CMake 3.31.0-rc1 is ready for testing

Announcements
1

I am proud to announce the first CMake 3.31 release candidate.
https://cmake.org/download/

Documentation is available at:
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.31

Release notes appear below and are also published at
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.31/release/3.31.html

Release milestone is available at:
release milestone

Some of the most significant changes in CMake 3.31 are:

  • “cmake-presets(7)” files may now include comments using the key
    “$comment” at any level within the JSON object to provide
    documentation.

  • The Ninja Generators and Makefile Generators now produce a “codegen”
    build target. See policy “CMP0171”. It drives a subset of the
    build graph sufficient to run custom commands created with
    “add_custom_command()”'s new “CODEGEN” option.

  • The “CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARIES_STRATEGY” variable and corresponding
    “LINK_LIBRARIES_STRATEGY” target property were added to optionally
    specify the strategy CMake uses to generate link lines.

  • The “CMAKE_AIX_SHARED_LIBRARY_ARCHIVE” variable and corresponding
    “AIX_SHARED_LIBRARY_ARCHIVE” target property were added to create
    shared libraries on AIX as shared library archives.

  • The “CMAKE_EXPORT_BUILD_DATABASE” variable, a corresponding
    “CMAKE_EXPORT_BUILD_DATABASE” environment variable, and an
    “EXPORT_BUILD_DATABASE” target property, were added to enable
    exporting C++ module compile commands. This is only supported with
    Ninja Generators.

  • The “CMAKE_<LANG>HOST_COMPILER_ID" and
    "CMAKE    <LANG>HOST_COMPILER_VERSION" variables were added, where
    “<LANG>” is either “CUDA” or “HIP”. They are populated when
    "CMAKE    <LANG>_COMPILER_ID” is “NVIDIA” to identify NVCC’s host
    compiler.

  • Compatibility with versions of CMake older than 3.10 is now
    deprecated and will be removed from a future version. Calls to
    “cmake_minimum_required()” or “cmake_policy()” that set the policy
    version to an older value now issue a deprecation diagnostic.

  • When static libraries on link lines are de-duplicated (by policy
    “CMP0156”), the first occurrence is now kept on all platforms. See
    policy “CMP0179”.

  • The “file(DOWNLOAD)” and “file(UPLOAD)” commands now verify TLS
    server certificates for connections to “https://” URLs by default.
    See the “CMAKE_TLS_VERIFY” variable for details. This change was
    made without a policy so that users are protected even when building
    projects that have not been updated. Users may set the
    “CMAKE_TLS_VERIFY” environment variable to “0” to restore the old
    default.

CMake 3.31 Release Notes

Changes made since CMake 3.30 include the following.

New Features

Presets

  • “cmake-presets(7)” files may now include comments using the key
    “$comment” at any level within the JSON object to provide
    documentation.

  • “cmake-presets(7)” files may now request graphviz output using the
    “graphviz” key in a configure preset.

Generators

  • The Ninja Generators and Makefile Generators now produce a “codegen”
    build target. See policy “CMP0171”. It drives a subset of the
    build graph sufficient to run custom commands created with
    “add_custom_command()”'s new “CODEGEN” option.

Command-Line

  • The “cmake --workflow” mode now accepts a preset name as the first
    argument, allowing the simpler command line “cmake --workflow
    <preset>”.

  • The “cmake -LR[A][H]” option was added to list cache entries whose
    names match a regular expression.

Compilers

  • The LFortran compiler is now supported with “compiler id”
    “LFortran”.

Commands

  • The “add_custom_command()” command gained a “CODEGEN” option to mark
    a custom command’s outputs as dependencies of a “codegen” target.
    See policy “CMP0171”.

  • The “cmake_pkg_config()” command was added as an endpoint for using
    CMake’s native pkg-config format parser. The only supported option
    in this release is “EXTRACT”, which provides low-level access to the
    values produced by parsing a pkg-config file. For most users, this
    is not yet a suitable replacement for the “FindPkgConfig” module.

  • The “file(ARCHIVE_CREATE)” command gained a “WORKING_DIRECTORY”
    option to specify a working directory for the archiving process.

  • The “install(FILES)” and “install(DIRECTORY)” commands’ “TYPE”
    argument gained support for a “LIBEXEC” type.

Variables

  • The “CMAKE_AIX_SHARED_LIBRARY_ARCHIVE” variable and corresponding
    “AIX_SHARED_LIBRARY_ARCHIVE” target property were added to create
    shared libraries on AIX as shared library archives.

  • The “CMAKE_EXPORT_BUILD_DATABASE” variable, a corresponding
    “CMAKE_EXPORT_BUILD_DATABASE” environment variable, and an
    “EXPORT_BUILD_DATABASE” target property, were added to enable
    exporting C++ module compile commands. This is only supported with
    Ninja Generators.

  • The “CMAKE_HOST_EXECUTABLE_SUFFIX” variable was added to provide the
    suffix for executable names on the host platform.

  • The “CMAKE_<LANG>HOST_COMPILER_ID" and
    "CMAKE    <LANG>HOST_COMPILER_VERSION" variables were added, where
    “<LANG>” is either “CUDA” or “HIP”. They are populated when
    "CMAKE    <LANG>_COMPILER_ID” is “NVIDIA” to identify NVCC’s host
    compiler.

  • The “CMAKE_<LANG>_STANDARD_LINK_DIRECTORIES” variable was added.
    Toolchain files can set this variable to control which link library
    directory paths are always passed to the compiler for the specified
    language.

  • The “CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARIES_STRATEGY” variable and corresponding
    “LINK_LIBRARIES_STRATEGY” target property were added to optionally
    specify the strategy CMake uses to generate link lines.

Properties

  • The “MACOSX_FRAMEWORK_BUNDLE_NAME” target property was added to set
    the “CFBundleName” key in an Apple “FRAMEWORK”'s “Info.plist” file.

  • The “UNITY_BUILD” target property now supports the “CUDA” language.

  • The “VS_FRAMEWORK_REFERENCES” target property was added to tell
    Visual Studio Generators to add framework references.

Modules

  • Check modules now support a “CMAKE_REQUIRED_LINK_DIRECTORIES”
    variable. The following modules gained this support:

    • “CMakePushCheckState”

    • “CheckCCompilerFlag”

    • “CheckCSourceCompiles”

    • “CheckCSourceRuns”

    • “CheckCXXCompilerFlag”

    • “CheckCXXSourceCompiles”

    • “CheckCXXSourceRuns”

    • “CheckCXXSymbolExists”

    • “CheckCompilerFlag”

    • “CheckFortranCompilerFlag”

    • “CheckFortranFunctionExists”

    • “CheckFortranSourceCompiles”

    • “CheckFortranSourceRuns”

    • “CheckFunctionExists”

    • “CheckIncludeFile”

    • “CheckIncludeFileCXX”

    • “CheckIncludeFiles”

    • “CheckOBJCCompilerFlag”

    • “CheckLibraryExists”

    • “CheckOBJCCompilerFlag”

    • “CheckOBJCSourceCompiles”

    • “CheckOBJCSourceRuns”

    • “CheckOBJCXXCompilerFlag”

    • “CheckOBJCXXSourceCompiles”

    • “CheckOBJCXXSourceRuns”

    • “CheckPrototypeDefinition”

    • “CheckSourceCompiles”

    • “CheckSourceRuns”

    • “CheckStructHasMember”

    • “CheckSymbolExists”

    • “CheckTypeSize”

    • “CheckVariableExists”

  • The “CMakePackageConfigHelpers” module’s
    “generate_apple_platform_selection_file()” function gained support
    for iOS Mac Catalyst.

  • The “GoogleTest” module “gtest_discover_tests()” command gained a
    new “DISCOVERY_EXTRA_ARGS” keyword. It allows extra arguments to be
    appended to the command line when querying for the list of tests.

  • The “FindCUDAToolkit” module now provides a “CUDA::nvml_static”
    target.

  • The “FindOpenMP” module gained support for the “CUDA” language.

CTest

  • The “ctest_submit()” command and “ctest -T Submit” step now verify
    TLS server certificates for connections to “https://” URLs by
    default. See the “CTEST_TLS_VERIFY” variable for details.

  • The “ctest_submit()” command and “ctest -T Submit” step now require
    TLS 1.2 or higher for connections to “https://” URLs by default.
    See the “CTEST_TLS_VERSION” variable for details.

CPack

  • The “CPack DEB Generator” gained a “CPACK_DEBIAN_PACKAGE_MULTIARCH”
    option to support multi-arch packages.

  • The “CPack IFW Generator” gained the new
    “CPACK_IFW_PACKAGE_PRODUCT_IMAGE_URLS” variable to specify images
    associated with entries of “CPACK_IFW_PACKAGE_PRODUCT_IMAGES”. This
    feature is available for QtIFW 4.0 and newer.

  • The “CPack RPM Generator” gained support for “zstd” as a
    “CPACK_RPM_COMPRESSION_TYPE” value.

  • The “CPack” module enables per-machine installation by default in
    the “CPack WIX Generator”. See policy “CMP0172” and the
    “CPACK_WIX_INSTALL_SCOPE” variable.

Deprecated and Removed Features

  • Compatibility with versions of CMake older than 3.10 is now
    deprecated and will be removed from a future version. Calls to
    “cmake_minimum_required()” or “cmake_policy()” that set the policy
    version to an older value now issue a deprecation diagnostic.

  • The “CMakeFindFrameworks” module has been deprecated via “CMP0173”.
    Projects should use “find_library()” instead.

  • The “Visual Studio 12 2013” generator has been removed.

Other Changes

  • When static libraries on link lines are de-duplicated (by policy
    “CMP0156”), the first occurrence is now kept on all platforms. See
    policy “CMP0179”.

  • Empty list elements in the “TEST_LAUNCHER” and
    “CROSSCOMPILING_EMULATOR” target properties are now preserved by:

    • The “add_test()” command.

    • The “ExternalData_Add_Test()” command from the “ExternalData”
      module.

    • The “gtest_add_tests()” and “gtest_discover_tests()” commands from
      the “GoogleTest” module. Empty list elements after the
      “EXTRA_ARGS” keyword of these two commands are also now preserved.

    See policy “CMP0178”.

  • The “execute_process()” command’s “ENCODING” option, meaningful on
    Windows, now defaults to “UTF-8”. See policy “CMP0176”.

  • The “file(DOWNLOAD)” and “file(UPLOAD)” commands now verify TLS
    server certificates for connections to “https://” URLs by default.
    See the “CMAKE_TLS_VERIFY” variable for details. This change was
    made without a policy so that users are protected even when building
    projects that have not been updated. Users may set the
    “CMAKE_TLS_VERIFY” environment variable to “0” to restore the old
    default.

  • The “file(DOWNLOAD)” and “file(UPLOAD)” commands now require TLS 1.2
    or higher for connections to “https://” URLs by default. See the
    “CMAKE_TLS_VERSION” variable for details.

  • The “file(GET_RUNTIME_DEPENDENCIES)” command was updated to more
    closely match the dynamic loader’s behavior on Linux.

  • The “install()” command’s “DESTINATION” arguments are now
    normalized, with the exception of “INCLUDES DESTINATION” arguments
    in “install(TARGETS)”. See policy “CMP0177”.

  • The “project()” command now always sets “<PROJECT-NAME>_SOURCE_DIR”,
    “<PROJECT-NAME>_BINARY_DIR”, and “<PROJECT-NAME>_IS_TOP_LEVEL” as
    both normal variables and cache entries. See policy “CMP0180”.