# 4.4.0: CMake Error: The warning category "all" is not known.
**URL:** https://discourse.cmake.org/t/4-4-0-cmake-error-the-warning-category-all-is-not-known/15752
**Category:** Code
**Created:** [July 17, 2026, 12:54pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/4-4-0-cmake-error-the-warning-category-all-is-not-known/15752 "2026-07-17T12:54:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@wiz](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/wiz)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2026, 12:54pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/4-4-0-cmake-error-the-warning-category-all-is-not-known/15752/1 "2026-07-17T12:54:48Z")
Hi!
After updating CMake in pkgsrc to 4.4.0, [dynamips](https://github.com/GNS3/dynamips) started failing with an error I don’t understand:
```auto
-- Looking for clock_gettime in rt
CMake Error: The warning category "all" is not known.
CMake Error at /opt/pkg/share/cmake-4.4/Modules/CheckLibraryExists.cmake:154 (try_compile):
Failed to configure test project build system.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
cmake/dependencies.cmake:113 (check_library_exists)
CMakeLists.txt:32 (include)
```
pkgsrc is one version (0.2.23) behind the latest (0.2.24) but it fails the same way in 0.2.24
Can someone please explain the problem and suggest a solution?
Thanks,
Thomas
---
### Author:  [@vito.gamberini](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/vito.gamberini)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2026, 2:32pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/4-4-0-cmake-error-the-warning-category-all-is-not-known/15752/2 "2026-07-17T14:32:55Z")
This is a bug. [Please open an issue on the tracker.](https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/work_items)
---
### Author:  [@wiz](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/wiz)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2026, 3:54pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/4-4-0-cmake-error-the-warning-category-all-is-not-known/15752/3 "2026-07-17T15:54:28Z")
Thanks for the feedback - I’ve just done that:
[https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/work\_items/27961](https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/work_items/27961)
---
### Author:  [@Matthew\_Woehlke](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/Matthew_Woehlke)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2026, 9:07pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/4-4-0-cmake-error-the-warning-category-all-is-not-known/15752/4 "2026-07-17T21:07:42Z")
In case anyone else stumbles across this… The underlying issue, and the reason you get such an apparently obtuse error, is that you are using `CMAKE_REQUIRED_FLAGS` wrong. Specifically, because you’re passing a semicolon (`;`) separated list rather than a space (` `) separated list — probably because you forgot to quote something that should have been quoted — you are passing stuff meant to be compile options as arguments to the nested CMake invocation. This results in a somewhat obtuse error, because you aren’t expecting errors related to misuse of CMake’s CLI to be emitted from a `try_compile`. (Nor should you; it’s a bug that these arguments can “leak” in the first place, but unfortunately one that runs into Hyrum’s Law.)
It just so happens that if these spurious flags were compiler warnings, CMake \< 4.4 silently ignored whatever `-W` it saw. We’re working on tweaking affected modules so your old builds will continue to work (and filing a bug against CMake is a correct action), but in the mean time, you should (also) fix your own code. 🙂 (If for no other reason that it isn’t doing what you almost certainly _meant_ for it to be doing.)
See also [https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/work\_items/27901](https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/work_items/27901).
---
### Author:  [@Matthew\_Woehlke](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/Matthew_Woehlke)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2026, 9:10pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/4-4-0-cmake-error-the-warning-category-all-is-not-known/15752/5 "2026-07-17T21:10:42Z")
I expect that we’ll eventually fix things so as to ensure that all of `CMAKE_REQUIRED_FLAGS` is handled as compile options, regardless of how you separate those options.