# Exporting (some selected) properties via the file API ?

**URL:** https://discourse.cmake.org/t/exporting-some-selected-properties-via-the-file-api/15511
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [February 14, 2026, 10:28pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/exporting-some-selected-properties-via-the-file-api/15511 "2026-02-14T22:28:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![neundorf](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/neundorf/32/2075_2.png) [@neundorf](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/neundorf)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2026, 10:28pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/exporting-some-selected-properties-via-the-file-api/15511/1 "2026-02-14T22:28:50Z")

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Hi,

as far as I can see target properties are not exported via the file API.

I was a bit surprised to see that. That would be an easy (I think) way to get information to IDEs. This could be command line arguments for a target when starting it, e.g. in a debugger, environment variables, and more like that.

There could even be a target property which lists the target properties which should be exported.

Does that sound useful, or are there reasons against this ?

Alex

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### Author: ![brad.king](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/brad.king/32/11_2.png) [@brad.king](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/brad.king)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2026, 1:53pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/exporting-some-selected-properties-via-the-file-api/15511/2 "2026-02-16T13:53:48Z")

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A flat list of properties without any semantic meaning is not in the spirit of what the file-api currently produces. IMO it’s better to identify specific use cases and provide dedicated well-defined fields for them.

> command line arguments for a target when starting it, e.g. in a debugger

We already have a `debugger` field holding a `workingDirectory` entry corresponding to the [`DEBUGGER_WORKING_DIRECTORY`](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v4.2/prop_tgt/DEBUGGER_WORKING_DIRECTORY.html) target property. That property was itself a generalization of the VS-specific [`VS_DEBUGGER_WORKING_DIRECTORY`](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v4.2/prop_tgt/VS_DEBUGGER_WORKING_DIRECTORY.html). One could extend that approach to generalize [`VS_DEBUGGER_COMMAND_ARGUMENTS`](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v4.2/prop_tgt/VS_DEBUGGER_COMMAND_ARGUMENTS.html) too, and add another entry to the `debugger` object in the file-api.