CMake 3.24.0-rc5 is ready for testing

Announcements
1

I am proud to announce the fifth CMake 3.24 release candidate.
https://cmake.org/download/

Documentation is available at:
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.24

Release notes appear below and are also published at
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.24/release/3.24.html

Some of the more significant changes in CMake 3.24 are:

  • The “FetchContent” module and the “find_package()” command now
    support integration capabilities.

  • The “LINK_LIBRARY” generator expression was added to manage how
    libraries are specified during the link step.

  • The Visual Studio Generators now support “SYSTEM” headers when using
    VS 2019 Update 11 or later.

  • “cmake(1)” gained the “–fresh” command-line option to remove any
    existing “CMakeCache.txt” file and associated “CMakeFiles/”
    directory, when configuring a build tree, thus starting a new
    configuration as if the build tree were freshly created.

  • The “CMAKE_COMPILE_WARNING_AS_ERROR” variable and corresponding
    “COMPILE_WARNING_AS_ERROR” target property were added to enable
    compilation with a compiler-specific flag to treat warnings as
    errors, such as “-Werror”.

  • The “find_file()”, “find_path()”, “find_library()”,
    “find_program()”, and “find_package()” commands gained the
    “NO_CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX” option to control searching
    “CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX”.

  • The “find_file()”, “find_path()”, “find_library()”,
    “find_program()”, and “find_package()” commands gained the ability
    to specify which Windows Registry views must be queried.

CMake 3.24 Release Notes

Changes made since CMake 3.23 include the following.

New Features

Presets

  • “cmake-presets(7)” files now support schema version “5”.

  • “cmake-presets(7)” files now support a “${pathListSep}” macro, which
    expands to “:” or “;” based on the platform.

  • “cmake-presets(7)” files gained support for specifying a
    “testOutputTruncation” field in test presets, which specifies the
    truncation mode once the maximum test output size has been reached.

Generators

  • The “Green Hills MULTI” generator now generates build rules to re-
    run CMake if any CMake files are updated.

  • The Visual Studio Generators now support “SYSTEM” headers when using
    VS 2019 Update 11 or later.

Command-Line

  • “cmake(1)” gained the “–fresh” command-line option to remove any
    existing “CMakeCache.txt” file and associated “CMakeFiles/”
    directory, when configuring a build tree, thus starting a new
    configuration as if the build tree were freshly created.

  • “cmake(1)” gained the “–compile-no-warning-as-error” command-line
    option which causes the effects of the “COMPILE_WARNING_AS_ERROR”
    target property and “CMAKE_COMPILE_WARNING_AS_ERROR” variable to be
    ignored.

  • The “cmake(1)” “–trace=json-v1” trace format gained fields
    “global_frame” and “line_end”.

  • The “cmake(1)” “-E” commands “cat” and “env” learned to respect a
    double dash (“–”) argument that acts as a delimiter indicating the
    end of options. Any following arguments are treated as
    operands/positional arguments, even if they begin with a dash “-”
    character.

  • The “cmake(1)” “-E tar” command gained the “–touch” option to keep
    the current local timestamp instead of extracting file timestamps
    from the archive.

Compilers

  • LLVM’s flang Fortran compiler is now supported on some platforms,
    with compiler id “LLVMFlang”.

  • ADSP compiler support (SHARC and Blackfin) now covers both CCES and
    VDSP++ installations, with required configuration now done in the
    compiler module itself rather than the “Generic-ADSP” platform
    module.

Platforms

  • A dedicated “ADSP” platform has been added to replace the existing
    “Generic-ADSP” implementation. This features automatic detection of
    the latest CCES/VDSP++ install and compiler selection (“cc21k” vs.
    “ccblkfn”) based off of the “CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR” variable.

Commands

  • The “cmake_host_system_information()” command, on Windows, gained a
    “QUERY WINDOWS_REGISTRY” mode. See its Query Windows registry
    section.

  • The “cmake_language()” command gained a new
    “SET_DEPENDENCY_PROVIDER” sub-command. When a dependency provider
    is set, calls to “find_package()” and “FetchContent_MakeAvailable()”
    can be redirected through a custom command, which can choose to
    fulfill the request directly, modify how the request is processed,
    or leave it to be fulfilled by the built-in implementation. See
    Dependency Providers.

  • The “file(DOWNLOAD)” command gained options “RANGE_START” and
    “RANGE_END” to specify a range of bytes to download. This can be
    useful for downloading parts of big binary files.

  • The “find_file()”, “find_path()”, “find_library()”,
    “find_program()”, and “find_package()” commands gained the
    “NO_CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX” option to control searching
    “CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX”.

  • The “find_file()”, “find_path()”, “find_library()”,
    “find_program()”, and “find_package()” commands gained the ability
    to specify which Windows Registry views must be queried.

  • The “find_package()” command gained a “GLOBAL” option that allows
    for the promotion of imported targets to global scope for the
    duration of the “find_package()” call.

  • The “if()” command gained the capability to compare paths by using
    the “PATH_EQUAL” operator. See policy “CMP0139”.

Variables

  • The “CMAKE_COLOR_DIAGNOSTICS” variable was added to control color
    diagnostics generated by compilers. This variable also controls
    color build system messages with Makefile Generators, replacing
    “CMAKE_COLOR_MAKEFILE”.

    The “CMAKE_COLOR_DIAGNOSTICS” environment variable was added to set
    a default value for “CMAKE_COLOR_DIAGNOSTICS”.

  • The “CMAKE_COMPILE_WARNING_AS_ERROR” variable and corresponding
    “COMPILE_WARNING_AS_ERROR” target property were added to enable
    compilation with a compiler-specific flag to treat warnings as
    errors, such as “-Werror”.

  • The “CMAKE_CUDA_ARCHITECTURES” variable and associated
    “CUDA_ARCHITECTURES” target property now support the special
    “native” value to compile for the architectures(s) of the host’s
    GPU(s).

  • The “CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_TARGETS_GLOBAL” variable was added to toggle
    behavior of the “find_package()” command’s new “GLOBAL” option.

  • The “CMAKE_FIND_USE_INSTALL_PREFIX” variable was added to toggle
    behavior of the “find_file()”, “find_library()”, “find_path()”,
    “find_package()”, and “find_program()” commands’ new
    “NO_CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX” option.

  • The “CMAKE_PROJECT_TOP_LEVEL_INCLUDES” variable was added to allow
    injecting custom code at the site of the first “project()” call,
    after the host and target platform details have been determined.

  • The “CMAKE_TRY_COMPILE_NO_PLATFORM_VARIABLES” variable was added to
    tell the “try_compile()” command not to pass any platform variables
    to the test project.

  • The “CMAKE_VERIFY_INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS” variable and corresponding
    “VERIFY_INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS” target property were added to enable
    build rules that verify all headers in header sets can be used on
    their own.

  • The “CMAKE_VS_NO_COMPILE_BATCHING” variable and corresponding
    “VS_NO_COMPILE_BATCHING” target property were added to tell Visual
    Studio Generators whether to disable compiler parallelism and call
    the compiler with one source file at a time.

  • The “CMAKE_WATCOM_RUNTIME_LIBRARY” variable and
    “WATCOM_RUNTIME_LIBRARY” target property were introduced to select
    the runtime library used by compilers targeting the Watcom ABI. See
    policy “CMP0136”.

  • The “CMAKE_XCODE_XCCONFIG” variable and corresponding
    “XCODE_XCCONFIG” target property were added to tell the “Xcode”
    generator to handle “xcconfig” files.

Properties

  • The “INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT” and
    “INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_DIRECT_EXCLUDE” target properties were
    added to express usage requirements affecting a consumer’s direct
    link dependencies.

  • The “INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS_TO_VERIFY” target property was added to
    specify which header sets should be verified by
    “VERIFY_INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS”.

  • The “LINK_LIBRARIES” target property now supports the
    “$<LINK_ONLY:…>” generator expression. See policy “CMP0131”.

  • The “VS_DOTNET_STARTUP_OBJECT” target property was added to tell
    Visual Studio Generators which startup class shall be used when the
    program or project is executed. This is necessary when more than one
    “static void Main(string[])” function signature is available in a
    managed .NET project.

Modules

  • The “ExternalProject” module “ExternalProject_Add()” command gained
    a new “DOWNLOAD_EXTRACT_TIMESTAMP” option for controlling whether
    the timestamps of extracted contents are set to match those in the
    archive when the “URL” download method is used. Policy “CMP0135” was
    added to enable the option by default.

  • The “FetchContent” module and the “find_package()” command now
    support integration capabilities:

    • “FetchContent_MakeAvailable()” can now try to satisfy a dependency
      by calling “find_package()” first. A new
      “FETCHCONTENT_TRY_FIND_PACKAGE_MODE” variable controls whether
      this is done by default for all dependencies, is opt-in per
      dependency, or is disabled entirely.

    • “find_package()” can be re-routed to call
      “FetchContent_MakeAvailable()” instead. A new read-only
      “CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_REDIRECTS_DIR” variable points to a directory
      where config package files can be located to facilitate these re-
      routed calls.

  • The “FindJNI” module now provides imported targets.

  • The “FindMatlab” module “matlab_add_mex()” function gained a
    “NO_IMPLICIT_LINK_TO_MATLAB_LIBRARIES” option to disable automatic
    linking of MATLAB libraries.

  • The “FindVulkan” module now supports components to select which
    VulkanSDK tool and libraries to find in addition to the Vulkan SDK
    headers and library.

  • The “FindZLIB” gained a new “ZLIB_USE_STATIC_LIBS” variable to
    search only for static libraries.

Generator Expressions

  • The “LINK_LIBRARY” generator expression was added to manage how
    libraries are specified during the link step. The
    “CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARY_USING” and
    “CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_” variables are used to define
    features usable by the “LINK_LIBRARY” generator expression.
    Moreover, the “LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE” and
    “LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE_” target properties are available to
    resolve incompatible features.

    The “LINK_LIBRARY” generator expression can link frameworks in
    various ways when targeting “Apple” platforms. The following
    features were added:

    • “FRAMEWORK”

    • “NEEDED_FRAMEWORK”

    • “REEXPORT_FRAMEWORK”

    • “WEAK_FRAMEWORK”

    The “LINK_LIBRARY” generator expression can link libraries in
    various ways when targeting “Apple” platforms. The following
    features were added:

    • “NEEDED_LIBRARY”

    • “REEXPORT_LIBRARY”

    • “WEAK_LIBRARY”

    The “LINK_LIBRARY” generator expression gained the feature
    “WHOLE_ARCHIVE” to force load of all members in a static library.
    This feature is supported on the following target platforms:

    • all “Apple” variants

    • “Linux”

    • all “BSD” variants

    • “SunOS”

    • “Windows”

    • “CYGWIN”

    • “MSYS”

  • The “LINK_GROUP” generator expression was added to manage the
    grouping of libraries during the link step. The
    “CMAKE_LINK_GROUP_USING” and
    “CMAKE_LINK_GROUP_USING_” variables are used to define
    features usable with the “LINK_GROUP” generator expression. This
    release defines the “RESCAN” feature, which can be used to handle
    circular references among static libraries when using toolchains for
    Linux, BSD, SunOS and GNU toolchains for Windows.

  • The “PATH” generator expression was added to manage paths.

  • The “PATH_EQUAL” generator expression was added to manage path
    comparisons.

  • The “TARGET_BUNDLE_DIR_NAME” generator expression was added to
    evaluate to the name of the bundle directory for a given bundle
    target.

CTest

  • “ctest(1)” gained a “–test-output-truncation” option (and
    corresponding “CTEST_CUSTOM_TEST_OUTPUT_TRUNCATION” variable) to
    specify the truncation mode once the maximum test output size has
    been reached. Possible values are “tail” (default), “middle” or
    “head”.

CPack

  • The “CPack WIX Generator” gained a new variable,
    “CPACK_WIX_ARCHITECTURE”, to specify the installer architecture in
    order to support computers running Windows for ARM.

  • CPack now supports the “CPACK_THREADS” option for “zstd” compression
    when compiled with libarchive 3.6 or higher. It is supported by
    official CMake binaries available on cmake.org.

Deprecated and Removed Features

  • The “CPack” module no longer enables the SLA by default in the
    “CPack DragNDrop Generator”. See policy “CMP0133” and the
    “CPACK_DMG_SLA_USE_RESOURCE_FILE_LICENSE” variable.

  • The deprecated “CPack PackageMaker Generator” has been removed.

  • The “FindGLUT” module no longer provides the undocumented
    “GLUT_LIBRARY” and “GLUT_INCLUDE_PATH” result variables.

Other Changes

  • CMake no longer sets environment variables like “CC”, “CXX”, etc.
    when enabling the corresponding language during the first CMake run
    in a build directory. See policy “CMP0132”.

  • The “CheckIPOSupported” module “check_ipo_supported()” command now
    uses the caller’s “CMAKE_FLAGS" and
    "CMAKE    FLAGS” values. See policy “CMP0138”.

  • The “MSYS Makefiles” and “MinGW Makefiles” generators, when a
    compiler is not explicitly specified, now select the first compiler
    (of any name) found in directories listed by the “PATH” environment
    variable.

  • The “try_compile()” command whole-project signature now propagates
    platform variables. See policy “CMP0137”.

  • The “while()” command now diagnoses errors during condition
    evaluation. See policy “CMP0130”.

  • The precompiled macOS binaries provided on cmake.org no longer
    attach a SLA to the “.dmg” packages. This was removed because macOS
    12 deprecated the tools used to attach “.dmg” resources.

  • A precompiled Windows “arm64” binary is now provided on cmake.org.

Changes made since CMake 3.24.0-rc4

Brad King (8):

  • Help: Clarify execute_process OS-specific command-line encoding
  • AUTOUIC: Revert “Fix internal paths of generated ui_foo.h files”
  • VS: Revert “Write ZERO_CHECK.proj for VS19 and above”
  • FindVulkan: Format component documentation as definition list
  • cmSystemTools: Factor out method to get Windows OS version
  • VS: Detect ARM64 host architecture at runtime
  • gitlab-ci: update macOS jobs to use Xcode 13.4
  • CMake 3.24.0-rc5

Craig Scott (5):

  • Help: Minor grammar fix for the Using Dependencies manual
  • Help: Document BYPASS_PROVIDER keyword for find_package()
  • Help: Clarify behavior of path-based equality conditions
  • Help: CMP0097 applies to FetchContent as well
  • Help: Fix wrong syntax for $PATH:REPLACE_EXTENSION,...

Kyle Edwards (4):

  • Help: Clarify that VERIFY_INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS supports
  • interface libraries
  • cmTarget: Factor out FinalizeTargetCompileInfo()
  • VERIFY_INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS: Finalize compile info for verify targets
  • VERIFY_INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS: Fall back to global languages

MACHIZAUD Andréa (1):

  • FindVulkan: Add missing 3.24 release notes

Robert Maynard (5):

  • cmake: simplify to a single source of truth of working mode
  • cmake: In -P mode ignore extra paths on the command line
  • cmake: simplify to a single source of truth of working mode
  • cmake: In -P mode ignore extra paths on the command line
  • cmake: In -P mode ignore flags like --version after --