cmake-properties(7) - Man pages

CMAKE-PROPERTIES(7) CMake CMAKE-PROPERTIES(7)

NAME
cmake-properties - CMake Properties Reference

PROPERTIES OF GLOBAL SCOPE
ALLOW_DUPLICATE_CUSTOM_TARGETS
Allow duplicate custom targets to be created.

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

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

AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP
New in version 3.9.

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

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

For AUTOMOC, AUTORCC and AUTOUIC specific overrides see
AUTOMOC_SOURCE_GROUP, AUTORCC_SOURCE_GROUP and AUTOUIC_SOURCE_GROUP re-
spectively.

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

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

AUTOMOC_SOURCE_GROUP
New in version 3.9.

Name of the source_group() for AUTOMOC generated files.

When set this is used instead of AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP for files gener-
ated by AUTOMOC.

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

This property is obsolete. Use AUTOGEN_TARGETS_FOLDER instead.

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

AUTORCC_SOURCE_GROUP
New in version 3.9.

Name of the source_group() for AUTORCC generated files.

When set this is used instead of AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP for files gener-
ated by AUTORCC.

AUTOUIC_SOURCE_GROUP
New in version 3.21.

Name of the source_group() for AUTOUIC generated files.

When set this is used instead of AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP for files gener-
ated by AUTOUIC.

CMAKE_C_KNOWN_FEATURES
New in version 3.1.

List of C features known to this version of CMake.

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

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

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

High level meta features indicating C standard support
New in version 3.8.

c_std_90
Compiler mode is at least C 90.

c_std_99
Compiler mode is at least C 99.

c_std_11
Compiler mode is at least C 11.

c_std_17
New in version 3.21.

Compiler mode is at least C 17.

c_std_23
New in version 3.21.

Compiler mode is at least C 23.

NOTE:
If the compiler's default standard level is at least that of the re-
quested feature, CMake may omit the -std= flag. The flag may still
be added if the compiler's default extensions mode does not match
the <LANG>_EXTENSIONS target property, or if the <LANG>_STANDARD
target property is set.

Low level individual compile features
c_function_prototypes
Function prototypes, as defined in ISO/IEC 9899:1990.

c_restrict
restrict keyword, as defined in ISO/IEC 9899:1999.

c_static_assert
Static assert, as defined in ISO/IEC 9899:2011.

c_variadic_macros
Variadic macros, as defined in ISO/IEC 9899:1999.

CMAKE_CUDA_KNOWN_FEATURES
New in version 3.17.

List of CUDA features known to this version of CMake.

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

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

The features known to this version of CMake are:

cuda_std_03
Compiler mode is at least CUDA/C++ 03.

cuda_std_11
Compiler mode is at least CUDA/C++ 11.

cuda_std_14
Compiler mode is at least CUDA/C++ 14.

cuda_std_17
Compiler mode is at least CUDA/C++ 17.

cuda_std_20
Compiler mode is at least CUDA/C++ 20.

cuda_std_23
New in version 3.20.

Compiler mode is at least CUDA/C++ 23.

cuda_std_26
New in version 3.25.

Compiler mode is at least CUDA/C++ 26.

CMAKE_CXX_KNOWN_FEATURES
New in version 3.1.

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

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

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

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

High level meta features indicating C++ standard support
New in version 3.8.

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

cxx_std_98
Compiler mode is at least C++ 98.

cxx_std_11
Compiler mode is at least C++ 11.

cxx_std_14
Compiler mode is at least C++ 14.

cxx_std_17
Compiler mode is at least C++ 17.

cxx_std_20
New in version 3.12.

Compiler mode is at least C++ 20.

cxx_std_23
New in version 3.20.

Compiler mode is at least C++ 23.

cxx_std_26
New in version 3.25.

Compiler mode is at least C++ 26.

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

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

Individual features from C++ 98
cxx_template_template_parameters
Template template parameters, as defined in ISO/IEC 14882:1998.

Individual features from C++ 11
cxx_alias_templates
Template aliases, as defined in N2258.

cxx_alignas
Alignment control alignas, as defined in N2341.

cxx_alignof
Alignment control alignof, as defined in N2341.

cxx_attributes
Generic attributes, as defined in N2761.

cxx_auto_type
Automatic type deduction, as defined in N1984.

cxx_constexpr
Constant expressions, as defined in N2235.

cxx_decltype_incomplete_return_types
Decltype on incomplete return types, as defined in N3276.

cxx_decltype
Decltype, as defined in N2343.

cxx_default_function_template_args
Default template arguments for function templates, as defined in
DR226

cxx_defaulted_functions
Defaulted functions, as defined in N2346.

cxx_defaulted_move_initializers
Defaulted move initializers, as defined in N3053.

cxx_delegating_constructors
Delegating constructors, as defined in N1986.

cxx_deleted_functions
Deleted functions, as defined in N2346.

cxx_enum_forward_declarations
Enum forward declarations, as defined in N2764.

cxx_explicit_conversions
Explicit conversion operators, as defined in N2437.

cxx_extended_friend_declarations
Extended friend declarations, as defined in N1791.

cxx_extern_templates
Extern templates, as defined in N1987.

cxx_final
Override control final keyword, as defined in N2928, N3206 and
N3272.

cxx_func_identifier
Predefined __func__ identifier, as defined in N2340.

cxx_generalized_initializers
Initializer lists, as defined in N2672.

cxx_inheriting_constructors
Inheriting constructors, as defined in N2540.

cxx_inline_namespaces
Inline namespaces, as defined in N2535.

cxx_lambdas
Lambda functions, as defined in N2927.

cxx_local_type_template_args
Local and unnamed types as template arguments, as defined in
N2657.

cxx_long_long_type
long long type, as defined in N1811.

cxx_noexcept
Exception specifications, as defined in N3050.

cxx_nonstatic_member_init
Non-static data member initialization, as defined in N2756.

cxx_nullptr
Null pointer, as defined in N2431.

cxx_override
Override control override keyword, as defined in N2928, N3206
and N3272.

cxx_range_for
Range-based for, as defined in N2930.

cxx_raw_string_literals
Raw string literals, as defined in N2442.

cxx_reference_qualified_functions
Reference qualified functions, as defined in N2439.

cxx_right_angle_brackets
Right angle bracket parsing, as defined in N1757.

cxx_rvalue_references
R-value references, as defined in N2118.

cxx_sizeof_member
Size of non-static data members, as defined in N2253.

cxx_static_assert
Static assert, as defined in N1720.

cxx_strong_enums
Strongly typed enums, as defined in N2347.

cxx_thread_local
Thread-local variables, as defined in N2659.

cxx_trailing_return_types
Automatic function return type, as defined in N2541.

cxx_unicode_literals
Unicode string literals, as defined in N2442.

cxx_uniform_initialization
Uniform initialization, as defined in N2640.

cxx_unrestricted_unions
Unrestricted unions, as defined in N2544.

cxx_user_literals
User-defined literals, as defined in N2765.

cxx_variadic_macros
Variadic macros, as defined in N1653.

cxx_variadic_templates
Variadic templates, as defined in N2242.

Individual features from C++ 14
cxx_aggregate_default_initializers
Aggregate default initializers, as defined in N3605.

cxx_attribute_deprecated
[[deprecated]] attribute, as defined in N3760.

cxx_binary_literals
Binary literals, as defined in N3472.

cxx_contextual_conversions
Contextual conversions, as defined in N3323.

cxx_decltype_auto
decltype(auto) semantics, as defined in N3638.

cxx_digit_separators
Digit separators, as defined in N3781.

cxx_generic_lambdas
Generic lambdas, as defined in N3649.

cxx_lambda_init_captures
Initialized lambda captures, as defined in N3648.

cxx_relaxed_constexpr
Relaxed constexpr, as defined in N3652.

cxx_return_type_deduction
Return type deduction on normal functions, as defined in N3386.

cxx_variable_templates
Variable templates, as defined in N3651.

CMAKE_ROLE
New in version 3.14.

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

PROJECT
Running in project mode (processing a CMakeLists.txt file).

SCRIPT Running in -P script mode.

FIND_PACKAGE
Running in --find-package mode.

CTEST Running in CTest script mode.

CPACK Running in CPack.

DEBUG_CONFIGURATIONS
Specify which configurations are for debugging.

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

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

DISABLED_FEATURES
List of features which are disabled during the CMake run.

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

ECLIPSE_EXTRA_CPROJECT_CONTENTS
New in version 3.12.

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

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

Also see the ECLIPSE_EXTRA_NATURES property.

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

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

Also see the ECLIPSE_EXTRA_CPROJECT_CONTENTS property.

ENABLED_FEATURES
List of features which are enabled during the CMake run.

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

ENABLED_LANGUAGES
Read-only property that contains the list of currently enabled lan-
guages

Set to list of currently enabled languages.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB32_PATHS
New in version 3.7.

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

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

See also the CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_CUSTOM_LIB_SUFFIX variable.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB64_PATHS
Whether find_library() should automatically search lib64 directories.

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

See also the CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_CUSTOM_LIB_SUFFIX variable.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIBX32_PATHS
New in version 3.9.

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

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

See also the CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_CUSTOM_LIB_SUFFIX variable.

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

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

GENERATOR_IS_MULTI_CONFIG
New in version 3.9.

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

True when using a multi-configuration generator such as:

• Ninja Multi-Config

• Visual Studio Generators

• Xcode

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

GLOBAL_DEPENDS_DEBUG_MODE
Enable global target dependency graph debug mode.

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

GLOBAL_DEPENDS_NO_CYCLES
Disallow global target dependency graph cycles.

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

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

True when building a project inside a try_compile() or try_run() com-
mand.

JOB_POOLS
Ninja only: List of available pools.

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

For instance:

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

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

If not set, this property uses the value of the CMAKE_JOB_POOLS vari-
able.

Build targets provided by CMake that are meant for individual interac-
tive use, such as install, are placed in the console pool automati-
cally.

PACKAGES_FOUND
List of packages which were found during the CMake run.

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

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

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

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

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

REPORT_UNDEFINED_PROPERTIES
If set, report any undefined properties to this file.

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

RULE_LAUNCH_COMPILE
Specify a launcher for compile rules.

NOTE:
This property is intended for internal use by ctest(1). Projects
and developers should use the <LANG>_COMPILER_LAUNCHER target prop-
erties or the associated CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER_LAUNCHER variables
instead.

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

RULE_LAUNCH_CUSTOM
Specify a launcher for custom rules.

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

RULE_LAUNCH_LINK
Specify a launcher for link rules.

NOTE:
This property is intended for internal use by ctest(1). Projects
and developers should use the <LANG>_LINKER_LAUNCHER target proper-
ties or the associated CMAKE_<LANG>_LINKER_LAUNCHER variables in-
stead.

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

RULE_MESSAGES
Specify whether to report a message for each make rule.

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

TARGET_ARCHIVES_MAY_BE_SHARED_LIBS
Set if shared libraries may be named like archives.

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

TARGET_MESSAGES
New in version 3.4.

Specify whether to report the completion of each target.

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

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

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

Non-Makefile generators currently ignore this property.

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

TARGET_SUPPORTS_SHARED_LIBS
Does the target platform support shared libraries.

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

USE_FOLDERS
Use the FOLDER target property to organize targets into folders.

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

XCODE_EMIT_EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME
New in version 3.8.

Control emission of EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME by the Xcode generator.

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

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

• If set to ON it will always be emitted

• If set to OFF it will never be emitted

• If unset (the default) it will only be emitted when the project was
configured for an embedded Xcode SDK like iOS, tvOS, watchOS or any
of the simulators.

NOTE:
When this behavior is enable for generated Xcode projects, the EF-
FECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME variable will leak into Generator expressions
like TARGET_FILE and will render those mostly unusable.

PROPERTIES ON DIRECTORIES
ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES
New in version 3.15.

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

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

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

Contents of ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES may use generator expressions.

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

BINARY_DIR
New in version 3.7.

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

BUILDSYSTEM_TARGETS
New in version 3.7.

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

See also the IMPORTED_TARGETS directory property.

CACHE_VARIABLES
List of cache variables available in the current directory.

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

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

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

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

COMPILE_DEFINITIONS
Preprocessor definitions for compiling a directory's sources.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

COMPILE_OPTIONS
List of options to pass to the compiler.

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

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

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

DEFINITIONS
For CMake 2.4 compatibility only. Use COMPILE_DEFINITIONS instead.

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

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

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

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

IMPLICIT_DEPENDS_INCLUDE_TRANSFORM
Specify #include line transforms for dependencies in a directory.

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

MYDIR(%)=<mydir/%>

will convert lines of the form

#include MYDIR(myheader.h)

#include <mydir/myheader.h>

allowing the dependency to be followed.

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

IMPORTED_TARGETS
New in version 3.21.

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

See also the BUILDSYSTEM_TARGETS directory property.

INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
List of preprocessor include file search directories.

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

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

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

The target property values are used by the generators to set the in-
clude paths for the compiler.

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

INCLUDE_REGULAR_EXPRESSION
Include file scanning regular expression.

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

INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION
Enable interprocedural optimization for targets in a directory.

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

INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration interprocedural optimization for a directory.

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

LABELS
New in version 3.10.

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

The CMAKE_DIRECTORY_LABELS variable can be used to initialize this
property.

The list is reported in dashboard submissions.

LINK_DIRECTORIES
List of linker search directories.

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

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

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

LINK_OPTIONS
New in version 3.13.

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

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

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

Contents of LINK_OPTIONS may use "generator expressions" with the syn-
tax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for avail-
able expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for more on
defining buildsystem properties.

LISTFILE_STACK
The current stack of listfiles being processed.

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

MACROS
List of macro commands available in the current directory.

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

PARENT_DIRECTORY
Source directory that added current subdirectory.

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

RULE_LAUNCH_COMPILE
Specify a launcher for compile rules.

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

RULE_LAUNCH_CUSTOM
Specify a launcher for custom rules.

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

RULE_LAUNCH_LINK
Specify a launcher for link rules.

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

SOURCE_DIR
New in version 3.7.

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

SUBDIRECTORIES
New in version 3.7.

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

NOTE:
The subdirs() command does not process its arguments until after the
calling directory is fully processed. Therefore looking up this
property in the current directory will not see them.

SYSTEM
New in version 3.25.

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

TESTS
New in version 3.12.

List of tests.

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

TEST_INCLUDE_FILES
New in version 3.10.

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

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

VARIABLES
List of variables defined in the current directory.

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

VS_GLOBAL_SECTION_POST_<section>
Specify a postSolution global section in Visual Studio.

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

GlobalSection(<section>) = postSolution
<contents based on property value>
EndGlobalSection

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

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

Note that CMake generates postSolution sections ExtensibilityGlobals
and ExtensibilityAddIns by default. If you set the corresponding prop-
erty, it will override the default section. For example, setting
VS_GLOBAL_SECTION_POST_ExtensibilityGlobals will override the default
contents of the ExtensibilityGlobals section, while keeping Extensibil-
ityAddIns on its default. However, CMake will always add a Solu-
tionGuid to the ExtensibilityGlobals section if it is not specified ex-
plicitly.

VS_GLOBAL_SECTION_PRE_<section>
Specify a preSolution global section in Visual Studio.

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

GlobalSection(<section>) = preSolution
<contents based on property value>
EndGlobalSection

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

VS_STARTUP_PROJECT
New in version 3.6.

Specify the default startup project in a Visual Studio solution.

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

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

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

PROPERTIES ON TARGETS
ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES
New in version 3.15.

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

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

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

Contents of ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES may use generator expressions.

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

AIX_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS
New in version 3.17.

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

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

ALIAS_GLOBAL
New in version 3.18.

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

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

NOTE:
Promoting an IMPORTED target from LOCAL to GLOBAL scope by changing
the value or IMPORTED_GLOBAL target property do not change the scope
of local aliases.

ALIASED_TARGET
Name of target aliased by this target.

If this is an Alias Target, this property contains the name of the tar-
get aliased.

ANDROID_ANT_ADDITIONAL_OPTIONS
New in version 3.4.

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

ANDROID_API
New in version 3.1.

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

ANDROID_API_MIN
New in version 3.2.

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

ANDROID_ARCH
New in version 3.4.

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

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

• armv7-a: "ARMv7-A (armv7-a)"

• armv7-a-hard: "ARMv7-A, hard-float ABI (armv7-a)"

• arm64-v8a: "ARMv8-A, 64bit (arm64-v8a)"

• x86: "x86 (x86)"

• x86_64: "x86_64 (x86_64)"

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

ANDROID_ASSETS_DIRECTORIES
New in version 3.4.

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

ANDROID_GUI
New in version 3.1.

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

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

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

ANDROID_JAR_DEPENDENCIES
New in version 3.4.

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

ANDROID_JAR_DIRECTORIES
New in version 3.4.

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

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

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

ANDROID_JAVA_SOURCE_DIR
New in version 3.4.

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

ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DEPENDENCIES
New in version 3.4.

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

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

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

ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DIRECTORIES
New in version 3.4.

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

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

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

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

ANDROID_PROCESS_MAX
New in version 3.4.

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

ANDROID_PROGUARD
New in version 3.4.

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

ANDROID_PROGUARD_CONFIG_PATH
New in version 3.4.

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

ANDROID_SECURE_PROPS_PATH
New in version 3.4.

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

ANDROID_SKIP_ANT_STEP
New in version 3.4.

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

ANDROID_STL_TYPE
New in version 3.4.

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

none No C++ Support

system Minimal C++ without STL

gabi++_static
GAbi++ Static

gabi++_shared
GAbi++ Shared

gnustl_static
GNU libstdc++ Static

gnustl_shared
GNU libstdc++ Shared

stlport_static
STLport Static

stlport_shared
STLport Shared

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

ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
Output directory in which to build ARCHIVE target files.

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

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

See also the ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> target property.

ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration output directory for ARCHIVE target files.

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

Contents of ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> may use generator expres-
sions.

ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_NAME
Output name for ARCHIVE target files.

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

See also the ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG> target property.

ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration output name for ARCHIVE target files.

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

AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR
New in version 3.9.

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

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

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

By default AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR is unset.

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

AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS
New in version 3.14.

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

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

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

In total the dependencies of the _autogen target are composed from

• forwarded origin target dependencies (enabled by default via
AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS)

• additional user defined dependencies from AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS

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

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

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

AUTOGEN_PARALLEL
New in version 3.11.

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

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

• An empty (or unset) value or the string AUTO sets the number of
threads/processes to the number of physical CPUs on the host system.

• A positive non zero integer value sets the exact thread/process
count.

• Otherwise a single thread/process is started.

By default AUTOGEN_PARALLEL is initialized from CMAKE_AUTOGEN_PARALLEL.

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

AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS
Additional target dependencies of the corresponding _autogen target.

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

In total the dependencies of the _autogen target are composed from

• forwarded origin target dependencies (enabled by default via
AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS)

• additional user defined dependencies from AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS

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

Use cases
If AUTOMOC or AUTOUIC depends on a file that is either

• a GENERATED non C++ file (e.g. a GENERATED .json or .ui file) or

• a GENERATED C++ file that isn't recognized by AUTOMOC and AUTOUIC be-
cause it's skipped by SKIP_AUTOMOC, SKIP_AUTOUIC, SKIP_AUTOGEN or
CMP0071 or

• a file that isn't in the origin target's sources

it must be added to AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS.

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

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

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

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

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

• All header files in the target's sources are added to the scan list.

• For all C++ source files <source_base>.<source_extension> in the tar-
get's sources, CMake searches for

• a regular header with the same base name (<source_base>.<header_ex-
tention>) and

• a private header with the same base name and a _p suffix
(<source_base>_p.<header_extention>)

and adds these to the scan list.

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

• a Qt macro from AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES,

• additional file dependencies from the FILE argument of a
Q_PLUGIN_METADATA macro and

• additional file dependencies detected by filters defined in
AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS.

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

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

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

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

• a Qt macro from AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES,

• includes of header moc files (see Including header moc files in
sources),

• additional file dependencies from the FILE argument of a
Q_PLUGIN_METADATA macro and

• additional file dependencies detected by filters defined in
AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/include for single configuration generators or in

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/include_<CONFIG> for multi configuration genera-
tors.

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

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

Not included moc output files
moc output files that are not included in a source file will be gener-
ated in

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/<SOURCE_DIR_CHECKSUM> for single configuration
generators or in,

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/include_<CONFIG>/<SOURCE_DIR_CHECKSUM> for multi
configuration generators.

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

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

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/mocs_compilation.cpp, or

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/mocs_compilation_$<CONFIG>.cpp,

which is added to the target's sources.

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

• Qt6Core_VERSION_MAJOR and Qt6Core_VERSION_MINOR variables (usually
set by find_package(Qt6...))

• Qt6Core_VERSION_MAJOR and Qt6Core_VERSION_MINOR directory properties

• Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR and Qt5Core_VERSION_MINOR variables (usually
set by find_package(Qt5...))

• Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR and Qt5Core_VERSION_MINOR directory properties

• QT_VERSION_MAJOR and QT_VERSION_MINOR variables (usually set by
find_package(Qt4...))

• QT_VERSION_MAJOR and QT_VERSION_MINOR directory properties

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

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

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

function (add_qt5_client)
find_package(Qt5 REQUIRED QUIET COMPONENTS Core Widgets)
...
set_property(DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}"
PROPERTY Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR "${Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR}")
set_property(DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}"
PROPERTY Qt5Core_VERSION_MINOR "${Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR}")
...
endfunction ()
...
add_qt5_client()
add_executable(myTarget main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(myTarget Qt5::QtWidgets)
set_property(TARGET myTarget PROPERTY AUTOMOC ON)

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

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

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

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

AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES: Compiler pre definitions for moc are writ-
ten to the moc_predefs.h file. The generation of this file can be en-
abled or disabled in this target property.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES
New in version 3.10.

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

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

• AUTOMOC is enabled,

• AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES is enabled,

• CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_PREDEFINES_COMMAND isn't empty and

• the Qt version is greater or equal 5.8.

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

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

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

AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS
New in version 3.9.

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

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

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

• first in the vicinity of the source file

• and afterwards in the target's INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.

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

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

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

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

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

Example 1
A header file my_class.hpp uses a custom macro JSON_FILE_MACRO which is
defined in an other header macros.hpp. We want the moc file of
my_class.hpp to depend on the file name argument of JSON_FILE_MACRO:

// my_class.hpp
class My_Class : public QObject
{
Q_OBJECT
JSON_FILE_MACRO ( "info.json" )
...
};

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

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

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

Example 2
In the target my_target a header file complex_class.hpp uses a custom
macro JSON_BASED_CLASS which is defined in an other header macros.hpp:

// macros.hpp
...
#define JSON_BASED_CLASS(name, json) \
class name : public QObject \
{ \
Q_OBJECT \
Q_PLUGIN_METADATA(IID "demo" FILE json) \
name() {} \
};
...

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

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

list(APPEND CMAKE_AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES "JSON_BASED_CLASS")

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

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

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

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

AUTOMOC_EXECUTABLE
New in version 3.14.

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

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

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

AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES
New in version 3.10.

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

This property is only used if the AUTOMOC property is ON for this tar-
get.

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

• as the first non space string on a new line or

• as the first non space string after a { on a new line,

then the file will be processed by moc.

By default AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES is initialized from
CMAKE_AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES.

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

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

set_property(TARGET tgt APPEND PROPERTY AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES "CUSTOM_MACRO")

AUTOMOC_MOC_OPTIONS
Additional options for moc when using AUTOMOC

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

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

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

AUTOMOC_PATH_PREFIX
New in version 3.16.

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

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

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

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

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

• moc output files are identical on different build setups,

• moc output files will compile correctly when the source and/or build
directory is a symbolic link.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AUTORCC_EXECUTABLE
New in version 3.14.

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

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

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

AUTORCC_OPTIONS
Additional options for rcc when using AUTORCC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Header and source file processing
At build time, CMake scans each header and source file from the tar-
get's sources for include statements of the form

#include "ui_<ui_base>.h"

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

• in the vicinity of the file and

• in the AUTOUIC_SEARCH_PATHS of the target.

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

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/include for single configuration generators or in

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/include_<CONFIG> for multi configuration genera-
tors.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AUTOUIC_EXECUTABLE
New in version 3.14.

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

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

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

AUTOUIC_OPTIONS
Additional options for uic when using AUTOUIC

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

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

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

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

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

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

AUTOUIC_SEARCH_PATHS
New in version 3.9.

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

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

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

BINARY_DIR
New in version 3.4.

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

BUILD_RPATH
New in version 3.8.

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

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

This property supports generator expressions.

BUILD_RPATH_USE_ORIGIN
New in version 3.14.

Whether to use relative paths for the build RPATH.

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

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

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

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

BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_NAME_DIR
New in version 3.9.

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

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

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

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

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

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

BUNDLE
This target is a CFBundle on the macOS.

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

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

The default value is bundle, framework, or app for the respective tar-
get types.

C_EXTENSIONS
New in version 3.1.

Boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested.

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

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

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

C_STANDARD
New in version 3.1.

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

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

Supported values are:

90 C89/C90

99 C99

11 C11

17 New in version 3.21.

C17

23 New in version 3.21.

C23

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

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY C_STANDARD 11)

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

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

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

C_STANDARD_REQUIRED
New in version 3.1.

Boolean describing whether the value of C_STANDARD is a requirement.

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

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

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

COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME
New in version 3.12.

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

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

• property not set: native C++ (i.e. default)

• property set but empty: mixed unmanaged/managed C++

• property set to any non empty value: managed C++

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

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

To be able to build managed C++ targets with VS 2017 and above the com-
ponent C++/CLI support must be installed, which may not be done by de-
fault.

See also IMPORTED_COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME

COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_BOOL
Properties which must be compatible with their link interface

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_STRING
Properties which must be string-compatible with their link interface

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

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

COMPILE_DEFINITIONS
Preprocessor definitions for compiling a target's sources.

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

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

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

COMPILE_FEATURES
New in version 3.1.

Compiler features enabled for this target.

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

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

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

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

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

COMPILE_OPTIONS
List of options to pass to the compiler.

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

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

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

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

COMPILE_PDB_NAME
New in version 3.1.

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

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

NOTE:
The compiler-generated program database files are specified by the
/Fd compiler flag and are not the same as linker-generated program
database files specified by the /pdb linker flag. Use the PDB_NAME
property to specify the latter.

COMPILE_PDB_NAME_<CONFIG>
New in version 3.1.

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

This is the configuration-specific version of COMPILE_PDB_NAME.

COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
New in version 3.1.

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

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

COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG>
New in version 3.1.

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

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

COMPILE_WARNING_AS_ERROR
New in version 3.24.

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

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

• GNU

• Clang

• AppleClang

• Fujitsu

• FujitsuClang

• IBMClang

• Intel

• IntelLLVM

• LCC

• MSVC

• NVHPC

• NVIDIA (CUDA)

• QCC

• SunPro

• Tasking

• TI

• VisualAge

• XL

• XLClang

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

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

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

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

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

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

CROSSCOMPILING_EMULATOR
New in version 3.3.

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

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

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

CUDA_ARCHITECTURES
New in version 3.18.

List of architectures to generate device code for.

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

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

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

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

The CUDA_ARCHITECTURES may be set to one of the following special val-
ues:

all New in version 3.23.

Compile for all supported major and minor real architectures,
and the highest major virtual architecture.

all-major
New in version 3.23.

Compile for all supported major real architectures, and the
highest major virtual architecture.

native New in version 3.24.

Compile for the architecture(s) of the host's GPU(s).

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

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

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

Generates code for real architecture 70 and virtual architecture 72.

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY CUDA_ARCHITECTURES OFF)

CMake will not pass any architecture flags to the compiler.

CUDA_EXTENSIONS
New in version 3.8.

Boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested.

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

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

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

CUDA_PTX_COMPILATION
New in version 3.9.

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

For example:

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

CUDA_RESOLVE_DEVICE_SYMBOLS
New in version 3.9.

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

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

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

Note that device linking is not supported for Object Libraries.

For instance:

set_property(TARGET mystaticlib PROPERTY CUDA_RESOLVE_DEVICE_SYMBOLS ON)

CUDA_RUNTIME_LIBRARY
New in version 3.17.

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

The allowed case insensitive values are:

None Link with -cudart=none or equivalent flag(s) to use no CUDA run-
time library.

Shared Link with -cudart=shared or equivalent flag(s) to use a dynami-
cally-linked CUDA runtime library.

Static Link with -cudart=static or equivalent flag(s) to use a stati-
cally-linked CUDA runtime library.

Contents of CUDA_RUNTIME_LIBRARY may use generator expressions.

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

NOTE:
This property has effect only when the CUDA language is enabled. To
control the CUDA runtime linking when only using the CUDA SDK with
the C or C++ language we recommend using the FindCUDAToolkit module.

CUDA_SEPARABLE_COMPILATION
New in version 3.8.

CUDA only: Enables separate compilation of device code

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

For instance:

set_property(TARGET myexe PROPERTY CUDA_SEPARABLE_COMPILATION ON)

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

CUDA_STANDARD
New in version 3.8.

The CUDA/C++ standard whose features are requested to build this tar-
get.

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

Supported values are:

98 CUDA C++98. Note that this maps to the same as 03 internally.

03 CUDA C++03

11 CUDA C++11

14 CUDA C++14. While CMake 3.8 and later recognize 14 as a valid
value, CMake 3.9 was the first version to include support for
any compiler.

17 CUDA C++17. While CMake 3.8 and later recognize 17 as a valid
value, CMake 3.18 was the first version to include support for
any compiler.

20 New in version 3.12.

CUDA C++20. While CMake 3.12 and later recognize 20 as a valid
value, CMake 3.18 was the first version to include support for
any compiler.

23 New in version 3.20.

CUDA C++23

26 New in version 3.25.

CUDA C++26. CMake 3.25 and later recognize 26 as a valid value,
no version has support for any compiler.

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

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY CUDA_STANDARD 11)

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

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

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

CUDA_STANDARD_REQUIRED
New in version 3.8.

Boolean describing whether the value of CUDA_STANDARD is a requirement.

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

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

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

CXX_EXTENSIONS
New in version 3.1.

Boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested.

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

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

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

CXX_MODULE_DIRS
New in version 3.25.

NOTE:
Experimental. Gated by CMAKE_EXPERIMENTAL_CXX_MODULE_CMAKE_API

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

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

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

CXX_MODULE_DIRS_<NAME>
New in version 3.25.

NOTE:
Experimental. Gated by CMAKE_EXPERIMENTAL_CXX_MODULE_CMAKE_API

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

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

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

CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_DIRS
New in version 3.25.

NOTE:
Experimental. Gated by CMAKE_EXPERIMENTAL_CXX_MODULE_CMAKE_API

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

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

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

CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_DIRS_<NAME>
New in version 3.25.

NOTE:
Experimental. Gated by CMAKE_EXPERIMENTAL_CXX_MODULE_CMAKE_API

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

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

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

CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SET
New in version 3.25.

NOTE:
Experimental. Gated by CMAKE_EXPERIMENTAL_CXX_MODULE_CMAKE_API

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

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

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

CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SET_<NAME>
New in version 3.25.

NOTE:
Experimental. Gated by CMAKE_EXPERIMENTAL_CXX_MODULE_CMAKE_API

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

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

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

CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SETS
New in version 3.25.

NOTE:
Experimental. Gated by CMAKE_EXPERIMENTAL_CXX_MODULE_CMAKE_API

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

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

See also CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SET_<NAME>, CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SET
and INTERFACE_CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SETS.

CXX_MODULE_SET
New in version 3.25.

NOTE:
Experimental. Gated by CMAKE_EXPERIMENTAL_CXX_MODULE_CMAKE_API

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

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

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

CXX_MODULE_SET_<NAME>
New in version 3.25.

NOTE:
Experimental. Gated by CMAKE_EXPERIMENTAL_CXX_MODULE_CMAKE_API

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

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

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

CXX_MODULE_SETS
New in version 3.25.

NOTE:
Experimental. Gated by CMAKE_EXPERIMENTAL_CXX_MODULE_CMAKE_API

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

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

See also CXX_MODULE_SET_<NAME>, CXX_MODULE_SET and
INTERFACE_CXX_MODULE_SETS.

CXX_STANDARD
New in version 3.1.

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

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

Supported values are:

98 C++98

11 C++11

14 C++14

17 New in version 3.8.

C++17

20 New in version 3.12.

C++20

23 New in version 3.20.

C++23

26 New in version 3.25.

C++26. CMake 3.25 and later recognize 26 as a valid value, no
version has support for any compiler.

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

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY CXX_STANDARD 11)

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

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

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

CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED
New in version 3.1.

Boolean describing whether the value of CXX_STANDARD is a requirement.

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

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

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

DEBUG_POSTFIX
See target property <CONFIG>_POSTFIX.

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

DEFINE_SYMBOL
Define a symbol when compiling this target's sources.

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

DEPLOYMENT_ADDITIONAL_FILES
New in version 3.13.

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

set_property(TARGET ${TARGET} PROPERTY
DEPLOYMENT_ADDITIONAL_FILES "english.lng|local_folder|remote_folder|0"
"german.lng|local_folder|remote_folder|0")

produces:

DEPLOYMENT_REMOTE_DIRECTORY
New in version 3.6.

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

set_property(TARGET ${TARGET} PROPERTY
DEPLOYMENT_REMOTE_DIRECTORY "\\FlashStorage")

produces:

DEPRECATION
New in version 3.17.

Deprecation message from imported target's developer.

DEPRECATION is the message regarding a deprecation status to be dis-
played to downstream users of a target.

The message is formatted as follows:

• Lines that do not start in whitespace are wrapped as paragraph text.

• Lines that start in whitespace are preserved as preformatted text.

DISABLE_PRECOMPILE_HEADERS
New in version 3.16.

Disables the precompilation of header files specified by
PRECOMPILE_HEADERS property.

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

DOTNET_SDK
New in version 3.23.

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

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

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

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

NOTE:
The Visual Studio Generators in this version of CMake have not yet
learned to support add_custom_command() in .NET SDK-style projects.
It is currently an error to attach a custom command to a target with
the DOTNET_SDK property set.

DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK
New in version 3.17.

Specify the .NET target framework.

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

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

Can be initialized for all targets using the variable
CMAKE_DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK.

DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK_VERSION
New in version 3.12.

Specify the .NET target framework version.

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

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

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

EchoString
A message to be displayed when the target is built.

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

ENABLE_EXPORTS
Specify whether an executable exports symbols for loadable modules.

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

• On Windows-based systems (including Cygwin) an "import library" is
created along with the executable to list the exported symbols.
Loadable modules link to the import library to get the symbols.

• On macOS, loadable modules link to the executable itself using the
-bundle_loader flag.

• On AIX, a linker "import file" is created along with the executable
to list the exported symbols for import when linking other targets.
Loadable modules link to the import file to get the symbols.

• On other platforms, loadable modules are simply linked without refer-
encing the executable since the dynamic loader will automatically
bind symbols when the module is loaded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

EXCLUDE_FROM_DEFAULT_BUILD
Exclude target from Build Solution.

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

EXCLUDE_FROM_DEFAULT_BUILD_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration version of target exclusion from Build Solution.

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

EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS
New in version 3.20.

Enable/Disable output of compile commands during generation for a tar-
get.

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

EXPORT_NAME
Exported name for target files.

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

EXPORT_NO_SYSTEM
New in version 3.25.

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

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

EXPORT_PROPERTIES
New in version 3.12.

List additional properties to export for a target.

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

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

Properties containing generator expressions are also not allowed.

NOTE:
Since CMake 3.19, Interface Libraries may have arbitrary target
properties. If a project exports an interface library with custom
properties, the resulting package may not work with dependents con-
figured by older versions of CMake that reject the custom proper-
ties.

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

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

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

Fortran_BUILDING_INSTRINSIC_MODULES
New in version 3.22.

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

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

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

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

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

Fortran_MODULE_DIRECTORY
Specify output directory for Fortran modules provided by the target.

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

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

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

Fortran_PREPROCESS
New in version 3.18.

Control whether the Fortran source file should be unconditionally pre-
processed.

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

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

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

NOTE:
For some compilers, NAG, PGI and Solaris Studio, setting this to OFF
will have no effect.

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

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

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

For macOS see also the FRAMEWORK_VERSION target property.

Example of creation dynamicFramework:

add_library(dynamicFramework SHARED
dynamicFramework.c
dynamicFramework.h
)
set_target_properties(dynamicFramework PROPERTIES
FRAMEWORK TRUE
FRAMEWORK_VERSION C
MACOSX_FRAMEWORK_IDENTIFIER com.cmake.dynamicFramework
MACOSX_FRAMEWORK_INFO_PLIST Info.plist
# "current version" in semantic format in Mach-O binary file
VERSION 16.4.0
# "compatibility version" in semantic format in Mach-O binary file
SOVERSION 1.0.0
PUBLIC_HEADER dynamicFramework.h
XCODE_ATTRIBUTE_CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY "iPhone Developer"
)

FRAMEWORK_MULTI_CONFIG_POSTFIX_<CONFIG>
New in version 3.18.

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

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

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

• Release/my_fw.framework/my_fw

• Release/my_fw.framework/Versions/A/my_fw

• Debug/my_fw.framework/my_fw_debug

• Debug/my_fw.framework/Versions/A/my_fw_debug

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

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

FRAMEWORK_VERSION
New in version 3.4.

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

This property only affects macOS, as iOS doesn't have versioned direc-
tory structure.

GENERATOR_FILE_NAME
Generator's file for this target.

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

GHS_INTEGRITY_APP
New in version 3.14.

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

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

Supported on Green Hills MULTI.

GHS_NO_SOURCE_GROUP_FILE
New in version 3.14.

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

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

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

Supported on Green Hills MULTI.

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

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

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

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

This is equivalent to setting the LINKER_LANGUAGE property to CXX.

HEADER_DIRS
New in version 3.23.

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

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

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

HEADER_DIRS_<NAME>
New in version 3.23.

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

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

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

HEADER_SET
New in version 3.23.

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

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

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

HEADER_SET_<NAME>
New in version 3.23.

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

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

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

HEADER_SETS
New in version 3.23.

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

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

See also HEADER_SET_<NAME>, HEADER_SET and INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS.

HIP_ARCHITECTURES
New in version 3.21.

List of AMD GPU architectures to generate device code for.

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

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

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

Examples
set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY HIP_ARCHITECTURES gfx801 gfx900)

Generates code for both gfx801 and gfx900.

HIP_EXTENSIONS
New in version 3.21.

Boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested.

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

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

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

HIP_STANDARD
New in version 3.21.

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

Supported values are:

98 HIP C++98

11 HIP C++11

14 HIP C++14

17 HIP C++17

20 HIP C++20

23 HIP C++23

26 New in version 3.25.

HIP C++26. CMake 3.25 and later recognize 26 as a valid value,
no version has support for any compiler.

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

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY HIP_STANDARD 11)

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

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

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

HIP_STANDARD_REQUIRED
New in version 3.21.

Boolean describing whether the value of HIP_STANDARD is a requirement.

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

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

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

IMPLICIT_DEPENDS_INCLUDE_TRANSFORM
Specify #include line transforms for dependencies in a target.

MYDIR(%)=<mydir/%>

will convert lines of the form

#include MYDIR(myheader.h)

#include <mydir/myheader.h>

allowing the dependency to be followed.

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

IMPORTED
Read-only indication of whether a target is IMPORTED.

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

IMPORTED_COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME
New in version 3.12.

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

Ignored for non-imported targets.

See also the COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME target property.

IMPORTED_CONFIGURATIONS
Configurations provided for an IMPORTED target.

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

IMPORTED_GLOBAL
New in version 3.11.

Indication of whether an IMPORTED target is globally visible.

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

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

NOTE:
Once an imported target has been made global, it cannot be changed
back to non-global. Therefore, if a project sets this property, it
may only provide a value of True. CMake will issue an error if the
project tries to set the property to a non-True value, even if the
value was already False.

NOTE:
Local ALIAS targets created before promoting an IMPORTED target from
LOCAL to GLOBAL, keep their initial scope (see ALIAS_GLOBAL target
property).

IMPORTED_IMPLIB
Full path to the import library for an IMPORTED target.

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

IMPORTED_IMPLIB_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_IMPLIB property.

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

IMPORTED_LIBNAME
New in version 3.8.

Specify the link library name for an imported Interface Library.

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

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

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

IMPORTED_LIBNAME_<CONFIG>
New in version 3.8.

<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LIBNAME property.

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

IMPORTED_LINK_DEPENDENT_LIBRARIES
Dependent shared libraries of an imported shared library.

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

IMPORTED_LINK_DEPENDENT_LIBRARIES_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LINK_DEPENDENT_LIBRARIES.

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

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LANGUAGES
Languages compiled into an IMPORTED static library.

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

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

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LANGUAGES_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LANGUAGES.

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

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES
Transitive link interface of an IMPORTED target.

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

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

This property is deprecated. Use INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES instead.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES.

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

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

This property is deprecated. Use INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES instead.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY
Repetition count for cycles of IMPORTED static libraries.

This is LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY for IMPORTED targets.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY.

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

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

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

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

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

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

IMPORTED_LOCATION_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LOCATION property.

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

IMPORTED_NO_SONAME
Specifies that an IMPORTED shared library target has no soname.

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

IMPORTED_NO_SONAME_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_NO_SONAME property.

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

IMPORTED_NO_SYSTEM
New in version 3.23.

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

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

• Entries of INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES are not treated as SYSTEM
include directories when compiling consumers (regardless of the value
of the consumed target's SYSTEM property), as they would be by de-
fault. Entries of INTERFACE_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES are not af-
fected, and will always be treated as SYSTEM include directories.

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

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

IMPORTED_OBJECTS
New in version 3.9.

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

Ignored for non-imported targets.

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

Xcode Generator Considerations
New in version 3.20.

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

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

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

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

add_library(someObjs OBJECT IMPORTED)

set_property(TARGET someObjs PROPERTY IMPORTED_OBJECTS
# Quotes are required because of the ()
"/path/to/somewhere/objects$(EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME)/$(CURRENT_ARCH)/func.o"
)

# Example paths:
# /path/to/somewhere/objects-iphoneos/arm64/func.o
# /path/to/somewhere/objects-iphonesimulator/x86_64/func.o

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

add_library(someObjs OBJECT IMPORTED)
set_property(TARGET someObjs PROPERTY IMPORTED_OBJECTS
"/path/to/somewhere/$(CONFIGURATION)$(EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME)/$(CURRENT_ARCH)/func.o"
)

# Example paths:
# /path/to/somewhere/Release-iphoneos/arm64/func.o
# /path/to/somewhere/Debug-iphonesimulator/x86_64/func.o

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

IMPORTED_OBJECTS_<CONFIG>
New in version 3.9.

<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_OBJECTS property.

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

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

IMPORTED_SONAME
The soname of an IMPORTED target of shared library type.

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

IMPORTED_SONAME_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_SONAME property.

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

IMPORT_PREFIX
What comes before the import library name.

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

IMPORT_SUFFIX
What comes after the import library name.

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

INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
List of preprocessor include file search directories.

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

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

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

Contents of INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES may use cmake-generator-expressions(7)
with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual
for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.

INSTALL_NAME_DIR
Directory name for installed targets on Apple platforms.

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

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

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

INSTALL_REMOVE_ENVIRONMENT_RPATH
New in version 3.16.

Controls whether toolchain-defined rpaths should be removed during in-
stallation.

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

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

INSTALL_RPATH
The rpath to use for installed targets.

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

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

This property supports generator expressions.

INSTALL_RPATH_USE_LINK_PATH
Add paths to linker search and installed rpath.

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

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

INTERFACE_AUTOUIC_OPTIONS
List of interface options to pass to uic.

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

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

INTERFACE_COMPILE_DEFINITIONS
List of public compile definitions requirements for a library.

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

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

Contents of INTERFACE_COMPILE_DEFINITIONS may use "generator expres-
sions" with the syntax $<...>. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7)
manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) -manual
for more on defining buildsystem properties.

INTERFACE_COMPILE_FEATURES
New in version 3.1.

List of public compile features requirements for a library.

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

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

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

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

INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS
List of public compile options requirements for a library.

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

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

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

INTERFACE_CXX_MODULE_HEADER_UNIT_SETS
New in version 3.25.

NOTE:
Experimental. Gated by CMAKE_EXPERIMENTAL_CXX_MODULE_CMAKE_API

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

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