# Configure vs build presets

**URL:** https://discourse.cmake.org/t/configure-vs-build-presets/4461
**Category:** Usage
**Created:** [November 10, 2021, 2:55pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/configure-vs-build-presets/4461 "2021-11-10T14:55:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![DavidA](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/davida/32/128_2.png) [@DavidA](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/DavidA)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2021, 2:55pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/configure-vs-build-presets/4461/1 "2021-11-10T14:55:42Z")

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I’m trying to express the difference between Configure and Build presets, other than the obvious fact that they are used at configuration and build time.

Is there a good explanation of this in the documentation?

Our typical workflow is:

> cmake -G Ninja -D PROJECT\_VARIANT= …/…  
> ninja -v

What is the syntax for replacing these commands with cmake commands that specify presets?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![kyle.edwards](https://discourse.cmake.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/65b543/32.png) [@kyle.edwards](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/kyle.edwards)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2021, 3:00pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/configure-vs-build-presets/4461/2 "2021-11-10T15:00:09Z")

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The first line would be a configure preset. You can specify `"generator": "Ninja"` and `"cacheVariables": { "PROJECT_VARIANT": ".../..." }`.

The second line would be a build preset. You can specify `"verbose": true`.