# NOT TARGET meaning?

**URL:** https://discourse.cmake.org/t/not-target-meaning/2085
**Category:** Usage
**Created:** [October 28, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/not-target-meaning/2085 "2020-10-28T18:00:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![tomoreilly](https://discourse.cmake.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tomoreilly](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/tomoreilly)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/not-target-meaning/2085/1 "2020-10-28T18:00:19Z")

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I see expressions like this in cmake files:

```auto
if(NOT TARGET JSONUtils::JSONUtils)
    include("${JSONUtils_CMAKE_DIR}/JSONUtilsTargets.cmake")
endif()

```

What exactly does this mean? By itself I think “NOT TARGET” means variable TARGET is not set, but in conjunction with JSONUtils:JSONUtils?  
Thanks!

---

<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: [October 28, 2020, 6:01pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/not-target-meaning/2085/2 "2020-10-28T18:01:38Z")

</div>

The `TARGET` operator means “is the following argument the name of a CMake target”. In this case, `if(NOT TARGET JSONUtils::JSONUtils)` evaluates to true if there is no target called `JSONUtils::JSONUtils`.