...)`. We then have a top-level program which needs to be able to know about every test executable, as well as the parameters that each call to `my_add_test_executable()` was invoked with.
So we need to be able to keep track of this over the life of the configure step, and then at the end, output a single manifest / configuration file that contains information about each test executable and all of the parameters the function was called with.
Is there a good pattern / recipe for this kind of thing? I’ve considered using a global property, but this is cumbersome to parse because it’s a list of lists, and cmake doesn’t make dealing with multi-dimensional lists easy.
Is there an easier way?
---
### Author:  [@ben.boeckel](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/ben.boeckel)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2021, 7:36pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/aggregating-build-information-across-the-entire-configure-step/3622/2 "2021-06-24T19:36:45Z")
I usually do this by making ad hoc associative properties. Something like:
```cmake
set_property(GLOBAL APPEND
PROPERTY my_test_harness_names "${test_name}")
set_property(GLOBAL
PROPERTY "my_test_harness_${test_name}_command" "${command_args}")
set_property(GLOBAL
PROPERTY "my_test_harness_${test_name}_workdir" "${working_directory}")
```
This avoids the “list of lists” problem at least.
---
### Author:  [@Zachary\_Turner](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/Zachary_Turner)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2021, 7:44pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/aggregating-build-information-across-the-entire-configure-step/3622/3 "2021-06-24T19:44:54Z")
How do you enumerate all of these properties though? Let’s say you have not just `my_test_harness`, but also `my_second_test_harness` and `my_fancy_test_harness`. I don’t know of a good way to enumerate all global properties in CMake, so you’d have to know in advance what all the different test harnesses were and then set properties as `set_property(GLOBAL PROPERTY "${harness_name}_${test_name}_command")` etc.
I guess you could keep a second global property which is a list of harness names. Does this sound idiomatic?
---
### Author:  [@ben.boeckel](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/ben.boeckel)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/aggregating-build-information-across-the-entire-configure-step/3622/4 "2021-06-24T20:13:25Z")
It sounds suitable to me. I’m not sure there’s an “idiomatic” answer to this right now (other than using part of the variable/property name to store associative data in some way).