])
cmake_language(SET_DEPENDENCY_PROVIDER <command> SUPPORTED_METHODS <methods>...)
cmake_language(GET_MESSAGE_LOG_LEVEL <out-var>)

Introduction¶

This command will call meta-operations on built-in CMake commands or those created via the macro() or function() commands.

cmake_language does not introduce a new variable or policy scope.

Calling Commands¶

cmake_language(CALL <command> [<arg>...])

Calls the named <command> with the given arguments (if any). For example, the code:

set(message_command "message")
cmake_language(CALL ${message_command} STATUS "Hello World!")

is equivalent to

message(STATUS "Hello World!")

NOTE:

Evaluating Code¶

cmake_language(EVAL CODE <code>...)

Evaluates the <code>... as CMake code.

For example, the code:

set(A TRUE)
set(B TRUE)
set(C TRUE)
set(condition "(A AND B) OR C")
cmake_language(EVAL CODE "


  if (${condition})


    message(STATUS TRUE)


  else()


    message(STATUS FALSE)


  endif()"
)

is equivalent to

set(A TRUE)
set(B TRUE)
set(C TRUE)
set(condition "(A AND B) OR C")
file(WRITE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/eval.cmake "


  if (${condition})


    message(STATUS TRUE)


  else()


    message(STATUS FALSE)


  endif()"
)
include(${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/eval.cmake)

Deferring Calls¶

New in version 3.19.

cmake_language(DEFER <options>... CALL <command> [<arg>...])

Schedules a call to the named <command> with the given arguments (if any) to occur at a later time. By default, deferred calls are executed as if written at the end of the current directory's CMakeLists.txt file, except that they run even after a return() call. Variable references in arguments are evaluated at the time the deferred call is executed.

The options are:

The currently scheduled list of deferred calls may be retrieved:

cmake_language(DEFER [DIRECTORY <dir>] GET_CALL_IDS <var>)

This will store in <var> a semicolon-separated list of deferred call ids. The ids are for the directory scope in which the calls have been deferred to (i.e. where they will be executed), which can be different to the scope in which they were created. The DIRECTORY option can be used to specify the scope for which to retrieve the call ids. If that option is not given, the call ids for the current directory scope will be returned.

Details of a specific call may be retrieved from its id:

cmake_language(DEFER [DIRECTORY <dir>] GET_CALL <id> <var>)

This will store in <var> a semicolon-separated list in which the first element is the name of the command to be called, and the remaining elements are its unevaluated arguments (any contained ; characters are included literally and cannot be distinguished from multiple arguments). If multiple calls are scheduled with the same id, this retrieves the first one. If no call is scheduled with the given id in the specified DIRECTORY scope (or the current directory scope if no DIRECTORY option is given), this stores an empty string in the variable.

Deferred calls may be canceled by their id:

cmake_language(DEFER [DIRECTORY <dir>] CANCEL_CALL <id>...)

This cancels all deferred calls matching any of the given ids in the specified DIRECTORY scope (or the current directory scope if no DIRECTORY option is given). Unknown ids are silently ignored.

Deferred Call Examples¶

For example, the code:

cmake_language(DEFER CALL message "${deferred_message}")
cmake_language(DEFER ID_VAR id CALL message "Canceled Message")
cmake_language(DEFER CANCEL_CALL ${id})
message("Immediate Message")
set(deferred_message "Deferred Message")

prints:

Immediate Message
Deferred Message

The Cancelled Message is never printed because its command is canceled. The deferred_message variable reference is not evaluated until the call site, so it can be set after the deferred call is scheduled.

In order to evaluate variable references immediately when scheduling a deferred call, wrap it using cmake_language(EVAL). However, note that arguments will be re-evaluated in the deferred call, though that can be avoided by using bracket arguments. For example:

set(deferred_message "Deferred Message 1")
set(re_evaluated [[${deferred_message}]])
cmake_language(EVAL CODE "


  cmake_language(DEFER CALL message [[${deferred_message}]])


  cmake_language(DEFER CALL message \"${re_evaluated}\")
")
message("Immediate Message")
set(deferred_message "Deferred Message 2")

also prints:

Immediate Message
Deferred Message 1
Deferred Message 2

Dependency Providers¶

New in version 3.24.

NOTE:

cmake_language(SET_DEPENDENCY_PROVIDER <command>


               SUPPORTED_METHODS <methods>...)

When a call is made to find_package() or FetchContent_MakeAvailable(), the call may be forwarded to a dependency provider which then has the opportunity to fulfill the request. If the request is for one of the <methods> specified when the provider was set, CMake calls the provider's <command> with a set of method-specific arguments. If the provider does not fulfill the request, or if the provider doesn't support the request's method, or no provider is set, the built-in find_package() or FetchContent_MakeAvailable() implementation is used to fulfill the request in the usual way.

One or more of the following values can be specified for the <methods> when setting the provider:

Only one provider can be set at any point in time. If a provider is already set when cmake_language(SET_DEPENDENCY_PROVIDER) is called, the new provider replaces the previously set one. The specified <command> must already exist when cmake_language(SET_DEPENDENCY_PROVIDER) is called. As a special case, providing an empty string for the <command> and no <methods> will discard any previously set provider.

The dependency provider can only be set while processing one of the files specified by the CMAKE_PROJECT_TOP_LEVEL_INCLUDES variable. Thus, dependency providers can only be set as part of the first call to project(). Calling cmake_language(SET_DEPENDENCY_PROVIDER) outside of that context will result in an error.

NOTE:

Provider commands¶

Providers define a single <command> to accept requests. The name of the command should be specific to that provider, not something overly generic that another provider might also use. This enables users to compose different providers in their own custom provider. The recommended form is xxx_provide_dependency(), where xxx is the provider-specific part (e.g. vcpkg_provide_dependency(), conan_provide_dependency(), ourcompany_provide_dependency(), and so on).

xxx_provide_dependency(<method> [<method-specific-args>...])

Because some methods expect certain variables to be set in the calling scope, the provider command should typically be implemented as a macro rather than a function. This ensures it does not introduce a new variable scope.

The arguments CMake passes to the dependency provider depend on the type of request. The first argument is always the method, and it will only ever be one of the <methods> that was specified when setting the provider.

Provider Examples¶

This first example only intercepts find_package() calls. The provider command runs an external tool which copies the relevant artifacts into a provider-specific directory, if that tool knows about the dependency. It then relies on the built-in implementation to then find those artifacts. FetchContent_MakeAvailable() calls would not go through the provider. mycomp_provider.cmake.INDENT 0.0

# Always ensure we have the policy settings this provider expects
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.24)
set(MYCOMP_PROVIDER_INSTALL_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/mycomp_packages


  CACHE PATH "The directory this provider installs packages to"
)
# Tell the built-in implementation to look in our area first, unless
# the find_package() call uses NO_..._PATH options to exclude it
list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${MYCOMP_PROVIDER_INSTALL_DIR}/cmake)
list(APPEND CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH ${MYCOMP_PROVIDER_INSTALL_DIR})
macro(mycomp_provide_dependency method package_name)


  execute_process(


    COMMAND some_tool ${package_name} --installdir ${MYCOMP_PROVIDER_INSTALL_DIR}


    COMMAND_ERROR_IS_FATAL ANY


  )
endmacro()
cmake_language(


  SET_DEPENDENCY_PROVIDER mycomp_provide_dependency


  SUPPORTED_METHODS FIND_PACKAGE
)

The user would then typically use the above file like so:

cmake -DCMAKE_PROJECT_TOP_LEVEL_INCLUDES=/path/to/mycomp_provider.cmake ...

The next example demonstrates a provider that accepts both methods, but only handles one specific dependency. It enforces providing Google Test using FetchContent, but leaves all other dependencies to be fulfilled by CMake's built-in implementation. It accepts a few different names, which demonstrates one way of working around projects that hard-code an unusual or undesirable way of adding this particular dependency to the build. The example also demonstrates how to use the list() command to preserve variables that may be overwritten by a call to FetchContent_MakeAvailable(). mycomp_provider.cmake.INDENT 0.0

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.24)
# Because we declare this very early, it will take precedence over any
# details the project might declare later for the same thing
include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(


  googletest


  GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/google/googletest.git


  GIT_TAG        e2239ee6043f73722e7aa812a459f54a28552929 # release-1.11.0
)
# Both FIND_PACKAGE and FETCHCONTENT_MAKEAVAILABLE_SERIAL methods provide
# the package or dependency name as the first method-specific argument.
macro(mycomp_provide_dependency method dep_name)


  if("${dep_name}" MATCHES "^(gtest|googletest)$")


    # Save our current command arguments in case we are called recursively


    list(APPEND mycomp_provider_args ${method} ${dep_name})


    # This will forward to the built-in FetchContent implementation,


    # which detects a recursive call for the same thing and avoids calling


    # the provider again if dep_name is the same as the current call.


    FetchContent_MakeAvailable(googletest)


    # Restore our command arguments


    list(POP_BACK mycomp_provider_args dep_name method)


    # Tell the caller we fulfilled the request


    if("${method}" STREQUAL "FIND_PACKAGE")


      # We need to set this if we got here from a find_package() call


      # since we used a different method to fulfill the request.


      # This example assumes projects only use the gtest targets,


      # not any of the variables the FindGTest module may define.


      set(${dep_name}_FOUND TRUE)


    elseif(NOT "${dep_name}" STREQUAL "googletest")


      # We used the same method, but were given a different name to the


      # one we populated with. Tell the caller about the name it used.


      FetchContent_SetPopulated(${dep_name}


        SOURCE_DIR "${googletest_SOURCE_DIR}"


        BINARY_DIR "${googletest_BINARY_DIR}"


      )


    endif()


  endif()
endmacro()
cmake_language(


  SET_DEPENDENCY_PROVIDER mycomp_provide_dependency


  SUPPORTED_METHODS


    FIND_PACKAGE


    FETCHCONTENT_MAKEAVAILABLE_SERIAL
)

The final example demonstrates how to modify arguments to a find_package() call. It forces all such calls to have the QUIET keyword. It uses the BYPASS_PROVIDER keyword to prevent calling the provider command recursively for the same dependency. mycomp_provider.cmake.INDENT 0.0

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.24)
macro(mycomp_provide_dependency method)


  find_package(${ARGN} BYPASS_PROVIDER QUIET)
endmacro()
cmake_language(


  SET_DEPENDENCY_PROVIDER mycomp_provide_dependency


  SUPPORTED_METHODS FIND_PACKAGE
)

Getting current message log level¶

New in version 3.25.

cmake_language(GET_MESSAGE_LOG_LEVEL <output_variable>)

Writes the current message() logging level into the given <output_variable>.

See message() for the possible logging levels.

The current message logging level can be set either using the --log-level command line option of the cmake(1) program or using the CMAKE_MESSAGE_LOG_LEVEL variable.

If both the command line option and the variable are set, the command line option takes precedence. If neither are set, the default logging level is returned.

cmake_minimum_required¶

Require a minimum version of cmake.

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION <min>[...<policy_max>] [FATAL_ERROR])

New in version 3.12: The optional <policy_max> version.

Sets the minimum required version of cmake for a project. Also updates the policy settings as explained below.

<min> and the optional <policy_max> are each CMake versions of the form major.minor[.patch[.tweak]], and the ... is literal.

If the running version of CMake is lower than the <min> required version it will stop processing the project and report an error. The optional <policy_max> version, if specified, must be at least the <min> version and affects policy settings as described in Policy Settings. If the running version of CMake is older than 3.12, the extra ... dots will be seen as version component separators, resulting in the ...<max> part being ignored and preserving the pre-3.12 behavior of basing policies on <min>.

This command will set the value of the CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED_VERSION variable to <min>.

The FATAL_ERROR option is accepted but ignored by CMake 2.6 and higher. It should be specified so CMake versions 2.4 and lower fail with an error instead of just a warning.

NOTE:

Policy Settings¶

The cmake_minimum_required(VERSION) command implicitly invokes the cmake_policy(VERSION) command to specify that the current project code is written for the given range of CMake versions. All policies known to the running version of CMake and introduced in the <min> (or <max>, if specified) version or earlier will be set to use NEW behavior. All policies introduced in later versions will be unset. This effectively requests behavior preferred as of a given CMake version and tells newer CMake versions to warn about their new policies.

When a <min> version higher than 2.4 is specified the command implicitly invokes

cmake_policy(VERSION <min>[...<max>])

which sets CMake policies based on the range of versions specified. When a <min> version 2.4 or lower is given the command implicitly invokes

cmake_policy(VERSION 2.4[...<max>])

which enables compatibility features for CMake 2.4 and lower.

See Also¶

cmake_parse_arguments¶

Parse function or macro arguments.

cmake_parse_arguments(<prefix> <options> <one_value_keywords>


                      <multi_value_keywords> <args>...)
cmake_parse_arguments(PARSE_ARGV <N> <prefix> <options>


                      <one_value_keywords> <multi_value_keywords>)

New in version 3.5: This command is implemented natively. Previously, it has been defined in the module CMakeParseArguments.

This command is for use in macros or functions. It processes the arguments given to that macro or function, and defines a set of variables which hold the values of the respective options.

The first signature reads processes arguments passed in the <args>.... This may be used in either a macro() or a function().

New in version 3.7: The PARSE_ARGV signature is only for use in a function() body. In this case the arguments that are parsed come from the ARGV# variables of the calling function. The parsing starts with the <N>-th argument, where <N> is an unsigned integer. This allows for the values to have special characters like ; in them.

The <options> argument contains all options for the respective macro, i.e. keywords which can be used when calling the macro without any value following, like e.g. the OPTIONAL keyword of the install() command.

The <one_value_keywords> argument contains all keywords for this macro which are followed by one value, like e.g. DESTINATION keyword of the install() command.

The <multi_value_keywords> argument contains all keywords for this macro which can be followed by more than one value, like e.g. the TARGETS or FILES keywords of the install() command.

Changed in version 3.5: All keywords shall be unique. I.e. every keyword shall only be specified once in either <options>, <one_value_keywords> or <multi_value_keywords>. A warning will be emitted if uniqueness is violated.

When done, cmake_parse_arguments will consider for each of the keywords listed in <options>, <one_value_keywords> and <multi_value_keywords> a variable composed of the given <prefix> followed by "_" and the name of the respective keyword. These variables will then hold the respective value from the argument list or be undefined if the associated option could not be found. For the <options> keywords, these will always be defined, to TRUE or FALSE, whether the option is in the argument list or not.

All remaining arguments are collected in a variable <prefix>_UNPARSED_ARGUMENTS that will be undefined if all arguments were recognized. This can be checked afterwards to see whether your macro was called with unrecognized parameters.

New in version 3.15: <one_value_keywords> and <multi_value_keywords> that were given no values at all are collected in a variable <prefix>_KEYWORDS_MISSING_VALUES that will be undefined if all keywords received values. This can be checked to see if there were keywords without any values given.

Consider the following example macro, my_install(), which takes similar arguments to the real install() command:

macro(my_install)


    set(options OPTIONAL FAST)


    set(oneValueArgs DESTINATION RENAME)


    set(multiValueArgs TARGETS CONFIGURATIONS)


    cmake_parse_arguments(MY_INSTALL "${options}" "${oneValueArgs}"


                          "${multiValueArgs}" ${ARGN} )


    # ...

Assume my_install() has been called like this:

my_install(TARGETS foo bar DESTINATION bin OPTIONAL blub CONFIGURATIONS)

After the cmake_parse_arguments call the macro will have set or undefined the following variables:

MY_INSTALL_OPTIONAL = TRUE
MY_INSTALL_FAST = FALSE # was not used in call to my_install
MY_INSTALL_DESTINATION = "bin"
MY_INSTALL_RENAME <UNDEFINED> # was not used
MY_INSTALL_TARGETS = "foo;bar"
MY_INSTALL_CONFIGURATIONS <UNDEFINED> # was not used
MY_INSTALL_UNPARSED_ARGUMENTS = "blub" # nothing expected after "OPTIONAL"
MY_INSTALL_KEYWORDS_MISSING_VALUES = "CONFIGURATIONS"


         # No value for "CONFIGURATIONS" given

You can then continue and process these variables.

Keywords terminate lists of values, e.g. if directly after a one_value_keyword another recognized keyword follows, this is interpreted as the beginning of the new option. E.g. my_install(TARGETS foo DESTINATION OPTIONAL) would result in MY_INSTALL_DESTINATION set to "OPTIONAL", but as OPTIONAL is a keyword itself MY_INSTALL_DESTINATION will be empty (but added to MY_INSTALL_KEYWORDS_MISSING_VALUES) and MY_INSTALL_OPTIONAL will therefore be set to TRUE.

See Also¶

cmake_path¶

New in version 3.20.

This command is for the manipulation of paths. Only syntactic aspects of paths are handled, there is no interaction of any kind with any underlying file system. The path may represent a non-existing path or even one that is not allowed to exist on the current file system or platform. For operations that do interact with the filesystem, see the file() command.

NOTE:

Synopsis¶

Conventions
Path Structure And Terminology
Normalization
Decomposition


  cmake_path(GET <path-var> ROOT_NAME <out-var>)


  cmake_path(GET <path-var> ROOT_DIRECTORY <out-var>)


  cmake_path(GET <path-var> ROOT_PATH <out-var>)


  cmake_path(GET <path-var> FILENAME <out-var>)


  cmake_path(GET <path-var> EXTENSION [LAST_ONLY] <out-var>)


  cmake_path(GET <path-var> STEM [LAST_ONLY] <out-var>)


  cmake_path(GET <path-var> RELATIVE_PART <out-var>)


  cmake_path(GET <path-var> PARENT_PATH <out-var>)
Query


  cmake_path(HAS_ROOT_NAME <path-var> <out-var>)


  cmake_path(HAS_ROOT_DIRECTORY <path-var> <out-var>)


  cmake_path(HAS_ROOT_PATH <path-var> <out-var>)


  cmake_path(HAS_FILENAME <path-var> <out-var>)


  cmake_path(HAS_EXTENSION <path-var> <out-var>)


  cmake_path(HAS_STEM <path-var> <out-var>)


  cmake_path(HAS_RELATIVE_PART <path-var> <out-var>)


  cmake_path(HAS_PARENT_PATH <path-var> <out-var>)


  cmake_path(IS_ABSOLUTE <path-var> <out-var>)


  cmake_path(IS_RELATIVE <path-var> <out-var>)


  cmake_path(IS_PREFIX <path-var> <input> [NORMALIZE] <out-var>)


  cmake_path(COMPARE <input1> <OP> <input2> <out-var>)
Modification


  cmake_path(SET <path-var> [NORMALIZE] <input>)


  cmake_path(APPEND <path-var> [<input>...] [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])


  cmake_path(APPEND_STRING <path-var> [<input>...] [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])


  cmake_path(REMOVE_FILENAME <path-var> [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])


  cmake_path(REPLACE_FILENAME <path-var> <input> [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])


  cmake_path(REMOVE_EXTENSION <path-var> [LAST_ONLY] [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])


  cmake_path(REPLACE_EXTENSION <path-var> [LAST_ONLY] <input> [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])
Generation


  cmake_path(NORMAL_PATH <path-var> [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])


  cmake_path(RELATIVE_PATH <path-var> [BASE_DIRECTORY <input>] [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])


  cmake_path(ABSOLUTE_PATH <path-var> [BASE_DIRECTORY <input>] [NORMALIZE] [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])
Native Conversion


  cmake_path(NATIVE_PATH <path-var> [NORMALIZE] <out-var>)


  cmake_path(CONVERT <input> TO_CMAKE_PATH_LIST <out-var> [NORMALIZE])


  cmake_path(CONVERT <input> TO_NATIVE_PATH_LIST <out-var> [NORMALIZE])
Hashing


  cmake_path(HASH <path-var> <out-var>)

Conventions¶

The following conventions are used in this command's documentation:

Path Structure And Terminology¶

A path has the following structure (all components are optional, with some constraints):

root-name root-directory-separator (item-name directory-separator)* filename

Some commands refer to a root-path. This is the concatenation of root-name and root-directory-separator, either or both of which can be empty. A relative-part refers to the full path with any root-path removed.

Creating A Path Variable¶

While a path can be created with care using an ordinary set() command, it is recommended to use cmake_path(SET) instead, as it automatically converts the path to the required form where required. The cmake_path(APPEND) subcommand may be another suitable alternative where a path needs to be constructed by joining fragments. The following example compares the three methods for constructing the same path:

set(path1 "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/data")
cmake_path(SET path2 "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/data")
cmake_path(APPEND path3 "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}" "data")

Modification and Generation sub-commands can either store the result in-place, or in a separate variable named after an OUTPUT_VARIABLE keyword. All other sub-commands store the result in a mandatory <out-var> variable.

Normalization¶

Some sub-commands support normalizing a path. The algorithm used to normalize a path is as follows:

Decomposition¶

The following forms of the GET subcommand each retrieve a different component or group of components from a path. See Path Structure And Terminology for the meaning of each path component.

cmake_path(GET <path-var> ROOT_NAME <out-var>)
cmake_path(GET <path-var> ROOT_DIRECTORY <out-var>)
cmake_path(GET <path-var> ROOT_PATH <out-var>)
cmake_path(GET <path-var> FILENAME <out-var>)
cmake_path(GET <path-var> EXTENSION [LAST_ONLY] <out-var>)
cmake_path(GET <path-var> STEM [LAST_ONLY] <out-var>)
cmake_path(GET <path-var> RELATIVE_PART <out-var>)
cmake_path(GET <path-var> PARENT_PATH <out-var>)

If a requested component is not present in the path, an empty string will be stored in <out-var>. For example, only Windows systems have the concept of a root-name, so when the host machine is non-Windows, the ROOT_NAME subcommand will always return an empty string.

For PARENT_PATH, if the HAS_RELATIVE_PART subcommand returns false, the result is a copy of <path-var>. Note that this implies that a root directory is considered to have a parent, with that parent being itself. Where HAS_RELATIVE_PART returns true, the result will essentially be <path-var> with one less element.

Root examples¶

set(path "c:/a")
cmake_path(GET path ROOT_NAME rootName)
cmake_path(GET path ROOT_DIRECTORY rootDir)
cmake_path(GET path ROOT_PATH rootPath)
message("Root name is \"${rootName}\"")
message("Root directory is \"${rootDir}\"")
message("Root path is \"${rootPath}\"")

Root name is "c:"
Root directory is "/"
Root path is "c:/"

Filename examples¶

set(path "/a/b")
cmake_path(GET path FILENAME filename)
message("First filename is \"${filename}\"")
# Trailing slash means filename is empty
set(path "/a/b/")
cmake_path(GET path FILENAME filename)
message("Second filename is \"${filename}\"")

First filename is "b"
Second filename is ""

Extension and stem examples¶

set(path "name.ext1.ext2")
cmake_path(GET path EXTENSION fullExt)
cmake_path(GET path STEM fullStem)
message("Full extension is \"${fullExt}\"")
message("Full stem is \"${fullStem}\"")
# Effect of LAST_ONLY
cmake_path(GET path EXTENSION LAST_ONLY lastExt)
cmake_path(GET path STEM LAST_ONLY lastStem)
message("Last extension is \"${lastExt}\"")
message("Last stem is \"${lastStem}\"")
# Special cases
set(dotPath "/a/.")
set(dotDotPath "/a/..")
set(someMorePath "/a/.some.more")
cmake_path(GET dotPath EXTENSION dotExt)
cmake_path(GET dotPath STEM dotStem)
cmake_path(GET dotDotPath EXTENSION dotDotExt)
cmake_path(GET dotDotPath STEM dotDotStem)
cmake_path(GET dotMorePath EXTENSION someMoreExt)
cmake_path(GET dotMorePath STEM someMoreStem)
message("Dot extension is \"${dotExt}\"")
message("Dot stem is \"${dotStem}\"")
message("Dot-dot extension is \"${dotDotExt}\"")
message("Dot-dot stem is \"${dotDotStem}\"")
message(".some.more extension is \"${someMoreExt}\"")
message(".some.more stem is \"${someMoreStem}\"")

Full extension is ".ext1.ext2"
Full stem is "name"
Last extension is ".ext2"
Last stem is "name.ext1"
Dot extension is ""
Dot stem is "."
Dot-dot extension is ""
Dot-dot stem is ".."
.some.more extension is ".more"
.some.more stem is ".some"

Relative part examples¶

set(path "c:/a/b")
cmake_path(GET path RELATIVE_PART result)
message("Relative part is \"${result}\"")
set(path "c/d")
cmake_path(GET path RELATIVE_PART result)
message("Relative part is \"${result}\"")
set(path "/")
cmake_path(GET path RELATIVE_PART result)
message("Relative part is \"${result}\"")

Relative part is "a/b"
Relative part is "c/d"
Relative part is ""

Path traversal examples¶

set(path "c:/a/b")
cmake_path(GET path PARENT_PATH result)
message("Parent path is \"${result}\"")
set(path "c:/")
cmake_path(GET path PARENT_PATH result)
message("Parent path is \"${result}\"")

Parent path is "c:/a"
Parent path is "c:/"

Query¶

Each of the GET subcommands has a corresponding HAS_... subcommand which can be used to discover whether a particular path component is present. See Path Structure And Terminology for the meaning of each path component.

cmake_path(HAS_ROOT_NAME <path-var> <out-var>)
cmake_path(HAS_ROOT_DIRECTORY <path-var> <out-var>)
cmake_path(HAS_ROOT_PATH <path-var> <out-var>)
cmake_path(HAS_FILENAME <path-var> <out-var>)
cmake_path(HAS_EXTENSION <path-var> <out-var>)
cmake_path(HAS_STEM <path-var> <out-var>)
cmake_path(HAS_RELATIVE_PART <path-var> <out-var>)
cmake_path(HAS_PARENT_PATH <path-var> <out-var>)

Each of the above follows the predictable pattern of setting <out-var> to true if the path has the associated component, or false otherwise. Note the following special cases:

cmake_path(IS_ABSOLUTE <path-var> <out-var>)

Sets <out-var> to true if <path-var> is absolute. An absolute path is a path that unambiguously identifies the location of a file without reference to an additional starting location. On Windows, this means the path must have both a root-name and a root-directory-separator to be considered absolute. On other platforms, just a root-directory-separator is sufficient. Note that this means on Windows, IS_ABSOLUTE can be false while HAS_ROOT_DIRECTORY can be true.

cmake_path(IS_RELATIVE <path-var> <out-var>)

This will store the opposite of IS_ABSOLUTE in <out-var>.

cmake_path(IS_PREFIX <path-var> <input> [NORMALIZE] <out-var>)

Checks if <path-var> is the prefix of <input>.

When the NORMALIZE option is specified, <path-var> and <input> are normalized before the check.

set(path "/a/b/c")
cmake_path(IS_PREFIX path "/a/b/c/d" result) # result = true
cmake_path(IS_PREFIX path "/a/b" result)     # result = false
cmake_path(IS_PREFIX path "/x/y/z" result)   # result = false
set(path "/a/b")
cmake_path(IS_PREFIX path "/a/c/../b" NORMALIZE result)   # result = true

cmake_path(COMPARE <input1> EQUAL <input2> <out-var>)
cmake_path(COMPARE <input1> NOT_EQUAL <input2> <out-var>)

Compares the lexical representations of two paths provided as string literals. No normalization is performed on either path, except multiple consecutive directory separators are effectively collapsed into a single separator. Equality is determined according to the following pseudo-code logic:

if(NOT <input1>.root_name() STREQUAL <input2>.root_name())


  return FALSE
if(<input1>.has_root_directory() XOR <input2>.has_root_directory())


  return FALSE
Return FALSE if a relative portion of <input1> is not lexicographically
equal to the relative portion of <input2>. This comparison is performed path
component-wise. If all of the components compare equal, then return TRUE.

NOTE:

Modification¶

cmake_path(SET <path-var> [NORMALIZE] <input>)

Assign the <input> path to <path-var>. If <input> is a native path, it is converted into a cmake-style path with forward-slashes (/). On Windows, the long filename marker is taken into account.

When the NORMALIZE option is specified, the path is normalized after the conversion.

For example:

set(native_path "c:\\a\\b/..\\c")
cmake_path(SET path "${native_path}")
message("CMake path is \"${path}\"")
cmake_path(SET path NORMALIZE "${native_path}")
message("Normalized CMake path is \"${path}\"")

Output:

CMake path is "c:/a/b/../c"
Normalized CMake path is "c:/a/c"

cmake_path(APPEND <path-var> [<input>...] [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])

Append all the <input> arguments to the <path-var> using / as the directory-separator. Depending on the <input>, the previous contents of <path-var> may be discarded. For each <input> argument, the following algorithm (pseudo-code) applies:

# <path> is the contents of <path-var>
if(<input>.is_absolute() OR


   (<input>.has_root_name() AND


    NOT <input>.root_name() STREQUAL <path>.root_name()))


  replace <path> with <input>


  return()
endif()
if(<input>.has_root_directory())


  remove any root-directory and the entire relative path from <path>
elseif(<path>.has_filename() OR


       (NOT <path-var>.has_root_directory() OR <path>.is_absolute()))


  append directory-separator to <path>
endif()
append <input> omitting any root-name to <path>

cmake_path(APPEND_STRING <path-var> [<input>...] [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])

Append all the <input> arguments to the <path-var> without adding any directory-separator.

cmake_path(REMOVE_FILENAME <path-var> [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])

Removes the filename component (as returned by GET ... FILENAME) from <path-var>. After removal, any trailing directory-separator is left alone, if present.

If OUTPUT_VARIABLE is not given, then after this function returns, HAS_FILENAME returns false for <path-var>.

For example:

set(path "/a/b")
cmake_path(REMOVE_FILENAME path)
message("First path is \"${path}\"")
# filename is now already empty, the following removes nothing
cmake_path(REMOVE_FILENAME path)
message("Second path is \"${result}\"")

Output:

First path is "/a/"
Second path is "/a/"

cmake_path(REPLACE_FILENAME <path-var> <input> [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])

Replaces the filename component from <path-var> with <input>. If <path-var> has no filename component (i.e. HAS_FILENAME returns false), the path is unchanged. The operation is equivalent to the following:

cmake_path(HAS_FILENAME path has_filename)
if(has_filename)


  cmake_path(REMOVE_FILENAME path)


  cmake_path(APPEND path input);
endif()

cmake_path(REMOVE_EXTENSION <path-var> [LAST_ONLY]


                                       [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])

Removes the extension, if any, from <path-var>.

cmake_path(REPLACE_EXTENSION <path-var> [LAST_ONLY] <input>


                             [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])

Replaces the extension with <input>. Its effect is equivalent to the following:

cmake_path(REMOVE_EXTENSION path)
if(NOT "input" MATCHES "^\\.")


  cmake_path(APPEND_STRING path ".")
endif()
cmake_path(APPEND_STRING path "input")

Generation¶

cmake_path(NORMAL_PATH <path-var> [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])

Normalize <path-var> according the steps described in Normalization.

cmake_path(RELATIVE_PATH <path-var> [BASE_DIRECTORY <input>]


                                    [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])

Modifies <path-var> to make it relative to the BASE_DIRECTORY argument. If BASE_DIRECTORY is not specified, the default base directory will be CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR.

For reference, the algorithm used to compute the relative path is the same as that used by C++ std::filesystem::path::lexically_relative.

cmake_path(ABSOLUTE_PATH <path-var> [BASE_DIRECTORY <input>] [NORMALIZE]


                                    [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <out-var>])

If <path-var> is a relative path (IS_RELATIVE is true), it is evaluated relative to the given base directory specified by BASE_DIRECTORY option. If BASE_DIRECTORY is not specified, the default base directory will be CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR.

When the NORMALIZE option is specified, the path is normalized after the path computation.

Because cmake_path() does not access the filesystem, symbolic links are not resolved and any leading tilde is not expanded. To compute a real path with symbolic links resolved and leading tildes expanded, use the file(REAL_PATH) command instead.

Native Conversion¶

For commands in this section, native refers to the host platform, not the target platform when cross-compiling.

cmake_path(NATIVE_PATH <path-var> [NORMALIZE] <out-var>)

Converts a cmake-style <path-var> into a native path with platform-specific slashes (\ on Windows hosts and / elsewhere).

When the NORMALIZE option is specified, the path is normalized before the conversion.

cmake_path(CONVERT <input> TO_CMAKE_PATH_LIST <out-var> [NORMALIZE])

Converts a native <input> path into a cmake-style path with forward slashes (/). On Windows hosts, the long filename marker is taken into account. The input can be a single path or a system search path like $ENV{PATH}. A search path will be converted to a cmake-style list separated by ; characters (on non-Windows platforms, this essentially means : separators are replaced with ;). The result of the conversion is stored in the <out-var> variable.

When the NORMALIZE option is specified, the path is normalized before the conversion.

NOTE:

cmake_path(CONVERT <input> TO_NATIVE_PATH_LIST <out-var> [NORMALIZE])

Converts a cmake-style <input> path into a native path with platform-specific slashes (\ on Windows hosts and / elsewhere). The input can be a single path or a cmake-style list. A list will be converted into a native search path (;-separated on Windows, :-separated on other platforms). The result of the conversion is stored in the <out-var> variable.

When the NORMALIZE option is specified, the path is normalized before the conversion.

NOTE:

For example:

set(paths "/a/b/c" "/x/y/z")
cmake_path(CONVERT "${paths}" TO_NATIVE_PATH_LIST native_paths)
message("Native path list is \"${native_paths}\"")

Output on Windows:

Native path list is "\a\b\c;\x\y\z"

Output on all other platforms:

Native path list is "/a/b/c:/x/y/z"

Hashing¶

cmake_path(HASH <path-var> <out-var>)

Compute a hash value of <path-var> such that for two paths p1 and p2 that compare equal (COMPARE ... EQUAL), the hash value of p1 is equal to the hash value of p2. The path is always normalized before the hash is computed.

cmake_policy¶

Manage CMake Policy settings. See the cmake-policies(7) manual for defined policies.

As CMake evolves it is sometimes necessary to change existing behavior in order to fix bugs or improve implementations of existing features. The CMake Policy mechanism is designed to help keep existing projects building as new versions of CMake introduce changes in behavior. Each new policy (behavioral change) is given an identifier of the form CMP<NNNN> where <NNNN> is an integer index. Documentation associated with each policy describes the OLD and NEW behavior and the reason the policy was introduced. Projects may set each policy to select the desired behavior. When CMake needs to know which behavior to use it checks for a setting specified by the project. If no setting is available the OLD behavior is assumed and a warning is produced requesting that the policy be set.

Setting Policies by CMake Version¶

The cmake_policy command is used to set policies to OLD or NEW behavior. While setting policies individually is supported, we encourage projects to set policies based on CMake versions:

cmake_policy(VERSION <min>[...<max>])

New in version 3.12: The optional <max> version.

<min> and the optional <max> are each CMake versions of the form major.minor[.patch[.tweak]], and the ... is literal. The <min> version must be at least 2.4 and at most the running version of CMake. The <max> version, if specified, must be at least the <min> version but may exceed the running version of CMake. If the running version of CMake is older than 3.12, the extra ... dots will be seen as version component separators, resulting in the ...<max> part being ignored and preserving the pre-3.12 behavior of basing policies on <min>.

This specifies that the current CMake code is written for the given range of CMake versions. All policies known to the running version of CMake and introduced in the <min> (or <max>, if specified) version or earlier will be set to use NEW behavior. All policies introduced in later versions will be unset (unless the CMAKE_POLICY_DEFAULT_CMP<NNNN> variable sets a default). This effectively requests behavior preferred as of a given CMake version and tells newer CMake versions to warn about their new policies.

Note that the cmake_minimum_required(VERSION) command implicitly calls cmake_policy(VERSION) too.

Setting Policies Explicitly¶

cmake_policy(SET CMP<NNNN> NEW)
cmake_policy(SET CMP<NNNN> OLD)

Tell CMake to use the OLD or NEW behavior for a given policy. Projects depending on the old behavior of a given policy may silence a policy warning by setting the policy state to OLD. Alternatively one may fix the project to work with the new behavior and set the policy state to NEW.

NOTE:

Checking Policy Settings¶

cmake_policy(GET CMP<NNNN> <variable>)

Check whether a given policy is set to OLD or NEW behavior. The output <variable> value will be OLD or NEW if the policy is set, and empty otherwise.

CMake Policy Stack¶

CMake keeps policy settings on a stack, so changes made by the cmake_policy command affect only the top of the stack. A new entry on the policy stack is managed automatically for each subdirectory to protect its parents and siblings. CMake also manages a new entry for scripts loaded by include() and find_package() commands except when invoked with the NO_POLICY_SCOPE option (see also policy CMP0011). The cmake_policy command provides an interface to manage custom entries on the policy stack:

cmake_policy(PUSH)
cmake_policy(POP)

Each PUSH must have a matching POP to erase any changes. This is useful to make temporary changes to policy settings. Calls to the cmake_minimum_required(VERSION), cmake_policy(VERSION), or cmake_policy(SET) commands influence only the current top of the policy stack.

New in version 3.25: The block() and endblock() commands offer a more flexible and more secure way to manage the policy stack. The pop action is done automatically when the endblock() command is executed, so it avoid to call the cmake_policy(POP) command before each return() command.

# stack management with cmake_policy()
function(my_func)


  cmake_policy(PUSH)


  cmake_policy(SET ...)


  if (<cond1>)


    ...


    cmake_policy(POP)


    return()


  elseif(<cond2>)


    ...


    cmake_policy(POP)


    return()


  endif()


  ...


  cmake_policy(POP)
endfunction()
# stack management with block()/endblock()
function(my_func)


  block(SCOPE_FOR POLICIES)


    cmake_policy(SET ...)


    if (<cond1>)


      ...


      return()


    elseif(<cond2>)


      ...


      return()


    endif()


    ...


  endblock()
endfunction()

Commands created by the function() and macro() commands record policy settings when they are created and use the pre-record policies when they are invoked. If the function or macro implementation sets policies, the changes automatically propagate up through callers until they reach the closest nested policy stack entry.

See Also¶

configure_file¶

Copy a file to another location and modify its contents.

configure_file(<input> <output>


               [NO_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS | USE_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS |


                FILE_PERMISSIONS <permissions>...]


               [COPYONLY] [ESCAPE_QUOTES] [@ONLY]


               [NEWLINE_STYLE [UNIX|DOS|WIN32|LF|CRLF] ])

Copies an <input> file to an <output> file and substitutes variable values referenced as @VAR@ or ${VAR} in the input file content. Each variable reference will be replaced with the current value of the variable, or the empty string if the variable is not defined. Furthermore, input lines of the form

#cmakedefine VAR ...

will be replaced with either

#define VAR ...

or

/* #undef VAR */

depending on whether VAR is set in CMake to any value not considered a false constant by the if() command. The "..." content on the line after the variable name, if any, is processed as above.

Unlike lines of the form #cmakedefine VAR ..., in lines of the form #cmakedefine01 VAR, VAR itself will expand to VAR 0 or VAR 1 rather than being assigned the value .... Therefore, input lines of the form

#cmakedefine01 VAR

will be replaced with either

#define VAR 0

or

#define VAR 1

Input lines of the form #cmakedefine01 VAR ... will expand as #cmakedefine01 VAR ... 0 or #cmakedefine01 VAR ... 1, which may lead to undefined behavior.

New in version 3.10: The result lines (with the exception of the #undef comments) can be indented using spaces and/or tabs between the # character and the cmakedefine or cmakedefine01 words. This whitespace indentation will be preserved in the output lines:

#  cmakedefine VAR
#  cmakedefine01 VAR

will be replaced, if VAR is defined, with

#  define VAR
#  define VAR 1

If the input file is modified the build system will re-run CMake to re-configure the file and generate the build system again. The generated file is modified and its timestamp updated on subsequent cmake runs only if its content is changed.

The arguments are:

Example¶

Consider a source tree containing a foo.h.in file:

#cmakedefine FOO_ENABLE
#cmakedefine FOO_STRING "@FOO_STRING@"

An adjacent CMakeLists.txt may use configure_file to configure the header:

option(FOO_ENABLE "Enable Foo" ON)
if(FOO_ENABLE)


  set(FOO_STRING "foo")
endif()
configure_file(foo.h.in foo.h @ONLY)

This creates a foo.h in the build directory corresponding to this source directory. If the FOO_ENABLE option is on, the configured file will contain:

#define FOO_ENABLE
#define FOO_STRING "foo"

Otherwise it will contain:

/* #undef FOO_ENABLE */
/* #undef FOO_STRING */

One may then use the target_include_directories() command to specify the output directory as an include directory:

target_include_directories(<target> [SYSTEM] <INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}")

so that sources may include the header as #include <foo.h>.

See Also¶

continue¶

New in version 3.2.

Continue to the top of enclosing foreach or while loop.

continue()

The continue() command allows a cmake script to abort the rest of the current iteration of a foreach() or while() loop, and start at the top of the next iteration.

See also the break() command.

else¶

Starts the else portion of an if block.

else([<condition>])

See the if() command.

elseif¶

Starts an elseif portion of an if block.

elseif(<condition>)

See the if() command, especially for the syntax and logic of the <condition>.

endblock¶

New in version 3.25.

Ends a list of commands in a block() and removes the scopes created by the block() command.

endblock()

endforeach¶

Ends a list of commands in a foreach block.

endforeach([<loop_var>])

See the foreach() command.

The optional <loop_var> argument is supported for backward compatibility only. If used it must be a verbatim repeat of the <loop_var> argument of the opening foreach clause.

endfunction¶

Ends a list of commands in a function block.

endfunction([<name>])

See the function() command.

The optional <name> argument is supported for backward compatibility only. If used it must be a verbatim repeat of the <name> argument of the opening function command.

endif¶

Ends a list of commands in an if block.

endif([<condition>])

See the if() command.

The optional <condition> argument is supported for backward compatibility only. If used it must be a verbatim repeat of the argument of the opening if clause.

endmacro¶

Ends a list of commands in a macro block.

endmacro([<name>])

See the macro() command.

The optional <name> argument is supported for backward compatibility only. If used it must be a verbatim repeat of the <name> argument of the opening macro command.

endwhile¶

Ends a list of commands in a while block.

endwhile([<condition>])

See the while() command.

The optional <condition> argument is supported for backward compatibility only. If used it must be a verbatim repeat of the argument of the opening while clause.

execute_process¶

Execute one or more child processes.

execute_process(COMMAND <cmd1> [<arguments>]


                [COMMAND <cmd2> [<arguments>]]...


                [WORKING_DIRECTORY <directory>]


                [TIMEOUT <seconds>]


                [RESULT_VARIABLE <variable>]


                [RESULTS_VARIABLE <variable>]


                [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <variable>]


                [ERROR_VARIABLE <variable>]


                [INPUT_FILE <file>]


                [OUTPUT_FILE <file>]


                [ERROR_FILE <file>]


                [OUTPUT_QUIET]


                [ERROR_QUIET]


                [COMMAND_ECHO <where>]


                [OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE]


                [ERROR_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE]


                [ENCODING <name>]


                [ECHO_OUTPUT_VARIABLE]


                [ECHO_ERROR_VARIABLE]


                [COMMAND_ERROR_IS_FATAL <ANY|LAST>])

Runs the given sequence of one or more commands.

Commands are executed concurrently as a pipeline, with the standard output of each process piped to the standard input of the next. A single standard error pipe is used for all processes.

execute_process runs commands while CMake is configuring the project, prior to build system generation. Use the add_custom_target() and add_custom_command() commands to create custom commands that run at build time.

Options:

New in version 3.3: If the same <file> is named for both OUTPUT_FILE and ERROR_FILE then it will be used for both standard output and standard error pipes.

NOTE:

file¶

File manipulation command.

This command is dedicated to file and path manipulation requiring access to the filesystem.

For other path manipulation, handling only syntactic aspects, have a look at cmake_path() command.

NOTE:

Synopsis¶

Reading


  file(READ <filename> <out-var> [...])


  file(STRINGS <filename> <out-var> [...])


  file(<HASH> <filename> <out-var>)


  file(TIMESTAMP <filename> <out-var> [...])


  file(GET_RUNTIME_DEPENDENCIES [...])
Writing


  file({WRITE | APPEND} <filename> <content>...)


  file({TOUCH | TOUCH_NOCREATE} [<file>...])


  file(GENERATE OUTPUT <output-file> [...])


  file(CONFIGURE OUTPUT <output-file> CONTENT <content> [...])
Filesystem


  file({GLOB | GLOB_RECURSE} <out-var> [...] [<globbing-expr>...])


  file(MAKE_DIRECTORY [<dir>...])


  file({REMOVE | REMOVE_RECURSE } [<files>...])


  file(RENAME <oldname> <newname> [...])


  file(COPY_FILE <oldname> <newname> [...])


  file({COPY | INSTALL} <file>... DESTINATION <dir> [...])


  file(SIZE <filename> <out-var>)


  file(READ_SYMLINK <linkname> <out-var>)


  file(CREATE_LINK <original> <linkname> [...])


  file(CHMOD <files>... <directories>... PERMISSIONS <permissions>... [...])


  file(CHMOD_RECURSE <files>... <directories>... PERMISSIONS <permissions>... [...])
Path Conversion


  file(REAL_PATH <path> <out-var> [BASE_DIRECTORY <dir>] [EXPAND_TILDE])


  file(RELATIVE_PATH <out-var> <directory> <file>)


  file({TO_CMAKE_PATH | TO_NATIVE_PATH} <path> <out-var>)
Transfer


  file(DOWNLOAD <url> [<file>] [...])


  file(UPLOAD <file> <url> [...])
Locking


  file(LOCK <path> [...])
Archiving


  file(ARCHIVE_CREATE OUTPUT <archive> PATHS <paths>... [...])


  file(ARCHIVE_EXTRACT INPUT <archive> [...])

Reading¶

file(READ <filename> <variable>


     [OFFSET <offset>] [LIMIT <max-in>] [HEX])

Read content from a file called <filename> and store it in a <variable>. Optionally start from the given <offset> and read at most <max-in> bytes. The HEX option causes data to be converted to a hexadecimal representation (useful for binary data). If the HEX option is specified, letters in the output (a through f) are in lowercase.

file(STRINGS <filename> <variable> [<options>...])

Parse a list of ASCII strings from <filename> and store it in <variable>. Binary data in the file are ignored. Carriage return (\r, CR) characters are ignored. The options are:

For example, the code

file(STRINGS myfile.txt myfile)

stores a list in the variable myfile in which each item is a line from the input file.

file(<HASH> <filename> <variable>)

Compute a cryptographic hash of the content of <filename> and store it in a <variable>. The supported <HASH> algorithm names are those listed by the string(<HASH>) command.

file(TIMESTAMP <filename> <variable> [<format>] [UTC])

Compute a string representation of the modification time of <filename> and store it in <variable>. Should the command be unable to obtain a timestamp variable will be set to the empty string ("").

See the string(TIMESTAMP) command for documentation of the <format> and UTC options.

file(GET_RUNTIME_DEPENDENCIES


  [RESOLVED_DEPENDENCIES_VAR <deps_var>]


  [UNRESOLVED_DEPENDENCIES_VAR <unresolved_deps_var>]


  [CONFLICTING_DEPENDENCIES_PREFIX <conflicting_deps_prefix>]


  [EXECUTABLES [<executable_files>...]]


  [LIBRARIES [<library_files>...]]


  [MODULES [<module_files>...]]


  [DIRECTORIES [<directories>...]]


  [BUNDLE_EXECUTABLE <bundle_executable_file>]


  [PRE_INCLUDE_REGEXES [<regexes>...]]


  [PRE_EXCLUDE_REGEXES [<regexes>...]]


  [POST_INCLUDE_REGEXES [<regexes>...]]


  [POST_EXCLUDE_REGEXES [<regexes>...]]


  [POST_INCLUDE_FILES [<files>...]]


  [POST_EXCLUDE_FILES [<files>...]]


  )

New in version 3.16.

Recursively get the list of libraries depended on by the given files.

Please note that this sub-command is not intended to be used in project mode. It is intended for use at install time, either from code generated by the install(RUNTIME_DEPENDENCY_SET) command, or from code provided by the project via install(CODE) or install(SCRIPT). For example:

install(CODE [[


  file(GET_RUNTIME_DEPENDENCIES


    # ...


    )


  ]])

The arguments are as follows:

The following arguments specify filters for including or excluding libraries to be resolved. See below for a full description of how they work.

These arguments can be used to exclude unwanted system libraries when resolving the dependencies, or to include libraries from a specific directory. The filtering works as follows:

Different platforms have different rules for how dependencies are resolved. These specifics are described here.

On Linux platforms, library resolution works as follows:

On Windows platforms, library resolution works as follows:

file(GET_RUNTIME_DEPENDENCIES


  # ...


  PRE_INCLUDE_REGEXES "^[Mm][Yy][Ll][Ii][Bb][Rr][Aa][Rr][Yy]\\.[Dd][Ll][Ll]$"


  )

file(GET_RUNTIME_DEPENDENCIES


  # ...


  PRE_INCLUDE_REGEXES "^mylibrary\\.dll$"


  )

On Apple platforms, library resolution works as follows:

This function accepts several variables that determine which tool is used for dependency resolution:

Writing¶

file(WRITE <filename> <content>...)
file(APPEND <filename> <content>...)

Write <content> into a file called <filename>. If the file does not exist, it will be created. If the file already exists, WRITE mode will overwrite it and APPEND mode will append to the end. Any directories in the path specified by <filename> that do not exist will be created.

If the file is a build input, use the configure_file() command to update the file only when its content changes.

file(TOUCH [<files>...])
file(TOUCH_NOCREATE [<files>...])

New in version 3.12.

Create a file with no content if it does not yet exist. If the file already exists, its access and/or modification will be updated to the time when the function call is executed.

Use TOUCH_NOCREATE to touch a file if it exists but not create it. If a file does not exist it will be silently ignored.

With TOUCH and TOUCH_NOCREATE the contents of an existing file will not be modified.

file(GENERATE OUTPUT output-file


     <INPUT input-file|CONTENT content>


     [CONDITION expression] [TARGET target]


     [NO_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS | USE_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS |


      FILE_PERMISSIONS <permissions>...]


     [NEWLINE_STYLE [UNIX|DOS|WIN32|LF|CRLF] ])

Generate an output file for each build configuration supported by the current CMake Generator. Evaluate generator expressions from the input content to produce the output content. The options are:

Exactly one CONTENT or INPUT option must be given. A specific OUTPUT file may be named by at most one invocation of file(GENERATE). Generated files are modified and their timestamp updated on subsequent cmake runs only if their content is changed.

Note also that file(GENERATE) does not create the output file until the generation phase. The output file will not yet have been written when the file(GENERATE) command returns, it is written only after processing all of a project's CMakeLists.txt files.

file(CONFIGURE OUTPUT output-file


     CONTENT content


     [ESCAPE_QUOTES] [@ONLY]


     [NEWLINE_STYLE [UNIX|DOS|WIN32|LF|CRLF] ])

New in version 3.18.

Generate an output file using the input given by CONTENT and substitute variable values referenced as @VAR@ or ${VAR} contained therein. The substitution rules behave the same as the configure_file() command. In order to match configure_file()'s behavior, generator expressions are not supported for both OUTPUT and CONTENT.

The arguments are:

Filesystem¶

file(GLOB <variable>


     [LIST_DIRECTORIES true|false] [RELATIVE <path>] [CONFIGURE_DEPENDS]


     [<globbing-expressions>...])
file(GLOB_RECURSE <variable> [FOLLOW_SYMLINKS]


     [LIST_DIRECTORIES true|false] [RELATIVE <path>] [CONFIGURE_DEPENDS]


     [<globbing-expressions>...])

Generate a list of files that match the <globbing-expressions> and store it into the <variable>. Globbing expressions are similar to regular expressions, but much simpler. If RELATIVE flag is specified, the results will be returned as relative paths to the given path.

Changed in version 3.6: The results will be ordered lexicographically.

On Windows and macOS, globbing is case-insensitive even if the underlying filesystem is case-sensitive (both filenames and globbing expressions are converted to lowercase before matching). On other platforms, globbing is case-sensitive.

New in version 3.3: By default GLOB lists directories - directories are omitted in result if LIST_DIRECTORIES is set to false.

New in version 3.12: If the CONFIGURE_DEPENDS flag is specified, CMake will add logic to the main build system check target to rerun the flagged GLOB commands at build time. If any of the outputs change, CMake will regenerate the build system.

NOTE:

Examples of globbing expressions include:

*.cxx      - match all files with extension cxx
*.vt?      - match all files with extension vta,...,vtz
f[3-5].txt - match files f3.txt, f4.txt, f5.txt

The GLOB_RECURSE mode will traverse all the subdirectories of the matched directory and match the files. Subdirectories that are symlinks are only traversed if FOLLOW_SYMLINKS is given or policy CMP0009 is not set to NEW.

New in version 3.3: By default GLOB_RECURSE omits directories from result list - setting LIST_DIRECTORIES to true adds directories to result list. If FOLLOW_SYMLINKS is given or policy CMP0009 is not set to NEW then LIST_DIRECTORIES treats symlinks as directories.

Examples of recursive globbing include:

/dir/*.py  - match all python files in /dir and subdirectories

file(MAKE_DIRECTORY [<directories>...])

Create the given directories and their parents as needed.

file(REMOVE [<files>...])
file(REMOVE_RECURSE [<files>...])

Remove the given files. The REMOVE_RECURSE mode will remove the given files and directories, also non-empty directories. No error is emitted if a given file does not exist. Relative input paths are evaluated with respect to the current source directory.

Changed in version 3.15: Empty input paths are ignored with a warning. Previous versions of CMake interpreted empty strings as a relative path with respect to the current directory and removed its contents.

file(RENAME <oldname> <newname>


     [RESULT <result>]


     [NO_REPLACE])

Move a file or directory within a filesystem from <oldname> to <newname>, replacing the destination atomically.

The options are:

file(COPY_FILE <oldname> <newname>


     [RESULT <result>]


     [ONLY_IF_DIFFERENT]


     [INPUT_MAY_BE_RECENT])

New in version 3.21.

Copy a file from <oldname> to <newname>. Directories are not supported. Symlinks are ignored and <oldfile>'s content is read and written to <newname> as a new file.

The options are:

This sub-command has some similarities to configure_file() with the COPYONLY option. An important difference is that configure_file() creates a dependency on the source file, so CMake will be re-run if it changes. The file(COPY_FILE) sub-command does not create such a dependency.

See also the file(COPY) sub-command just below which provides further file-copying capabilities.

file(<COPY|INSTALL> <files>... DESTINATION <dir>


     [NO_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS | USE_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS]


     [FILE_PERMISSIONS <permissions>...]


     [DIRECTORY_PERMISSIONS <permissions>...]


     [FOLLOW_SYMLINK_CHAIN]


     [FILES_MATCHING]


     [[PATTERN <pattern> | REGEX <regex>]


      [EXCLUDE] [PERMISSIONS <permissions>...]] [...])

NOTE:

The COPY signature copies files, directories, and symlinks to a destination folder. Relative input paths are evaluated with respect to the current source directory, and a relative destination is evaluated with respect to the current build directory. Copying preserves input file timestamps, and optimizes out a file if it exists at the destination with the same timestamp. Copying preserves input permissions unless explicit permissions or NO_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS are given (default is USE_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS).

New in version 3.15: If FOLLOW_SYMLINK_CHAIN is specified, COPY will recursively resolve the symlinks at the paths given until a real file is found, and install a corresponding symlink in the destination for each symlink encountered. For each symlink that is installed, the resolution is stripped of the directory, leaving only the filename, meaning that the new symlink points to a file in the same directory as the symlink. This feature is useful on some Unix systems, where libraries are installed as a chain of symlinks with version numbers, with less specific versions pointing to more specific versions. FOLLOW_SYMLINK_CHAIN will install all of these symlinks and the library itself into the destination directory. For example, if you have the following directory structure:

and you do:

file(COPY /opt/foo/lib/libfoo.so DESTINATION lib FOLLOW_SYMLINK_CHAIN)

This will install all of the symlinks and libfoo.so.1.2.3 itself into lib.

See the install(DIRECTORY) command for documentation of permissions, FILES_MATCHING, PATTERN, REGEX, and EXCLUDE options. Copying directories preserves the structure of their content even if options are used to select a subset of files.

The INSTALL signature differs slightly from COPY: it prints status messages, and NO_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS is default.

Installation scripts generated by the install() command use this signature (with some undocumented options for internal use).

Changed in version 3.22: The environment variable CMAKE_INSTALL_MODE can override the default copying behavior of file(INSTALL).

file(SIZE <filename> <variable>)

New in version 3.14.

Determine the file size of the <filename> and put the result in <variable> variable. Requires that <filename> is a valid path pointing to a file and is readable.

file(READ_SYMLINK <linkname> <variable>)

New in version 3.14.

This subcommand queries the symlink <linkname> and stores the path it points to in the result <variable>. If <linkname> does not exist or is not a symlink, CMake issues a fatal error.

Note that this command returns the raw symlink path and does not resolve a relative path. The following is an example of how to ensure that an absolute path is obtained:

set(linkname "/path/to/foo.sym")
file(READ_SYMLINK "${linkname}" result)
if(NOT IS_ABSOLUTE "${result}")


  get_filename_component(dir "${linkname}" DIRECTORY)


  set(result "${dir}/${result}")
endif()

file(CREATE_LINK <original> <linkname>


     [RESULT <result>] [COPY_ON_ERROR] [SYMBOLIC])

New in version 3.14.

Create a link <linkname> that points to <original>. It will be a hard link by default, but providing the SYMBOLIC option results in a symbolic link instead. Hard links require that original exists and is a file, not a directory. If <linkname> already exists, it will be overwritten.

The <result> variable, if specified, receives the status of the operation. It is set to 0 upon success or an error message otherwise. If RESULT is not specified and the operation fails, a fatal error is emitted.

Specifying COPY_ON_ERROR enables copying the file as a fallback if creating the link fails. It can be useful for handling situations such as <original> and <linkname> being on different drives or mount points, which would make them unable to support a hard link.

file(CHMOD <files>... <directories>...


    [PERMISSIONS <permissions>...]


    [FILE_PERMISSIONS <permissions>...]


    [DIRECTORY_PERMISSIONS <permissions>...])

New in version 3.19.

Set the permissions for the <files>... and <directories>... specified. Valid permissions are OWNER_READ, OWNER_WRITE, OWNER_EXECUTE, GROUP_READ, GROUP_WRITE, GROUP_EXECUTE, WORLD_READ, WORLD_WRITE, WORLD_EXECUTE, SETUID, SETGID.

Valid combination of keywords are:

file(CHMOD_RECURSE <files>... <directories>...


     [PERMISSIONS <permissions>...]


     [FILE_PERMISSIONS <permissions>...]


     [DIRECTORY_PERMISSIONS <permissions>...])

New in version 3.19.

Same as CHMOD, but change the permissions of files and directories present in the <directories>... recursively.

Path Conversion¶

file(REAL_PATH <path> <out-var> [BASE_DIRECTORY <dir>] [EXPAND_TILDE])

New in version 3.19.

Compute the absolute path to an existing file or directory with symlinks resolved.

file(RELATIVE_PATH <variable> <directory> <file>)

Compute the relative path from a <directory> to a <file> and store it in the <variable>.

file(TO_CMAKE_PATH "<path>" <variable>)
file(TO_NATIVE_PATH "<path>" <variable>)

The TO_CMAKE_PATH mode converts a native <path> into a cmake-style path with forward-slashes (/). The input can be a single path or a system search path like $ENV{PATH}. A search path will be converted to a cmake-style list separated by ; characters.

The TO_NATIVE_PATH mode converts a cmake-style <path> into a native path with platform-specific slashes (\ on Windows hosts and / elsewhere).

Always use double quotes around the <path> to be sure it is treated as a single argument to this command.

Transfer¶

file(DOWNLOAD <url> [<file>] [<options>...])
file(UPLOAD   <file> <url> [<options>...])

The DOWNLOAD subcommand downloads the given <url> to a local <file>. The UPLOAD mode uploads a local <file> to a given <url>.

New in version 3.19: If <file> is not specified for file(DOWNLOAD), the file is not saved. This can be useful if you want to know if a file can be downloaded (for example, to check that it exists) without actually saving it anywhere.

Options to both DOWNLOAD and UPLOAD are:

For https:// URLs CMake must be built with OpenSSL support. TLS/SSL certificates are not checked by default. Set TLS_VERIFY to ON to check certificates.

Additional options to DOWNLOAD are:

EXPECTED_HASH ALGO=<value>

Locking¶

file(LOCK <path> [DIRECTORY] [RELEASE]


     [GUARD <FUNCTION|FILE|PROCESS>]


     [RESULT_VARIABLE <variable>]


     [TIMEOUT <seconds>])

New in version 3.2.

Lock a file specified by <path> if no DIRECTORY option present and file <path>/cmake.lock otherwise. File will be locked for scope defined by GUARD option (default value is PROCESS). RELEASE option can be used to unlock file explicitly. If option TIMEOUT is not specified CMake will wait until lock succeed or until fatal error occurs. If TIMEOUT is set to 0 lock will be tried once and result will be reported immediately. If TIMEOUT is not 0 CMake will try to lock file for the period specified by <seconds> value. Any errors will be interpreted as fatal if there is no RESULT_VARIABLE option. Otherwise result will be stored in <variable> and will be 0 on success or error message on failure.

Note that lock is advisory - there is no guarantee that other processes will respect this lock, i.e. lock synchronize two or more CMake instances sharing some modifiable resources. Similar logic applied to DIRECTORY option - locking parent directory doesn't prevent other LOCK commands to lock any child directory or file.

Trying to lock file twice is not allowed. Any intermediate directories and file itself will be created if they not exist. GUARD and TIMEOUT options ignored on RELEASE operation.

Archiving¶

file(ARCHIVE_CREATE OUTPUT <archive>


  PATHS <paths>...


  [FORMAT <format>]


  [COMPRESSION <compression> [COMPRESSION_LEVEL <compression-level>]]


  [MTIME <mtime>]


  [VERBOSE])

New in version 3.18.

Creates the specified <archive> file with the files and directories listed in <paths>. Note that <paths> must list actual files or directories, wildcards are not supported.

Use the FORMAT option to specify the archive format. Supported values for <format> are 7zip, gnutar, pax, paxr, raw and zip. If FORMAT is not given, the default format is paxr.

Some archive formats allow the type of compression to be specified. The 7zip and zip archive formats already imply a specific type of compression. The other formats use no compression by default, but can be directed to do so with the COMPRESSION option. Valid values for <compression> are None, BZip2, GZip, XZ, and Zstd.

New in version 3.19: The compression level can be specified with the COMPRESSION_LEVEL option. The <compression-level> should be between 0-9, with the default being 0. The COMPRESSION option must be present when COMPRESSION_LEVEL is given.

New in version 3.26: The <compression-level> of the Zstd algorithm can be set between 0-19.

NOTE:

The VERBOSE option enables verbose output for the archive operation.

To specify the modification time recorded in tarball entries, use the MTIME option.

file(ARCHIVE_EXTRACT INPUT <archive>


  [DESTINATION <dir>]


  [PATTERNS <patterns>...]


  [LIST_ONLY]


  [VERBOSE]


  [TOUCH])

New in version 3.18.

Extracts or lists the content of the specified <archive>.

The directory where the content of the archive will be extracted to can be specified using the DESTINATION option. If the directory does not exist, it will be created. If DESTINATION is not given, the current binary directory will be used.

If required, you may select which files and directories to list or extract from the archive using the specified <patterns>. Wildcards are supported. If the PATTERNS option is not given, the entire archive will be listed or extracted.

LIST_ONLY will list the files in the archive rather than extract them.

New in version 3.24: The TOUCH option gives extracted files a current local timestamp instead of extracting file timestamps from the archive.

With VERBOSE, the command will produce verbose output.

find_file¶

A short-hand signature is:

find_file (<VAR> name1 [path1 path2 ...])

The general signature is:

find_file (


          <VAR>


          name | NAMES name1 [name2 ...]


          [HINTS [path | ENV var]... ]


          [PATHS [path | ENV var]... ]


          [REGISTRY_VIEW (64|32|64_32|32_64|HOST|TARGET|BOTH)]


          [PATH_SUFFIXES suffix1 [suffix2 ...]]


          [VALIDATOR function]


          [DOC "cache documentation string"]


          [NO_CACHE]


          [REQUIRED]


          [NO_DEFAULT_PATH]


          [NO_PACKAGE_ROOT_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]


          [NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX]


          [CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH |


           ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH |


           NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH]


         )

This command is used to find a full path to named file. A cache entry, or a normal variable if NO_CACHE is specified, named by <VAR> is created to store the result of this command. If the full path to a file is found the result is stored in the variable and the search will not be repeated unless the variable is cleared. If nothing is found, the result will be <VAR>-NOTFOUND.

Options include:

function(my_check validator_result_var item)


  if(NOT item MATCHES ...)


    set(${validator_result_var} FALSE PARENT_SCOPE)


  endif()
endfunction()
find_file (result NAMES ... VALIDATOR my_check)

If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is specified, then no additional paths are added to the search. If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is not specified, the search process is as follows:

The CMAKE_IGNORE_PATH, CMAKE_IGNORE_PREFIX_PATH, CMAKE_SYSTEM_IGNORE_PATH and CMAKE_SYSTEM_IGNORE_PREFIX_PATH variables can also cause some of the above locations to be ignored.

New in version 3.16: Added CMAKE_FIND_USE_<CATEGORY>_PATH variables to globally disable various search locations.

On macOS the CMAKE_FIND_FRAMEWORK and CMAKE_FIND_APPBUNDLE variables determine the order of preference between Apple-style and unix-style package components.

The CMake variable CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH specifies one or more directories to be prepended to all other search directories. This effectively "re-roots" the entire search under given locations. Paths which are descendants of the CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX are excluded from this re-rooting, because that variable is always a path on the host system. By default the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH is empty.

The CMAKE_SYSROOT variable can also be used to specify exactly one directory to use as a prefix. Setting CMAKE_SYSROOT also has other effects. See the documentation for that variable for more.

These variables are especially useful when cross-compiling to point to the root directory of the target environment and CMake will search there too. By default at first the directories listed in CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH are searched, then the CMAKE_SYSROOT directory is searched, and then the non-rooted directories will be searched. The default behavior can be adjusted by setting CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE. This behavior can be manually overridden on a per-call basis using options:

The default search order is designed to be most-specific to least-specific for common use cases. Projects may override the order by simply calling the command multiple times and using the NO_* options:

find_file (<VAR> NAMES name PATHS paths... NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
find_file (<VAR> NAMES name)

Once one of the calls succeeds the result variable will be set and stored in the cache so that no call will search again.

find_library¶

A short-hand signature is:

find_library (<VAR> name1 [path1 path2 ...])

The general signature is:

find_library (


          <VAR>


          name | NAMES name1 [name2 ...] [NAMES_PER_DIR]


          [HINTS [path | ENV var]... ]


          [PATHS [path | ENV var]... ]


          [REGISTRY_VIEW (64|32|64_32|32_64|HOST|TARGET|BOTH)]


          [PATH_SUFFIXES suffix1 [suffix2 ...]]


          [VALIDATOR function]


          [DOC "cache documentation string"]


          [NO_CACHE]


          [REQUIRED]


          [NO_DEFAULT_PATH]


          [NO_PACKAGE_ROOT_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]


          [NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX]


          [CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH |


           ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH |


           NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH]


         )

This command is used to find a library. A cache entry, or a normal variable if NO_CACHE is specified, named by <VAR> is created to store the result of this command. If the library is found the result is stored in the variable and the search will not be repeated unless the variable is cleared. If nothing is found, the result will be <VAR>-NOTFOUND.

Options include:

function(my_check validator_result_var item)


  if(NOT item MATCHES ...)


    set(${validator_result_var} FALSE PARENT_SCOPE)


  endif()
endfunction()
find_library (result NAMES ... VALIDATOR my_check)

If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is specified, then no additional paths are added to the search. If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is not specified, the search process is as follows:

The CMAKE_IGNORE_PATH, CMAKE_IGNORE_PREFIX_PATH, CMAKE_SYSTEM_IGNORE_PATH and CMAKE_SYSTEM_IGNORE_PREFIX_PATH variables can also cause some of the above locations to be ignored.

New in version 3.16: Added CMAKE_FIND_USE_<CATEGORY>_PATH variables to globally disable various search locations.

On macOS the CMAKE_FIND_FRAMEWORK and CMAKE_FIND_APPBUNDLE variables determine the order of preference between Apple-style and unix-style package components.

The CMake variable CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH specifies one or more directories to be prepended to all other search directories. This effectively "re-roots" the entire search under given locations. Paths which are descendants of the CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX are excluded from this re-rooting, because that variable is always a path on the host system. By default the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH is empty.

The CMAKE_SYSROOT variable can also be used to specify exactly one directory to use as a prefix. Setting CMAKE_SYSROOT also has other effects. See the documentation for that variable for more.

These variables are especially useful when cross-compiling to point to the root directory of the target environment and CMake will search there too. By default at first the directories listed in CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH are searched, then the CMAKE_SYSROOT directory is searched, and then the non-rooted directories will be searched. The default behavior can be adjusted by setting CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_LIBRARY. This behavior can be manually overridden on a per-call basis using options:

The default search order is designed to be most-specific to least-specific for common use cases. Projects may override the order by simply calling the command multiple times and using the NO_* options:

find_library (<VAR> NAMES name PATHS paths... NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
find_library (<VAR> NAMES name)

Once one of the calls succeeds the result variable will be set and stored in the cache so that no call will search again.

When more than one value is given to the NAMES option this command by default will consider one name at a time and search every directory for it. The NAMES_PER_DIR option tells this command to consider one directory at a time and search for all names in it.

Each library name given to the NAMES option is first considered as a library file name and then considered with platform-specific prefixes (e.g. lib) and suffixes (e.g. .so). Therefore one may specify library file names such as libfoo.a directly. This can be used to locate static libraries on UNIX-like systems.

If the library found is a framework, then <VAR> will be set to the full path to the framework <fullPath>/A.framework. When a full path to a framework is used as a library, CMake will use a -framework A, and a -F<fullPath> to link the framework to the target.

If the CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_CUSTOM_LIB_SUFFIX variable is set all search paths will be tested as normal, with the suffix appended, and with all matches of lib/ replaced with lib${CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_CUSTOM_LIB_SUFFIX}/. This variable overrides the FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB32_PATHS, FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIBX32_PATHS, and FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB64_PATHS global properties.

If the FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB32_PATHS global property is set all search paths will be tested as normal, with 32/ appended, and with all matches of lib/ replaced with lib32/. This property is automatically set for the platforms that are known to need it if at least one of the languages supported by the project() command is enabled.

If the FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIBX32_PATHS global property is set all search paths will be tested as normal, with x32/ appended, and with all matches of lib/ replaced with libx32/. This property is automatically set for the platforms that are known to need it if at least one of the languages supported by the project() command is enabled.

If the FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB64_PATHS global property is set all search paths will be tested as normal, with 64/ appended, and with all matches of lib/ replaced with lib64/. This property is automatically set for the platforms that are known to need it if at least one of the languages supported by the project() command is enabled.

find_package¶

NOTE:

Find a package (usually provided by something external to the project), and load its package-specific details. Calls to this command can also be intercepted by dependency providers.

Search Modes¶

The command has a few modes by which it searches for packages:

When not redirected to a package provided by FetchContent, the command arguments determine whether Module or Config mode is used. When the basic signature is used, the command searches in Module mode first. If the package is not found, the search falls back to Config mode. A user may set the CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_PREFER_CONFIG variable to true to reverse the priority and direct CMake to search using Config mode first before falling back to Module mode. The basic signature can also be forced to use only Module mode with a MODULE keyword. If the full signature is used, the command only searches in Config mode.

Where possible, user code should generally look for packages using the basic signature, since that allows the package to be found with any mode. Project maintainers wishing to provide a config package should understand the bigger picture, as explained in Full Signature and all subsequent sections on this page.

Basic Signature¶

find_package(<PackageName> [version] [EXACT] [QUIET] [MODULE]


             [REQUIRED] [[COMPONENTS] [components...]]


             [OPTIONAL_COMPONENTS components...]


             [REGISTRY_VIEW  (64|32|64_32|32_64|HOST|TARGET|BOTH)]


             [GLOBAL]


             [NO_POLICY_SCOPE]


             [BYPASS_PROVIDER])

The basic signature is supported by both Module and Config modes. The MODULE keyword implies that only Module mode can be used to find the package, with no fallback to Config mode.

Regardless of the mode used, a <PackageName>_FOUND variable will be set to indicate whether the package was found. When the package is found, package-specific information may be provided through other variables and Imported Targets documented by the package itself. The QUIET option disables informational messages, including those indicating that the package cannot be found if it is not REQUIRED. The REQUIRED option stops processing with an error message if the package cannot be found.

A package-specific list of required components may be listed after the COMPONENTS keyword. If any of these components are not able to be satisfied, the package overall is considered to be not found. If the REQUIRED option is also present, this is treated as a fatal error, otherwise execution still continues. As a form of shorthand, if the REQUIRED option is present, the COMPONENTS keyword can be omitted and the required components can be listed directly after REQUIRED.

Additional optional components may be listed after OPTIONAL_COMPONENTS. If these cannot be satisfied, the package overall can still be considered found, as long as all required components are satisfied.

The set of available components and their meaning are defined by the target package. Formally, it is up to the target package how to interpret the component information given to it, but it should follow the expectations stated above. For calls where no components are specified, there is no single expected behavior and target packages should clearly define what occurs in such cases. Common arrangements include assuming it should find all components, no components or some well-defined subset of the available components.

New in version 3.24: The REGISTRY_VIEW keyword specifies which registry views should be queried. This keyword is only meaningful on Windows platforms and will be ignored on all others. Formally, it is up to the target package how to interpret the registry view information given to it.

New in version 3.24: Specifying the GLOBAL keyword will promote all imported targets to a global scope in the importing project. Alternatively, this functionality can be enabled by setting the CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_TARGETS_GLOBAL variable.

The [version] argument requests a version with which the package found should be compatible. There are two possible forms in which it may be specified:

The EXACT option requests that the version be matched exactly. This option is incompatible with the specification of a version range.

If no [version] and/or component list is given to a recursive invocation inside a find-module, the corresponding arguments are forwarded automatically from the outer call (including the EXACT flag for [version]). Version support is currently provided only on a package-by-package basis (see the Version Selection section below). When a version range is specified but the package is only designed to expect a single version, the package will ignore the upper end point of the range and only take the single version at the lower end of the range into account.

See the cmake_policy() command documentation for discussion of the NO_POLICY_SCOPE option.

New in version 3.24: The BYPASS_PROVIDER keyword is only allowed when find_package() is being called by a dependency provider. It can be used by providers to call the built-in find_package() implementation directly and prevent that call from being re-routed back to itself. Future versions of CMake may detect attempts to use this keyword from places other than a dependency provider and halt with a fatal error.

Full Signature¶

find_package(<PackageName> [version] [EXACT] [QUIET]


             [REQUIRED] [[COMPONENTS] [components...]]


             [OPTIONAL_COMPONENTS components...]


             [CONFIG|NO_MODULE]


             [GLOBAL]


             [NO_POLICY_SCOPE]


             [BYPASS_PROVIDER]


             [NAMES name1 [name2 ...]]


             [CONFIGS config1 [config2 ...]]


             [HINTS path1 [path2 ... ]]


             [PATHS path1 [path2 ... ]]


             [REGISTRY_VIEW  (64|32|64_32|32_64|HOST|TARGET|BOTH)]


             [PATH_SUFFIXES suffix1 [suffix2 ...]]


             [NO_DEFAULT_PATH]


             [NO_PACKAGE_ROOT_PATH]


             [NO_CMAKE_PATH]


             [NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]


             [NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]


             [NO_CMAKE_PACKAGE_REGISTRY]


             [NO_CMAKE_BUILDS_PATH] # Deprecated; does nothing.


             [NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH]


             [NO_CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX]


             [NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PACKAGE_REGISTRY]


             [CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH |


              ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH |


              NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH])

The CONFIG option, the synonymous NO_MODULE option, or the use of options not specified in the basic signature all enforce pure Config mode. In pure Config mode, the command skips Module mode search and proceeds at once with Config mode search.

Config mode search attempts to locate a configuration file provided by the package to be found. A cache entry called <PackageName>_DIR is created to hold the directory containing the file. By default, the command searches for a package with the name <PackageName>. If the NAMES option is given, the names following it are used instead of <PackageName>. The names are also considered when determining whether to redirect the call to a package provided by FetchContent.

The command searches for a file called <PackageName>Config.cmake or <lowercasePackageName>-config.cmake for each name specified. A replacement set of possible configuration file names may be given using the CONFIGS option. The Config Mode Search Procedure is specified below. Once found, any version constraint is checked, and if satisfied, the configuration file is read and processed by CMake. Since the file is provided by the package it already knows the location of package contents. The full path to the configuration file is stored in the cmake variable <PackageName>_CONFIG.

All configuration files which have been considered by CMake while searching for the package with an appropriate version are stored in the <PackageName>_CONSIDERED_CONFIGS variable, and the associated versions in the <PackageName>_CONSIDERED_VERSIONS variable.

If the package configuration file cannot be found CMake will generate an error describing the problem unless the QUIET argument is specified. If REQUIRED is specified and the package is not found a fatal error is generated and the configure step stops executing. If <PackageName>_DIR has been set to a directory not containing a configuration file CMake will ignore it and search from scratch.

Package maintainers providing CMake package configuration files are encouraged to name and install them such that the Config Mode Search Procedure outlined below will find them without requiring use of additional options.

Config Mode Search Procedure¶

NOTE:

New in version 3.24: All calls to find_package() (even in Module mode) first look for a config package file in the CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_REDIRECTS_DIR directory. The FetchContent module, or even the project itself, may write files to that location to redirect find_package() calls to content already provided by the project. If no config package file is found in that location, the search proceeds with the logic described below.

CMake constructs a set of possible installation prefixes for the package. Under each prefix several directories are searched for a configuration file. The tables below show the directories searched. Each entry is meant for installation trees following Windows (W), UNIX (U), or Apple (A) conventions:

[1]

New in version 3.25.

On systems supporting macOS FRAMEWORK and BUNDLE, the following directories are searched for Frameworks or Application Bundles containing a configuration file:

Entry	Convention
<prefix>/<name>.framework/Resources/	A
<prefix>/<name>.framework/Resources/CMake/	A
<prefix>/<name>.framework/Versions/*/Resources/	A
<prefix>/<name>.framework/Versions/*/Resources/CMake/	A
<prefix>/<name>.app/Contents/Resources/	A
<prefix>/<name>.app/Contents/Resources/CMake/	A

In all cases the <name> is treated as case-insensitive and corresponds to any of the names specified (<PackageName> or names given by NAMES).

Paths with lib/<arch> are enabled if the CMAKE_LIBRARY_ARCHITECTURE variable is set. lib* includes one or more of the values lib64, lib32, libx32 or lib (searched in that order).

Changed in version 3.24: On Windows platform, it is possible to include registry queries as part of the directories specified through HINTS and PATHS keywords, using a dedicated syntax. Such specifications will be ignored on all other platforms.

New in version 3.24: REGISTRY_VIEW can be specified to manage Windows registry queries specified as part of PATHS and HINTS.

Specify which registry views must be queried. This option is only meaningful on Windows platforms and will be ignored on other ones. When not specified, the TARGET view is used when the CMP0134 policy is NEW. Refer to CMP0134 for the default view when the policy is OLD.

If PATH_SUFFIXES is specified, the suffixes are appended to each (W) or (U) directory entry one-by-one.

This set of directories is intended to work in cooperation with projects that provide configuration files in their installation trees. Directories above marked with (W) are intended for installations on Windows where the prefix may point at the top of an application's installation directory. Those marked with (U) are intended for installations on UNIX platforms where the prefix is shared by multiple packages. This is merely a convention, so all (W) and (U) directories are still searched on all platforms. Directories marked with (A) are intended for installations on Apple platforms. The CMAKE_FIND_FRAMEWORK and CMAKE_FIND_APPBUNDLE variables determine the order of preference.

The set of installation prefixes is constructed using the following steps. If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is specified all NO_* options are enabled.

The CMAKE_IGNORE_PATH, CMAKE_IGNORE_PREFIX_PATH, CMAKE_SYSTEM_IGNORE_PATH and CMAKE_SYSTEM_IGNORE_PREFIX_PATH variables can also cause some of the above locations to be ignored.

New in version 3.16: Added the CMAKE_FIND_USE_<CATEGORY> variables to globally disable various search locations.

The CMake variable CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH specifies one or more directories to be prepended to all other search directories. This effectively "re-roots" the entire search under given locations. Paths which are descendants of the CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX are excluded from this re-rooting, because that variable is always a path on the host system. By default the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH is empty.

The CMAKE_SYSROOT variable can also be used to specify exactly one directory to use as a prefix. Setting CMAKE_SYSROOT also has other effects. See the documentation for that variable for more.

These variables are especially useful when cross-compiling to point to the root directory of the target environment and CMake will search there too. By default at first the directories listed in CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH are searched, then the CMAKE_SYSROOT directory is searched, and then the non-rooted directories will be searched. The default behavior can be adjusted by setting CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PACKAGE. This behavior can be manually overridden on a per-call basis using options:

The default search order is designed to be most-specific to least-specific for common use cases. Projects may override the order by simply calling the command multiple times and using the NO_* options:

find_package (<PackageName> PATHS paths... NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
find_package (<PackageName>)

Once one of the calls succeeds the result variable will be set and stored in the cache so that no call will search again.

By default the value stored in the result variable will be the path at which the file is found. The CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_RESOLVE_SYMLINKS variable may be set to TRUE before calling find_package in order to resolve symbolic links and store the real path to the file.

Every non-REQUIRED find_package call can be disabled or made REQUIRED:

Setting both variables to TRUE simultaneously is an error.

Config Mode Version Selection¶

NOTE:

When the [version] argument is given, Config mode will only find a version of the package that claims compatibility with the requested version (see format specification). If the EXACT option is given, only a version of the package claiming an exact match of the requested version may be found. CMake does not establish any convention for the meaning of version numbers. Package version numbers are checked by "version" files provided by the packages themselves or by FetchContent. For a candidate package configuration file <config-file>.cmake the corresponding version file is located next to it and named either <config-file>-version.cmake or <config-file>Version.cmake. If no such version file is available then the configuration file is assumed to not be compatible with any requested version. A basic version file containing generic version matching code can be created using the CMakePackageConfigHelpers module. When a version file is found it is loaded to check the requested version number. The version file is loaded in a nested scope in which the following variables have been defined:

When a version range is specified, the above version variables will hold values based on the lower end of the version range. This is to preserve compatibility with packages that have not been implemented to expect version ranges. In addition, the version range will be described by the following variables:

Regardless of whether a single version or a version range is specified, the variable PACKAGE_FIND_VERSION_COMPLETE will be defined and will hold the full requested version string as specified.

The version file checks whether it satisfies the requested version and sets these variables:

These variables are checked by the find_package command to determine whether the configuration file provides an acceptable version. They are not available after the find_package call returns. If the version is acceptable the following variables are set:

and the corresponding package configuration file is loaded. When multiple package configuration files are available whose version files claim compatibility with the version requested it is unspecified which one is chosen: unless the variable CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_SORT_ORDER is set no attempt is made to choose a highest or closest version number.

To control the order in which find_package checks for compatibility use the two variables CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_SORT_ORDER and CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_SORT_DIRECTION. For instance in order to select the highest version one can set

SET(CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_SORT_ORDER NATURAL)
SET(CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_SORT_DIRECTION DEC)

before calling find_package.

Package File Interface Variables¶

When loading a find module or package configuration file find_package defines variables to provide information about the call arguments (and restores their original state before returning):

When a version range is specified, the above version variables will hold values based on the lower end of the version range. This is to preserve compatibility with packages that have not been implemented to expect version ranges. In addition, the version range will be described by the following variables:

Regardless of whether a single version or a version range is specified, the variable <PackageName>_FIND_VERSION_COMPLETE will be defined and will hold the full requested version string as specified.

In Module mode the loaded find module is responsible to honor the request detailed by these variables; see the find module for details. In Config mode find_package handles REQUIRED, QUIET, and [version] options automatically but leaves it to the package configuration file to handle components in a way that makes sense for the package. The package configuration file may set <PackageName>_FOUND to false to tell find_package that component requirements are not satisfied.

find_path¶

A short-hand signature is:

find_path (<VAR> name1 [path1 path2 ...])

The general signature is:

find_path (


          <VAR>


          name | NAMES name1 [name2 ...]


          [HINTS [path | ENV var]... ]


          [PATHS [path | ENV var]... ]


          [REGISTRY_VIEW (64|32|64_32|32_64|HOST|TARGET|BOTH)]


          [PATH_SUFFIXES suffix1 [suffix2 ...]]


          [VALIDATOR function]


          [DOC "cache documentation string"]


          [NO_CACHE]


          [REQUIRED]


          [NO_DEFAULT_PATH]


          [NO_PACKAGE_ROOT_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]


          [NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX]


          [CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH |


           ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH |


           NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH]


         )

This command is used to find a directory containing the named file. A cache entry, or a normal variable if NO_CACHE is specified, named by <VAR> is created to store the result of this command. If the file in a directory is found the result is stored in the variable and the search will not be repeated unless the variable is cleared. If nothing is found, the result will be <VAR>-NOTFOUND.

Options include:

function(my_check validator_result_var item)


  if(NOT item MATCHES ...)


    set(${validator_result_var} FALSE PARENT_SCOPE)


  endif()
endfunction()
find_path (result NAMES ... VALIDATOR my_check)

If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is specified, then no additional paths are added to the search. If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is not specified, the search process is as follows:

The CMAKE_IGNORE_PATH, CMAKE_IGNORE_PREFIX_PATH, CMAKE_SYSTEM_IGNORE_PATH and CMAKE_SYSTEM_IGNORE_PREFIX_PATH variables can also cause some of the above locations to be ignored.

New in version 3.16: Added CMAKE_FIND_USE_<CATEGORY>_PATH variables to globally disable various search locations.

On macOS the CMAKE_FIND_FRAMEWORK and CMAKE_FIND_APPBUNDLE variables determine the order of preference between Apple-style and unix-style package components.

The CMake variable CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH specifies one or more directories to be prepended to all other search directories. This effectively "re-roots" the entire search under given locations. Paths which are descendants of the CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX are excluded from this re-rooting, because that variable is always a path on the host system. By default the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH is empty.

The CMAKE_SYSROOT variable can also be used to specify exactly one directory to use as a prefix. Setting CMAKE_SYSROOT also has other effects. See the documentation for that variable for more.

These variables are especially useful when cross-compiling to point to the root directory of the target environment and CMake will search there too. By default at first the directories listed in CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH are searched, then the CMAKE_SYSROOT directory is searched, and then the non-rooted directories will be searched. The default behavior can be adjusted by setting CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE. This behavior can be manually overridden on a per-call basis using options:

The default search order is designed to be most-specific to least-specific for common use cases. Projects may override the order by simply calling the command multiple times and using the NO_* options:

find_path (<VAR> NAMES name PATHS paths... NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
find_path (<VAR> NAMES name)

Once one of the calls succeeds the result variable will be set and stored in the cache so that no call will search again.

When searching for frameworks, if the file is specified as A/b.h, then the framework search will look for A.framework/Headers/b.h. If that is found the path will be set to the path to the framework. CMake will convert this to the correct -F option to include the file.

find_program¶

A short-hand signature is:

find_program (<VAR> name1 [path1 path2 ...])

The general signature is:

find_program (


          <VAR>


          name | NAMES name1 [name2 ...] [NAMES_PER_DIR]


          [HINTS [path | ENV var]... ]


          [PATHS [path | ENV var]... ]


          [REGISTRY_VIEW (64|32|64_32|32_64|HOST|TARGET|BOTH)]


          [PATH_SUFFIXES suffix1 [suffix2 ...]]


          [VALIDATOR function]


          [DOC "cache documentation string"]


          [NO_CACHE]


          [REQUIRED]


          [NO_DEFAULT_PATH]


          [NO_PACKAGE_ROOT_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]


          [NO_SYSTEM_ENVIRONMENT_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_SYSTEM_PATH]


          [NO_CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX]


          [CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_BOTH |


           ONLY_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH |


           NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH]


         )

This command is used to find a program. A cache entry, or a normal variable if NO_CACHE is specified, named by <VAR> is created to store the result of this command. If the program is found the result is stored in the variable and the search will not be repeated unless the variable is cleared. If nothing is found, the result will be <VAR>-NOTFOUND.

Options include:

function(my_check validator_result_var item)


  if(NOT item MATCHES ...)


    set(${validator_result_var} FALSE PARENT_SCOPE)


  endif()
endfunction()
find_program (result NAMES ... VALIDATOR my_check)

If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is specified, then no additional paths are added to the search. If NO_DEFAULT_PATH is not specified, the search process is as follows:

The CMAKE_IGNORE_PATH, CMAKE_IGNORE_PREFIX_PATH, CMAKE_SYSTEM_IGNORE_PATH and CMAKE_SYSTEM_IGNORE_PREFIX_PATH variables can also cause some of the above locations to be ignored.

New in version 3.16: Added CMAKE_FIND_USE_<CATEGORY>_PATH variables to globally disable various search locations.

On macOS the CMAKE_FIND_FRAMEWORK and CMAKE_FIND_APPBUNDLE variables determine the order of preference between Apple-style and unix-style package components.

The CMake variable CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH specifies one or more directories to be prepended to all other search directories. This effectively "re-roots" the entire search under given locations. Paths which are descendants of the CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX are excluded from this re-rooting, because that variable is always a path on the host system. By default the CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH is empty.

The CMAKE_SYSROOT variable can also be used to specify exactly one directory to use as a prefix. Setting CMAKE_SYSROOT also has other effects. See the documentation for that variable for more.

These variables are especially useful when cross-compiling to point to the root directory of the target environment and CMake will search there too. By default at first the directories listed in CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH are searched, then the CMAKE_SYSROOT directory is searched, and then the non-rooted directories will be searched. The default behavior can be adjusted by setting CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PROGRAM. This behavior can be manually overridden on a per-call basis using options:

The default search order is designed to be most-specific to least-specific for common use cases. Projects may override the order by simply calling the command multiple times and using the NO_* options:

find_program (<VAR> NAMES name PATHS paths... NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
find_program (<VAR> NAMES name)

Once one of the calls succeeds the result variable will be set and stored in the cache so that no call will search again.

When more than one value is given to the NAMES option this command by default will consider one name at a time and search every directory for it. The NAMES_PER_DIR option tells this command to consider one directory at a time and search for all names in it.

foreach¶

Evaluate a group of commands for each value in a list.

foreach(<loop_var> <items>)


  <commands>
endforeach()

where <items> is a list of items that are separated by semicolon or whitespace. All commands between foreach and the matching endforeach are recorded without being invoked. Once the endforeach is evaluated, the recorded list of commands is invoked once for each item in <items>. At the beginning of each iteration the variable <loop_var> will be set to the value of the current item.

The scope of <loop_var> is restricted to the loop scope. See policy CMP0124 for details.

The commands break() and continue() provide means to escape from the normal control flow.

Per legacy, the endforeach() command admits an optional <loop_var> argument. If used, it must be a verbatim repeat of the argument of the opening foreach command.

foreach(<loop_var> RANGE <stop>)

In this variant, foreach iterates over the numbers 0, 1, ... up to (and including) the nonnegative integer <stop>.

foreach(<loop_var> RANGE <start> <stop> [<step>])

In this variant, foreach iterates over the numbers from <start> up to at most <stop> in steps of <step>. If <step> is not specified, then the step size is 1. The three arguments <start> <stop> <step> must all be nonnegative integers, and <stop> must not be smaller than <start>; otherwise you enter the danger zone of undocumented behavior that may change in future releases.

foreach(<loop_var> IN [LISTS [<lists>]] [ITEMS [<items>]])

In this variant, <lists> is a whitespace or semicolon separated list of list-valued variables. The foreach command iterates over each item in each given list. The <items> following the ITEMS keyword are processed as in the first variant of the foreach command. The forms LISTS A and ITEMS ${A} are equivalent.

The following example shows how the LISTS option is processed:

set(A 0;1)
set(B 2 3)
set(C "4 5")
set(D 6;7 8)
set(E "")
foreach(X IN LISTS A B C D E)


    message(STATUS "X=${X}")
endforeach()

yields:

-- X=0
-- X=1
-- X=2
-- X=3
-- X=4 5
-- X=6
-- X=7
-- X=8

foreach(<loop_var>... IN ZIP_LISTS <lists>)

New in version 3.17.

In this variant, <lists> is a whitespace or semicolon separated list of list-valued variables. The foreach command iterates over each list simultaneously setting the iteration variables as follows:

list(APPEND English one two three four)
list(APPEND Bahasa satu dua tiga)
foreach(num IN ZIP_LISTS English Bahasa)


    message(STATUS "num_0=${num_0}, num_1=${num_1}")
endforeach()
foreach(en ba IN ZIP_LISTS English Bahasa)


    message(STATUS "en=${en}, ba=${ba}")
endforeach()

yields:

-- num_0=one, num_1=satu
-- num_0=two, num_1=dua
-- num_0=three, num_1=tiga
-- num_0=four, num_1=
-- en=one, ba=satu
-- en=two, ba=dua
-- en=three, ba=tiga
-- en=four, ba=

See Also¶

function¶

Start recording a function for later invocation as a command.

function(<name> [<arg1> ...])


  <commands>
endfunction()

Defines a function named <name> that takes arguments named <arg1>, ... The <commands> in the function definition are recorded; they are not executed until the function is invoked.

Per legacy, the endfunction() command admits an optional <name> argument. If used, it must be a verbatim repeat of the argument of the opening function command.

A function opens a new scope: see set(var PARENT_SCOPE) for details.

See the cmake_policy() command documentation for the behavior of policies inside functions.

See the macro() command documentation for differences between CMake functions and macros.

Invocation¶

The function invocation is case-insensitive. A function defined as

function(foo)


  <commands>
endfunction()

can be invoked through any of

foo()
Foo()
FOO()
cmake_language(CALL foo)

and so on. However, it is strongly recommended to stay with the case chosen in the function definition. Typically functions use all-lowercase names.

New in version 3.18: The cmake_language(CALL ...) command can also be used to invoke the function.

Arguments¶

When the function is invoked, the recorded <commands> are first modified by replacing formal parameters (${arg1}, ...) with the arguments passed, and then invoked as normal commands.

In addition to referencing the formal parameters you can reference the ARGC variable which will be set to the number of arguments passed into the function as well as ARGV0, ARGV1, ARGV2, ... which will have the actual values of the arguments passed in. This facilitates creating functions with optional arguments.

Furthermore, ARGV holds the list of all arguments given to the function and ARGN holds the list of arguments past the last expected argument. Referencing to ARGV# arguments beyond ARGC have undefined behavior. Checking that ARGC is greater than # is the only way to ensure that ARGV# was passed to the function as an extra argument.

See Also¶

get_cmake_property¶

Get a global property of the CMake instance.

get_cmake_property(<var> <property>)

Gets a global property from the CMake instance. The value of the <property> is stored in the variable <var>. If the property is not found, <var> will be set to NOTFOUND. See the cmake-properties(7) manual for available properties.

In addition to global properties, this command (for historical reasons) also supports the VARIABLES and MACROS directory properties. It also supports a special COMPONENTS global property that lists the components given to the install() command.

See Also¶

get_directory_property¶

Get a property of DIRECTORY scope.

get_directory_property(<variable> [DIRECTORY <dir>] <prop-name>)

Stores a property of directory scope in the named <variable>.

The DIRECTORY argument specifies another directory from which to retrieve the property value instead of the current directory. Relative paths are treated as relative to the current source directory. CMake must already know about the directory, either by having added it through a call to add_subdirectory() or being the top level directory.

New in version 3.19: <dir> may reference a binary directory.

If the property is not defined for the nominated directory scope, an empty string is returned. In the case of INHERITED properties, if the property is not found for the nominated directory scope, the search will chain to a parent scope as described for the define_property() command.

get_directory_property(<variable> [DIRECTORY <dir>]


                       DEFINITION <var-name>)

Get a variable definition from a directory. This form is useful to get a variable definition from another directory.

See Also¶

get_filename_component¶

Get a specific component of a full filename.

Changed in version 3.20: This command has been superseded by cmake_path() command, except REALPATH now offered by file(REAL_PATH) command and PROGRAM now available in separate_arguments(PROGRAM) command.

Changed in version 3.24: The undocumented feature offering the capability to query the Windows registry is superseded by cmake_host_system_information(QUERY WINDOWS_REGISTRY) command.

get_filename_component(<var> <FileName> <mode> [CACHE])

Sets <var> to a component of <FileName>, where <mode> is one of:

DIRECTORY = Directory without file name
NAME      = File name without directory
EXT       = File name longest extension (.b.c from d/a.b.c)
NAME_WE   = File name with neither the directory nor the longest extension
LAST_EXT  = File name last extension (.c from d/a.b.c)
NAME_WLE  = File name with neither the directory nor the last extension
PATH      = Legacy alias for DIRECTORY (use for CMake <= 2.8.11)

New in version 3.14: Added the LAST_EXT and NAME_WLE modes.

Paths are returned with forward slashes and have no trailing slashes. If the optional CACHE argument is specified, the result variable is added to the cache.

get_filename_component(<var> <FileName> <mode> [BASE_DIR <dir>] [CACHE])

New in version 3.4.

Sets <var> to the absolute path of <FileName>, where <mode> is one of:

ABSOLUTE  = Full path to file
REALPATH  = Full path to existing file with symlinks resolved

If the provided <FileName> is a relative path, it is evaluated relative to the given base directory <dir>. If no base directory is provided, the default base directory will be CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR.

Paths are returned with forward slashes and have no trailing slashes. If the optional CACHE argument is specified, the result variable is added to the cache.

get_filename_component(<var> <FileName> PROGRAM [PROGRAM_ARGS <arg_var>] [CACHE])

The program in <FileName> will be found in the system search path or left as a full path. If PROGRAM_ARGS is present with PROGRAM, then any command-line arguments present in the <FileName> string are split from the program name and stored in <arg_var>. This is used to separate a program name from its arguments in a command line string.

See Also¶

get_property¶

Get a property.

get_property(<variable>


             <GLOBAL             |


              DIRECTORY [<dir>]  |


              TARGET    <target> |


              SOURCE    <source>


                        [DIRECTORY <dir> | TARGET_DIRECTORY <target>] |


              INSTALL   <file>   |


              TEST      <test>   |


              CACHE     <entry>  |


              VARIABLE           >


             PROPERTY <name>


             [SET | DEFINED | BRIEF_DOCS | FULL_DOCS])

Gets one property from one object in a scope.

The first argument specifies the variable in which to store the result. The second argument determines the scope from which to get the property. It must be one of the following:

The required PROPERTY option is immediately followed by the name of the property to get. If the property is not set an empty value is returned, although some properties support inheriting from a parent scope if defined to behave that way (see define_property()).

If the SET option is given the variable is set to a boolean value indicating whether the property has been set. If the DEFINED option is given the variable is set to a boolean value indicating whether the property has been defined such as with the define_property() command.

If BRIEF_DOCS or FULL_DOCS is given then the variable is set to a string containing documentation for the requested property. If documentation is requested for a property that has not been defined NOTFOUND is returned.

NOTE:

See Also¶

if¶

Conditionally execute a group of commands.

Synopsis¶

if(<condition>)


  <commands>
elseif(<condition>) # optional block, can be repeated


  <commands>
else()              # optional block


  <commands>
endif()

Evaluates the condition argument of the if clause according to the Condition syntax described below. If the result is true, then the commands in the if block are executed. Otherwise, optional elseif blocks are processed in the same way. Finally, if no condition is true, commands in the optional else block are executed.

Per legacy, the else() and endif() commands admit an optional <condition> argument. If used, it must be a verbatim repeat of the argument of the opening if command.

Condition Syntax¶

The following syntax applies to the condition argument of the if, elseif and while() clauses.

Compound conditions are evaluated in the following order of precedence:

Basic Expressions¶

Logic Operators¶

Existence Checks¶

File Operations¶

Comparisons¶

Version Comparisons¶

Path Comparisons¶

# comparison is TRUE
if ("/a//b/c" PATH_EQUAL "/a/b/c")


   ...
endif()
# comparison is FALSE
if ("/a//b/c" STREQUAL "/a/b/c")


   ...
endif()

Variable Expansion¶

The if command was written very early in CMake's history, predating the ${} variable evaluation syntax, and for convenience evaluates variables named by its arguments as shown in the above signatures. Note that normal variable evaluation with ${} applies before the if command even receives the arguments. Therefore code like

set(var1 OFF)
set(var2 "var1")
if(${var2})

appears to the if command as

if(var1)

and is evaluated according to the if(<variable>) case documented above. The result is OFF which is false. However, if we remove the ${} from the example then the command sees

if(var2)

which is true because var2 is defined to var1 which is not a false constant.

Automatic evaluation applies in the other cases whenever the above-documented condition syntax accepts <variable|string>:

Changed in version 3.1: To prevent ambiguity, potential variable or keyword names can be specified in a Quoted Argument or a Bracket Argument. A quoted or bracketed variable or keyword will be interpreted as a string and not dereferenced or interpreted. See policy CMP0054.

There is no automatic evaluation for environment or cache Variable References. Their values must be referenced as $ENV{<name>} or $CACHE{<name>} wherever the above-documented condition syntax accepts <variable|string>.

See also¶

include¶

Load and run CMake code from a file or module.

include(<file|module> [OPTIONAL] [RESULT_VARIABLE <var>]


                      [NO_POLICY_SCOPE])

Loads and runs CMake code from the file given. Variable reads and writes access the scope of the caller (dynamic scoping). If OPTIONAL is present, then no error is raised if the file does not exist. If RESULT_VARIABLE is given the variable <var> will be set to the full filename which has been included or NOTFOUND if it failed.

If a module is specified instead of a file, the file with name <modulename>.cmake is searched first in CMAKE_MODULE_PATH, then in the CMake module directory. There is one exception to this: if the file which calls include() is located itself in the CMake builtin module directory, then first the CMake builtin module directory is searched and CMAKE_MODULE_PATH afterwards. See also policy CMP0017.

See the cmake_policy() command documentation for discussion of the NO_POLICY_SCOPE option.

include_guard¶

New in version 3.10.

Provides an include guard for the file currently being processed by CMake.

include_guard([DIRECTORY|GLOBAL])

Sets up an include guard for the current CMake file (see the CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_FILE variable documentation).

CMake will end its processing of the current file at the location of the include_guard command if the current file has already been processed for the applicable scope (see below). This provides functionality similar to the include guards commonly used in source headers or to the #pragma once directive. If the current file has been processed previously for the applicable scope, the effect is as though return() had been called. Do not call this command from inside a function being defined within the current file.

An optional argument specifying the scope of the guard may be provided. Possible values for the option are:

If no arguments given, include_guard has the same scope as a variable, meaning that the include guard effect is isolated by the most recent function scope or current directory if no inner function scopes exist. In this case the command behavior is the same as:

if(__CURRENT_FILE_VAR__)


  return()
endif()
set(__CURRENT_FILE_VAR__ TRUE)

list¶

List operations.

Synopsis¶

Reading


  list(LENGTH <list> <out-var>)


  list(GET <list> <element index> [<index> ...] <out-var>)


  list(JOIN <list> <glue> <out-var>)


  list(SUBLIST <list> <begin> <length> <out-var>)
Search


  list(FIND <list> <value> <out-var>)
Modification


  list(APPEND <list> [<element>...])


  list(FILTER <list> {INCLUDE | EXCLUDE} REGEX <regex>)


  list(INSERT <list> <index> [<element>...])


  list(POP_BACK <list> [<out-var>...])


  list(POP_FRONT <list> [<out-var>...])


  list(PREPEND <list> [<element>...])


  list(REMOVE_ITEM <list> <value>...)


  list(REMOVE_AT <list> <index>...)


  list(REMOVE_DUPLICATES <list>)


  list(TRANSFORM <list> <ACTION> [...])
Ordering


  list(REVERSE <list>)


  list(SORT <list> [...])

Introduction¶

The list subcommands APPEND, INSERT, FILTER, PREPEND, POP_BACK, POP_FRONT, REMOVE_AT, REMOVE_ITEM, REMOVE_DUPLICATES, REVERSE and SORT may create new values for the list within the current CMake variable scope. Similar to the set() command, the LIST command creates new variable values in the current scope, even if the list itself is actually defined in a parent scope. To propagate the results of these operations upwards, use set() with PARENT_SCOPE, set() with CACHE INTERNAL, or some other means of value propagation.

NOTE:

NOTE:

Reading¶

list(LENGTH <list> <output variable>)

Returns the list's length.