# Feature request: REQUIRED for all find\_\* functions
**URL:** https://discourse.cmake.org/t/feature-request-required-for-all-find-functions/862
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [March 25, 2020, 6:18pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/feature-request-required-for-all-find-functions/862 "2020-03-25T18:18:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@KUGA2](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/KUGA2)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2020, 6:18pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/feature-request-required-for-all-find-functions/862/1 "2020-03-25T18:18:15Z")
`find_package()` has the flag `REQUIRED`. If it is set, the configuration fails when the package cannot be found.
I think this flag should be available for all find\_\* functions. This reduces duplicate code like
```
find_program(MYEXE myexe)
if(NOT MYEXE)
status(FATAL_ERROR "myexe has not been found")
endif()
```
Additionally, the variable `_FOUND` should be set in each find\_\* function so the error handling code for is the same for optional `find_program()` and optional `find_package()`.
What do you think?
---
### Author:  [@brad.king](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/brad.king)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/feature-request-required-for-all-find-functions/862/2 "2020-03-25T18:33:24Z")
@sjoubert recently implemented this in [CMake MR 4435](https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/merge_requests/4435) and will be in CMake 3.18.
---
### Author:  [@KUGA2](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/KUGA2)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2020, 11:27am UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/feature-request-required-for-all-find-functions/862/3 "2020-03-26T11:27:17Z")
Nice. What a coincidence! 🙂