Ubuntu Manpage: cmake-properties - CMake Properties Reference

name
properties of global scope
properties on directories
properties on targets
properties on tests
properties on source files
properties on cache entries
properties on installed files
deprecated properties on directories
deprecated properties on targets
deprecated properties on source files
copyright

Provided by: cmake-data_3.16.3-1ubuntu1.20.04.1_all

NAME

       cmake-properties - CMake Properties Reference

PROPERTIES OF GLOBAL SCOPE

ALLOW_DUPLICATE_CUSTOM_TARGETS
Allow duplicate custom targets to be created.

Normally CMake requires that all targets built in a project have globally unique logical names (see
policy CMP0002). This is necessary to generate meaningful project file names in Xcode and Visual Studio
Generators IDE generators. It also allows the target names to be referenced unambiguously.

Makefile generators are capable of supporting duplicate add_custom_target() names. For projects that
care only about Makefile Generators and do not wish to support Xcode or Visual Studio Generators IDE
generators, one may set this property to True to allow duplicate custom targets. The property allows
multiple add_custom_target() command calls in different directories to specify the same target name.
However, setting this property will cause non-Makefile generators to produce an error and refuse to
generate the project.

AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP
Name of the source_group() for AUTOMOC and AUTORCC generated files.

Files generated by AUTOMOC and AUTORCC are not always known at configure time and therefore can’t be
passed to source_group(). AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP an be used instead to generate or select a source group
for AUTOMOC and AUTORCC generated files.

For AUTOMOC and AUTORCC specific overrides see AUTOMOC_SOURCE_GROUP and AUTORCC_SOURCE_GROUP
respectively.

AUTOGEN_TARGETS_FOLDER
Name of FOLDER for *_autogen targets that are added automatically by CMake for targets for which AUTOMOC
is enabled.

If not set, CMake uses the FOLDER property of the parent target as a default value for this property.
See also the documentation for the FOLDER target property and the AUTOMOC target property.

AUTOMOC_SOURCE_GROUP
Name of the source_group() for AUTOMOC generated files.

When set this is used instead of AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP for files generated by AUTOMOC.

AUTOMOC_TARGETS_FOLDER
Name of FOLDER for *_autogen targets that are added automatically by CMake for targets for which AUTOMOC
is enabled.

This property is obsolete. Use AUTOGEN_TARGETS_FOLDER instead.

If not set, CMake uses the FOLDER property of the parent target as a default value for this property.
See also the documentation for the FOLDER target property and the AUTOMOC target property.

AUTORCC_SOURCE_GROUP
Name of the source_group() for AUTORCC generated files.

When set this is used instead of AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP for files generated by AUTORCC.

CMAKE_C_KNOWN_FEATURES
List of C features known to this version of CMake.

The features listed in this global property may be known to be available to the C compiler. If the
feature is available with the C compiler, it will be listed in the CMAKE_C_COMPILE_FEATURES variable.

The features listed here may be used with the target_compile_features() command. See the
cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

The features known to this version of CMake are:

c_std_90
Compiler mode is at least C 90.

c_std_99
Compiler mode is at least C 99.

c_std_11
Compiler mode is at least C 11.

c_function_prototypes
Function prototypes, as defined in ISO/IEC 9899:1990.

c_restrict
restrict keyword, as defined in ISO/IEC 9899:1999.

c_static_assert
Static assert, as defined in ISO/IEC 9899:2011.

c_variadic_macros
Variadic macros, as defined in ISO/IEC 9899:1999.

CMAKE_CXX_KNOWN_FEATURES
List of C++ features known to this version of CMake.

The features listed in this global property may be known to be available to the C++ compiler. If the
feature is available with the C++ compiler, it will be listed in the CMAKE_CXX_COMPILE_FEATURES variable.

The features listed here may be used with the target_compile_features() command. See the
cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

The features known to this version of CMake are:

cxx_std_98
Compiler mode is at least C++ 98.

cxx_std_11
Compiler mode is at least C++ 11.

cxx_std_14
Compiler mode is at least C++ 14.

cxx_std_17
Compiler mode is at least C++ 17.

cxx_std_20
Compiler mode is at least C++ 20.

cxx_aggregate_default_initializers
Aggregate default initializers, as defined in N3605.

cxx_alias_templates
Template aliases, as defined in N2258.

cxx_alignas
Alignment control alignas, as defined in N2341.

cxx_alignof
Alignment control alignof, as defined in N2341.

cxx_attributes
Generic attributes, as defined in N2761.

cxx_attribute_deprecated
[[deprecated]] attribute, as defined in N3760.

cxx_auto_type
Automatic type deduction, as defined in N1984.

cxx_binary_literals
Binary literals, as defined in N3472.

cxx_constexpr
Constant expressions, as defined in N2235.

cxx_contextual_conversions
Contextual conversions, as defined in N3323.

cxx_decltype_incomplete_return_types
Decltype on incomplete return types, as defined in N3276.

cxx_decltype
Decltype, as defined in N2343.

cxx_decltype_auto
decltype(auto) semantics, as defined in N3638.

cxx_default_function_template_args
Default template arguments for function templates, as defined in DR226

cxx_defaulted_functions
Defaulted functions, as defined in N2346.

cxx_defaulted_move_initializers
Defaulted move initializers, as defined in N3053.

cxx_delegating_constructors
Delegating constructors, as defined in N1986.

cxx_deleted_functions
Deleted functions, as defined in N2346.

cxx_digit_separators
Digit separators, as defined in N3781.

cxx_enum_forward_declarations
Enum forward declarations, as defined in N2764.

cxx_explicit_conversions
Explicit conversion operators, as defined in N2437.

cxx_extended_friend_declarations
Extended friend declarations, as defined in N1791.

cxx_extern_templates
Extern templates, as defined in N1987.

cxx_final
Override control final keyword, as defined in N2928, N3206 and N3272.

cxx_func_identifier
Predefined __func__ identifier, as defined in N2340.

cxx_generalized_initializers
Initializer lists, as defined in N2672.

cxx_generic_lambdas
Generic lambdas, as defined in N3649.

cxx_inheriting_constructors
Inheriting constructors, as defined in N2540.

cxx_inline_namespaces
Inline namespaces, as defined in N2535.

cxx_lambdas
Lambda functions, as defined in N2927.

cxx_lambda_init_captures
Initialized lambda captures, as defined in N3648.

cxx_local_type_template_args
Local and unnamed types as template arguments, as defined in N2657.

cxx_long_long_type
long long type, as defined in N1811.

cxx_noexcept
Exception specifications, as defined in N3050.

cxx_nonstatic_member_init
Non-static data member initialization, as defined in N2756.

cxx_nullptr
Null pointer, as defined in N2431.

cxx_override
Override control override keyword, as defined in N2928, N3206 and N3272.

cxx_range_for
Range-based for, as defined in N2930.

cxx_raw_string_literals
Raw string literals, as defined in N2442.

cxx_reference_qualified_functions
Reference qualified functions, as defined in N2439.

cxx_relaxed_constexpr
Relaxed constexpr, as defined in N3652.

cxx_return_type_deduction
Return type deduction on normal functions, as defined in N3386.

cxx_right_angle_brackets
Right angle bracket parsing, as defined in N1757.

cxx_rvalue_references
R-value references, as defined in N2118.

cxx_sizeof_member
Size of non-static data members, as defined in N2253.

cxx_static_assert
Static assert, as defined in N1720.

cxx_strong_enums
Strongly typed enums, as defined in N2347.

cxx_thread_local
Thread-local variables, as defined in N2659.

cxx_trailing_return_types
Automatic function return type, as defined in N2541.

cxx_unicode_literals
Unicode string literals, as defined in N2442.

cxx_uniform_initialization
Uniform initialization, as defined in N2640.

cxx_unrestricted_unions
Unrestricted unions, as defined in N2544.

cxx_user_literals
User-defined literals, as defined in N2765.

cxx_variable_templates
Variable templates, as defined in N3651.

cxx_variadic_macros
Variadic macros, as defined in N1653.

cxx_variadic_templates
Variadic templates, as defined in N2242.

cxx_template_template_parameters
Template template parameters, as defined in ISO/IEC 14882:1998.

CMAKE_ROLE
Tells what mode the current running script is in. Could be one of several values:

PROJECT
Running in project mode (processing a CMakeLists.txt file).

SCRIPT Running in -P script mode.

FIND_PACKAGE
Running in --find-package mode.

CTEST Running in CTest script mode.

CPACK Running in CPack.

DEBUG_CONFIGURATIONS
Specify which configurations are for debugging.

The value must be a semi-colon separated list of configuration names. Currently this property is used
only by the target_link_libraries() command. Additional uses may be defined in the future.

This property must be set at the top level of the project and before the first target_link_libraries()
command invocation. If any entry in the list does not match a valid configuration for the project the
behavior is undefined.

DISABLED_FEATURES
List of features which are disabled during the CMake run.

List of features which are disabled during the CMake run. By default it contains the names of all
packages which were not found. This is determined using the <NAME>_FOUND variables. Packages which are
searched QUIET are not listed. A project can add its own features to this list. This property is used
by the macros in FeatureSummary.cmake.

ENABLED_FEATURES
List of features which are enabled during the CMake run.

List of features which are enabled during the CMake run. By default it contains the names of all
packages which were found. This is determined using the <NAME>_FOUND variables. Packages which are
searched QUIET are not listed. A project can add its own features to this list. This property is used
by the macros in FeatureSummary.cmake.

ENABLED_LANGUAGES
Read-only property that contains the list of currently enabled languages

Set to list of currently enabled languages.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB32_PATHS
Whether the find_library() command should automatically search lib32 directories.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB32_PATHS is a boolean specifying whether the find_library() command should
automatically search the lib32 variant of directories called lib in the search path when building 32-bit
binaries.

See also the CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_CUSTOM_LIB_SUFFIX variable.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB64_PATHS
Whether find_library() should automatically search lib64 directories.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB64_PATHS is a boolean specifying whether the find_library() command should
automatically search the lib64 variant of directories called lib in the search path when building 64-bit
binaries.

See also the CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_CUSTOM_LIB_SUFFIX variable.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIBX32_PATHS
Whether the find_library() command should automatically search libx32 directories.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIBX32_PATHS is a boolean specifying whether the find_library() command should
automatically search the libx32 variant of directories called lib in the search path when building
x32-abi binaries.

See also the CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_CUSTOM_LIB_SUFFIX variable.

FIND_LIBRARY_USE_OPENBSD_VERSIONING
Whether find_library() should find OpenBSD-style shared libraries.

This property is a boolean specifying whether the find_library() command should find shared libraries
with OpenBSD-style versioned extension: “.so.<major>.<minor>”. The property is set to true on OpenBSD
and false on other platforms.

GENERATOR_IS_MULTI_CONFIG
Read-only property that is true on multi-configuration generators.

True when using a multi-configuration generator (such as Visual Studio Generators or Xcode).
Multi-config generators use CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES as the set of configurations and ignore
CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE.

GLOBAL_DEPENDS_DEBUG_MODE
Enable global target dependency graph debug mode.

CMake automatically analyzes the global inter-target dependency graph at the beginning of native build
system generation. This property causes it to display details of its analysis to stderr.

GLOBAL_DEPENDS_NO_CYCLES
Disallow global target dependency graph cycles.

CMake automatically analyzes the global inter-target dependency graph at the beginning of native build
system generation. It reports an error if the dependency graph contains a cycle that does not consist of
all STATIC library targets. This property tells CMake to disallow all cycles completely, even among
static libraries.

IN_TRY_COMPILE
Read-only property that is true during a try-compile configuration.

True when building a project inside a try_compile() or try_run() command.

PACKAGES_FOUND
List of packages which were found during the CMake run.

List of packages which were found during the CMake run. Whether a package has been found is determined
using the <NAME>_FOUND variables.

PACKAGES_NOT_FOUND
List of packages which were not found during the CMake run.

List of packages which were not found during the CMake run. Whether a package has been found is
determined using the <NAME>_FOUND variables.

JOB_POOLS
Ninja only: List of available pools.

A pool is a named integer property and defines the maximum number of concurrent jobs which can be started
by a rule assigned to the pool. The JOB_POOLS property is a semicolon-separated list of pairs using the
syntax NAME=integer (without a space after the equality sign).

For instance:

set_property(GLOBAL PROPERTY JOB_POOLS two_jobs=2 ten_jobs=10)

Defined pools could be used globally by setting CMAKE_JOB_POOL_COMPILE and CMAKE_JOB_POOL_LINK or per
target by setting the target properties JOB_POOL_COMPILE and JOB_POOL_LINK. Custom commands and custom
targets can specify pools using the option JOB_POOL. Using a pool that is not defined by JOB_POOLS
causes an error by ninja at build time.

If not set, this property uses the value of the CMAKE_JOB_POOLS variable.

Build targets provided by CMake that are meant for individual interactive use, such as install, are
placed in the console pool automatically.

PREDEFINED_TARGETS_FOLDER
Name of FOLDER for targets that are added automatically by CMake.

If not set, CMake uses “CMakePredefinedTargets” as a default value for this property. Targets such as
INSTALL, PACKAGE and RUN_TESTS will be organized into this FOLDER. See also the documentation for the
FOLDER target property.

ECLIPSE_EXTRA_NATURES
List of natures to add to the generated Eclipse project file.

Eclipse projects specify language plugins by using natures. This property should be set to the unique
identifier for a nature (which looks like a Java package name).

Also see the ECLIPSE_EXTRA_CPROJECT_CONTENTS property.

ECLIPSE_EXTRA_CPROJECT_CONTENTS
Additional contents to be inserted into the generated Eclipse cproject file.

The cproject file defines the CDT specific information. Some third party IDE’s are based on Eclipse with
the addition of other information specific to that IDE. Through this property, it is possible to add
this additional contents to the generated project. It is expected to contain valid XML.

Also see the ECLIPSE_EXTRA_NATURES property.

REPORT_UNDEFINED_PROPERTIES
If set, report any undefined properties to this file.

If this property is set to a filename then when CMake runs it will report any properties or variables
that were accessed but not defined into the filename specified in this property.

RULE_LAUNCH_COMPILE
Specify a launcher for compile rules.

Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator prefix compiler commands with the given launcher command
line. This is intended to allow launchers to intercept build problems with high granularity. Other
generators ignore this property because their underlying build systems provide no hook to wrap individual
commands with a launcher.

RULE_LAUNCH_CUSTOM
Specify a launcher for custom rules.

Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator prefix custom commands with the given launcher command line.
This is intended to allow launchers to intercept build problems with high granularity. Other generators
ignore this property because their underlying build systems provide no hook to wrap individual commands
with a launcher.

RULE_LAUNCH_LINK
Specify a launcher for link rules.

Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator prefix link and archive commands with the given launcher
command line. This is intended to allow launchers to intercept build problems with high granularity.
Other generators ignore this property because their underlying build systems provide no hook to wrap
individual commands with a launcher.

RULE_MESSAGES
Specify whether to report a message for each make rule.

This property specifies whether Makefile generators should add a progress message describing what each
build rule does. If the property is not set the default is ON. Set the property to OFF to disable
granular messages and report only as each target completes. This is intended to allow scripted builds to
avoid the build time cost of detailed reports. If a CMAKE_RULE_MESSAGES cache entry exists its value
initializes the value of this property. Non-Makefile generators currently ignore this property.

TARGET_ARCHIVES_MAY_BE_SHARED_LIBS
Set if shared libraries may be named like archives.

On AIX shared libraries may be named “lib<name>.a”. This property is set to true on such platforms.

TARGET_MESSAGES
Specify whether to report the completion of each target.

This property specifies whether Makefile Generators should add a progress message describing that each
target has been completed. If the property is not set the default is ON. Set the property to OFF to
disable target completion messages.

This option is intended to reduce build output when little or no work needs to be done to bring the build
tree up to date.

If a CMAKE_TARGET_MESSAGES cache entry exists its value initializes the value of this property.

Non-Makefile generators currently ignore this property.

See the counterpart property RULE_MESSAGES to disable everything except for target completion messages.

TARGET_SUPPORTS_SHARED_LIBS
Does the target platform support shared libraries.

TARGET_SUPPORTS_SHARED_LIBS is a boolean specifying whether the target platform supports shared
libraries. Basically all current general general purpose OS do so, the exception are usually embedded
systems with no or special OSs.

USE_FOLDERS
Use the FOLDER target property to organize targets into folders.

If not set, CMake treats this property as OFF by default. CMake generators that are capable of
organizing into a hierarchy of folders use the values of the FOLDER target property to name those
folders. See also the documentation for the FOLDER target property.

XCODE_EMIT_EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME
Control emission of EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME by the Xcode generator.

It is required for building the same target with multiple SDKs. A common use case is the parallel use of
iphoneos and iphonesimulator SDKs.

Three different states possible that control when the Xcode generator emits the EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME
variable:

• If set to ON it will always be emitted

• If set to OFF it will never be emitted

• If unset (the default) it will only be emitted when the project was configured for an embedded Xcode
SDK like iOS, tvOS, watchOS or any of the simulators.

NOTE:
When this behavior is enable for generated Xcode projects, the EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME variable will
leak into Generator expressions like TARGET_FILE and will render those mostly unusable.

PROPERTIES ON DIRECTORIES

ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES
A ;-list of files or directories that will be removed as a part of the global clean target. It is useful
for specifying generated files or directories that are used by multiple targets or by CMake itself, or
that are generated in ways which cannot be captured as outputs or byproducts of custom commands.

If an additional clean file is specific to a single target only, then the ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES target
property would usually be a better choice than this directory property.

Relative paths are allowed and are interpreted relative to the current binary directory.

Contents of ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES may use generator expressions.

This property only works for the Ninja and the Makefile generators. It is ignored by other generators.

BINARY_DIR
This read-only directory property reports absolute path to the binary directory corresponding to the
source on which it is read.

BUILDSYSTEM_TARGETS
This read-only directory property contains a semicolon-separated list of buildsystem targets added in the
directory by calls to the add_library(), add_executable(), and add_custom_target() commands. The list
does not include any Imported Targets or Alias Targets, but does include Interface Libraries. Each entry
in the list is the logical name of a target, suitable to pass to the get_property() command TARGET
option.

CACHE_VARIABLES
List of cache variables available in the current directory.

This read-only property specifies the list of CMake cache variables currently defined. It is intended
for debugging purposes.

CLEAN_NO_CUSTOM
Set to true to tell Makefile Generators not to remove the outputs of custom commands for this directory
during the make clean operation. This is ignored on other generators because it is not possible to
implement.

CMAKE_CONFIGURE_DEPENDS
Tell CMake about additional input files to the configuration process. If any named file is modified the
build system will re-run CMake to re-configure the file and generate the build system again.

Specify files as a semicolon-separated list of paths. Relative paths are interpreted as relative to the
current source directory.

COMPILE_DEFINITIONS
Preprocessor definitions for compiling a directory’s sources.

This property specifies the list of options given so far to the add_compile_definitions() (or
add_definitions()) command.

This property will be initialized in each directory by its value in the directory’s parent.

CMake will automatically drop some definitions that are not supported by the native build tool.

Disclaimer: Most native build tools have poor support for escaping certain values. CMake has
work-arounds for many cases but some values may just not be possible to pass correctly. If a value does
not seem to be escaped correctly, do not attempt to work-around the problem by adding escape sequences to
the value. Your work-around may break in a future version of CMake that has improved escape support.
Instead consider defining the macro in a (configured) header file. Then report the limitation. Known
limitations include:

# - broken almost everywhere
; - broken in VS IDE 7.0 and Borland Makefiles
, - broken in VS IDE
% - broken in some cases in NMake
& | - broken in some cases on MinGW
^ < > \" - broken in most Make tools on Windows

CMake does not reject these values outright because they do work in some cases. Use with caution.

Contents of COMPILE_DEFINITIONS may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.

The corresponding COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_<CONFIG> property may be set to specify per-configuration
definitions. Generator expressions should be preferred instead of setting the alternative property.

COMPILE_OPTIONS
List of options to pass to the compiler.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of options given so far to the add_compile_options()
command.

This property is used to initialize the COMPILE_OPTIONS target property when a target is created, which
is used by the generators to set the options for the compiler.

Contents of COMPILE_OPTIONS may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.

DEFINITIONS
For CMake 2.4 compatibility only. Use COMPILE_DEFINITIONS instead.

This read-only property specifies the list of flags given so far to the add_definitions() command. It is
intended for debugging purposes. Use the COMPILE_DEFINITIONS directory property instead.

This built-in read-only property does not exist if policy CMP0059 is set to NEW.

EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL
Set this directory property to a true value on a subdirectory to exclude its targets from the “all”
target of its ancestors. If excluded, running e.g. make in the parent directory will not build targets
the subdirectory by default. This does not affect the “all” target of the subdirectory itself. Running
e.g. make inside the subdirectory will still build its targets.

If the EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL target property is set on a target then its value determines whether the target
is included in the “all” target of this directory and its ancestors.

IMPLICIT_DEPENDS_INCLUDE_TRANSFORM
Specify #include line transforms for dependencies in a directory.

This property specifies rules to transform macro-like #include lines during implicit dependency scanning
of C and C++ source files. The list of rules must be semicolon-separated with each entry of the form
A_MACRO(%)=value-with-% (the % must be literal). During dependency scanning occurrences of A_MACRO(...)
on #include lines will be replaced by the value given with the macro argument substituted for %. For
example, the entry

MYDIR(%)=<mydir/%>

will convert lines of the form

#include MYDIR(myheader.h)

#include <mydir/myheader.h>

allowing the dependency to be followed.

This property applies to sources in all targets within a directory. The property value is initialized in
each directory by its value in the directory’s parent.

INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
List of preprocessor include file search directories.

This property specifies the list of directories given so far to the include_directories() command.

This property is used to populate the INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES target property, which is used by the
generators to set the include directories for the compiler.

In addition to accepting values from that command, values may be set directly on any directory using the
set_property() command, and can be set on the current directory using the set_directory_properties()
command. A directory gets its initial value from its parent directory if it has one. The initial value
of the INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES target property comes from the value of this property. Both directory and
target property values are adjusted by calls to the include_directories() command. Calls to
set_property() or set_directory_properties(), however, will update the directory property value without
updating target property values. Therefore direct property updates must be made before calls to
add_executable() or add_library() for targets they are meant to affect.

The target property values are used by the generators to set the include paths for the compiler.

Contents of INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.

INCLUDE_REGULAR_EXPRESSION
Include file scanning regular expression.

This property specifies the regular expression used during dependency scanning to match include files
that should be followed. See the include_regular_expression() command for a high-level interface to set
this property.

INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration interprocedural optimization for a directory.

This is a per-configuration version of INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION. If set, this property overrides the
generic property for the named configuration.

INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION
Enable interprocedural optimization for targets in a directory.

If set to true, enables interprocedural optimizations if they are known to be supported by the compiler.

LABELS
Specify a list of text labels associated with a directory and all of its subdirectories. This is
equivalent to setting the LABELS target property and the LABELS test property on all targets and tests in
the current directory and subdirectories. Note: Launchers must enabled to propagate labels to targets.

The CMAKE_DIRECTORY_LABELS variable can be used to initialize this property.

The list is reported in dashboard submissions.

LINK_DIRECTORIES
List of linker search directories.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of directories and is typically populated using the
link_directories() command. It gets its initial value from its parent directory, if it has one.

The directory property is used to initialize the LINK_DIRECTORIES target property when a target is
created. That target property is used by the generators to set the library search directories for the
linker.

Contents of LINK_DIRECTORIES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.

LINK_OPTIONS
List of options to use for the link step of shared library, module and executable targets.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of options given so far to the add_link_options() command.

This property is used to initialize the LINK_OPTIONS target property when a target is created, which is
used by the generators to set the options for the compiler.

Contents of LINK_OPTIONS may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.

LISTFILE_STACK
The current stack of listfiles being processed.

This property is mainly useful when trying to debug errors in your CMake scripts. It returns a list of
what list files are currently being processed, in order. So if one listfile does an include() command
then that is effectively pushing the included listfile onto the stack.

MACROS
List of macro commands available in the current directory.

This read-only property specifies the list of CMake macros currently defined. It is intended for
debugging purposes. See the macro() command.

PARENT_DIRECTORY
Source directory that added current subdirectory.

This read-only property specifies the source directory that added the current source directory as a
subdirectory of the build. In the top-level directory the value is the empty-string.

RULE_LAUNCH_COMPILE
Specify a launcher for compile rules.

See the global property of the same name for details. This overrides the global property for a
directory.

RULE_LAUNCH_CUSTOM
Specify a launcher for custom rules.

See the global property of the same name for details. This overrides the global property for a
directory.

RULE_LAUNCH_LINK
Specify a launcher for link rules.

See the global property of the same name for details. This overrides the global property for a
directory.

SOURCE_DIR
This read-only directory property reports absolute path to the source directory on which it is read.

SUBDIRECTORIES
This read-only directory property contains a semicolon-separated list of subdirectories processed so far
by the add_subdirectory() or subdirs() commands. Each entry is the absolute path to the source directory
(containing the CMakeLists.txt file). This is suitable to pass to the get_property() command DIRECTORY
option.

NOTE:
The subdirs() command does not process its arguments until after the calling directory is fully
processed. Therefore looking up this property in the current directory will not see them.

TESTS
List of tests.

This read-only property holds a semicolon-separated list of tests defined so far, in the current
directory, by the add_test() command.

TEST_INCLUDE_FILES
A list of cmake files that will be included when ctest is run.

If you specify TEST_INCLUDE_FILES, those files will be included and processed when ctest is run on the
directory.

VARIABLES
List of variables defined in the current directory.

This read-only property specifies the list of CMake variables currently defined. It is intended for
debugging purposes.

VS_GLOBAL_SECTION_POST_<section>
Specify a postSolution global section in Visual Studio.

Setting a property like this generates an entry of the following form in the solution file:

GlobalSection(<section>) = postSolution
<contents based on property value>
EndGlobalSection

The property must be set to a semicolon-separated list of key=value pairs. Each such pair will be
transformed into an entry in the solution global section. Whitespace around key and value is ignored.
List elements which do not contain an equal sign are skipped.

This property only works for Visual Studio 9 and above; it is ignored on other generators. The property
only applies when set on a directory whose CMakeLists.txt contains a project() command.

Note that CMake generates postSolution sections ExtensibilityGlobals and ExtensibilityAddIns by default.
If you set the corresponding property, it will override the default section. For example, setting
VS_GLOBAL_SECTION_POST_ExtensibilityGlobals will override the default contents of the
ExtensibilityGlobals section, while keeping ExtensibilityAddIns on its default. However, CMake will
always add a SolutionGuid to the ExtensibilityGlobals section if it is not specified explicitly.

VS_GLOBAL_SECTION_PRE_<section>
Specify a preSolution global section in Visual Studio.

Setting a property like this generates an entry of the following form in the solution file:

GlobalSection(<section>) = preSolution
<contents based on property value>
EndGlobalSection

This property only works for Visual Studio 9 and above; it is ignored on other generators. The property
only applies when set on a directory whose CMakeLists.txt contains a project() command.

VS_STARTUP_PROJECT
Specify the default startup project in a Visual Studio solution.

The Visual Studio Generators create a .sln file for each directory whose CMakeLists.txt file calls the
project() command. Set this property in the same directory as a project() command call (e.g. in the
top-level CMakeLists.txt file) to specify the default startup project for the corresponding solution
file.

The property must be set to the name of an existing target. This will cause that project to be listed
first in the generated solution file causing Visual Studio to make it the startup project if the solution
has never been opened before.

If this property is not specified, then the ALL_BUILD project will be the default.

PROPERTIES ON TARGETS

ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES
A ;-list of files or directories that will be removed as a part of the global clean target. It can be
used to specify files and directories that are generated as part of building the target or that are
directly associated with the target in some way (e.g. created as a result of running the target).

For custom targets, if such files can be captured as outputs or byproducts instead, then that should be
preferred over adding them to this property. If an additional clean file is used by multiple targets or
isn’t target-specific, then the ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES directory property may be the more appropriate
property to use.

Relative paths are allowed and are interpreted relative to the current binary directory.

Contents of ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES may use generator expressions.

This property only works for the Ninja and the Makefile generators. It is ignored by other generators.

ALIASED_TARGET
Name of target aliased by this target.

If this is an Alias Target, this property contains the name of the target aliased.

ANDROID_ANT_ADDITIONAL_OPTIONS
Set the additional options for Android Ant build system. This is a string value containing all command
line options for the Ant build. This property is initialized by the value of the
CMAKE_ANDROID_ANT_ADDITIONAL_OPTIONS variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_API
When Cross Compiling for Android with NVIDIA Nsight Tegra Visual Studio Edition, this property sets the
Android target API version (e.g. 15). The version number must be a positive decimal integer. This
property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_API variable if it is set when a target is
created.

ANDROID_API_MIN
Set the Android MIN API version (e.g. 9). The version number must be a positive decimal integer. This
property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_API_MIN variable if it is set when a target is
created. Native code builds using this API version.

ANDROID_ARCH
When Cross Compiling for Android with NVIDIA Nsight Tegra Visual Studio Edition, this property sets the
Android target architecture.

This is a string property that could be set to the one of the following values:

• armv7-a: “ARMv7-A (armv7-a)”

• armv7-a-hard: “ARMv7-A, hard-float ABI (armv7-a)”

• arm64-v8a: “ARMv8-A, 64bit (arm64-v8a)”

• x86: “x86 (x86)”

• x86_64: “x86_64 (x86_64)”

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_ARCH variable if it is set when a target
is created.

ANDROID_ASSETS_DIRECTORIES
Set the Android assets directories to copy into the main assets folder before build. This a string
property that contains the directory paths separated by semicolon. This property is initialized by the
value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_ASSETS_DIRECTORIES variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_GUI
When Cross Compiling for Android with NVIDIA Nsight Tegra Visual Studio Edition, this property specifies
whether to build an executable as an application package on Android.

When this property is set to true the executable when built for Android will be created as an application
package. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_GUI variable if it is set when a
target is created.

Add the AndroidManifest.xml source file explicitly to the target add_executable() command invocation to
specify the root directory of the application package source.

ANDROID_JAR_DEPENDENCIES
Set the Android property that specifies JAR dependencies. This is a string value property. This property
is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_JAR_DEPENDENCIES variable if it is set when a target is
created.

ANDROID_JAR_DIRECTORIES
Set the Android property that specifies directories to search for the JAR libraries.

This a string property that contains the directory paths separated by semicolons. This property is
initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_JAR_DIRECTORIES variable if it is set when a target is
created.

Contents of ANDROID_JAR_DIRECTORIES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.

ANDROID_JAVA_SOURCE_DIR
Set the Android property that defines the Java source code root directories. This a string property that
contains the directory paths separated by semicolon. This property is initialized by the value of the
CMAKE_ANDROID_JAVA_SOURCE_DIR variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DEPENDENCIES
Set the Android property that specifies the .so dependencies. This is a string property.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DEPENDENCIES variable if it is
set when a target is created.

Contents of ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DEPENDENCIES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See
the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.

ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DIRECTORIES
Set the Android property that specifies directories to search for the .so libraries.

This a string property that contains the directory paths separated by semicolons.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DIRECTORIES variable if it is
set when a target is created.

Contents of ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DIRECTORIES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See
the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.

ANDROID_PROCESS_MAX
Set the Android property that defines the maximum number of a parallel Android NDK compiler processes
(e.g. 4). This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_PROCESS_MAX variable if it is
set when a target is created.

ANDROID_PROGUARD
When this property is set to true that enables the ProGuard tool to shrink, optimize, and obfuscate the
code by removing unused code and renaming classes, fields, and methods with semantically obscure names.
This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_PROGUARD variable if it is set when a
target is created.

ANDROID_PROGUARD_CONFIG_PATH
Set the Android property that specifies the location of the ProGuard config file. Leave empty to use the
default one. This a string property that contains the path to ProGuard config file. This property is
initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_PROGUARD_CONFIG_PATH variable if it is set when a target is
created.

ANDROID_SECURE_PROPS_PATH
Set the Android property that states the location of the secure properties file. This is a string
property that contains the file path. This property is initialized by the value of the
CMAKE_ANDROID_SECURE_PROPS_PATH variable if it is set when a target is created.

ANDROID_SKIP_ANT_STEP
Set the Android property that defines whether or not to skip the Ant build step. This is a boolean
property initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_SKIP_ANT_STEP variable if it is set when a target
is created.

ANDROID_STL_TYPE
When Cross Compiling for Android with NVIDIA Nsight Tegra Visual Studio Edition, this property specifies
the type of STL support for the project. This is a string property that could set to the one of the
following values:

none No C++ Support

system Minimal C++ without STL

gabi++_static
GAbi++ Static

gabi++_shared
GAbi++ Shared

gnustl_static
GNU libstdc++ Static

gnustl_shared
GNU libstdc++ Shared

stlport_static
STLport Static

stlport_shared
STLport Shared

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_ANDROID_STL_TYPE variable if it is set when a
target is created.

ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration output directory for ARCHIVE target files.

This is a per-configuration version of the ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY target property, but
multi-configuration generators (VS, Xcode) do NOT append a per-configuration subdirectory to the
specified directory. This property is initialized by the value of the
CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> variable if it is set when a target is created.

Contents of ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> may use generator expressions.

ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
Output directory in which to build ARCHIVE target files.

This property specifies the directory into which archive target files should be built. The property
value may use generator expressions. Multi-configuration generators (VS, Xcode) append a
per-configuration subdirectory to the specified directory unless a generator expression is used.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY if it is set
when a target is created.

See also the ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> target property.

ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration output name for ARCHIVE target files.

This is the configuration-specific version of the ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_NAME target property.

ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_NAME
Output name for ARCHIVE target files.

This property specifies the base name for archive target files. It overrides OUTPUT_NAME and
OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG> properties.

See also the ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG> target property.

AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR
Directory where AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC generate files for the target.

The directory is created on demand and automatically added to the ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES target property.

When unset or empty the directory <dir>/<target-name>_autogen is used where <dir> is
CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR and <target-name> is NAME.

By default AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR is unset.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS
Switch for forwarding origin target dependencies to the corresponding _autogen target.

Targets which have their AUTOMOC or AUTOUIC property ON have a corresponding _autogen target which
generates moc and uic files. As this _autogen target is created at generate-time, it is not possible to
define dependencies of it using e.g. add_dependencies(). Instead the AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS target
property decides whether the origin target dependencies should be forwarded to the _autogen target or
not.

By default AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS is initialized from CMAKE_AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS which is ON by
default.

In total the dependencies of the _autogen target are composed from

• forwarded origin target dependencies (enabled by default via AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS)

• additional user defined dependencies from AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

Note
Disabling AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS is useful to avoid building of origin target dependencies when building
the _autogen target only. This is especially interesting when a global autogen target is enabled.

When the _autogen target doesn’t require all the origin target’s dependencies, and AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS
is disabled, it might be necessary to extend AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS to add missing dependencies.

AUTOGEN_PARALLEL
Number of parallel moc or uic processes to start when using AUTOMOC and AUTOUIC.

The custom <origin>_autogen target starts a number of threads of which each one parses a source file and
on demand starts a moc or uic process. AUTOGEN_PARALLEL controls how many parallel threads (and
therefore moc or uic processes) are started.

• An empty (or unset) value or the string AUTO sets the number of threads/processes to the number of
physical CPUs on the host system.

• A positive non zero integer value sets the exact thread/process count.

• Otherwise a single thread/process is started.

By default AUTOGEN_PARALLEL is initialized from CMAKE_AUTOGEN_PARALLEL.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS
Additional target dependencies of the corresponding _autogen target.

Targets which have their AUTOMOC or AUTOUIC property ON have a corresponding _autogen target which
generates moc and uic files. As this _autogen target is created at generate-time, it is not possible to
define dependencies of it using e.g. add_dependencies(). Instead the AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS target
property can be set to a ;-list of additional dependencies for the _autogen target. Dependencies can be
target names or file names.

In total the dependencies of the _autogen target are composed from

• forwarded origin target dependencies (enabled by default via AUTOGEN_ORIGIN_DEPENDS)

• additional user defined dependencies from AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

Use cases
If AUTOMOC or AUTOUIC depends on a file that is either

• a GENERATED non C++ file (e.g. a GENERATED .json or .ui file) or

• a GENERATED C++ file that isn’t recognized by AUTOMOC and AUTOUIC because it’s skipped by SKIP_AUTOMOC,
SKIP_AUTOUIC, SKIP_AUTOGEN or CMP0071 or

• a file that isn’t in the origin target’s sources

it must added to AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS.

AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES
Boolean value used by AUTOMOC to determine if the compiler pre definitions file moc_predefs.h should be
generated.

CMake generates a moc_predefs.h file with compiler pre definitions from the output of the command defined
in CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_PREDEFINES_COMMAND when

• AUTOMOC is enabled,

• AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES is enabled,

• CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_PREDEFINES_COMMAND isn’t empty and

• the Qt version is greater or equal 5.8.

The moc_predefs.h file, which is generated in AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR, is passed to moc as the argument to the
--include option.

By default AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES is initialized from CMAKE_AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES, which is ON
by default.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS
Filter definitions used by AUTOMOC to extract file names from a source file that are registered as
additional dependencies for the moc file of the source file.

Filters are defined as KEYWORD;REGULAR_EXPRESSION pairs. First the file content is searched for KEYWORD.
If it is found at least once, then file names are extracted by successively searching for
REGULAR_EXPRESSION and taking the first match group.

The file name found in the first match group is searched for

• first in the vicinity of the source file

• and afterwards in the target’s INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.

If any of the extracted files changes, then the moc file for the source file gets rebuilt even when the
source file itself doesn’t change.

If any of the extracted files is GENERATED or if it is not in the target’s sources, then it might be
necessary to add it to the _autogen target dependencies. See AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS for reference.

By default AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS is initialized from CMAKE_AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS, which is empty by
default.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

Example 1
A header file my_class.hpp uses a custom macro JSON_FILE_MACRO which is defined in an other header
macros.hpp. We want the moc file of my_class.hpp to depend on the file name argument of JSON_FILE_MACRO:

// my_class.hpp
class My_Class : public QObject
{
Q_OBJECT
JSON_FILE_MACRO ( "info.json" )
...
};

In CMakeLists.txt we add a filter to CMAKE_AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS like this:

list( APPEND CMAKE_AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS
"JSON_FILE_MACRO"
"[\n][ \t]*JSON_FILE_MACRO[ \t]*\\([ \t]*\"([^\"]+)\""
)

We assume info.json is a plain (not GENERATED) file that is listed in the target’s source. Therefore we
do not need to add it to AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS.

Example 2
In the target my_target a header file complex_class.hpp uses a custom macro JSON_BASED_CLASS which is
defined in an other header macros.hpp:

// macros.hpp
...
#define JSON_BASED_CLASS(name, json) \
class name : public QObject \
{ \
Q_OBJECT \
Q_PLUGIN_METADATA(IID "demo" FILE json) \
name() {} \
};
...

// complex_class.hpp
#pragma once
JSON_BASED_CLASS(Complex_Class, "meta.json")
// end of file

Since complex_class.hpp doesn’t contain a Q_OBJECT macro it would be ignored by AUTOMOC. We change this
by adding JSON_BASED_CLASS to CMAKE_AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES:

list(APPEND CMAKE_AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES "JSON_BASED_CLASS")

We want the moc file of complex_class.hpp to depend on meta.json. So we add a filter to
CMAKE_AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS:

list(APPEND CMAKE_AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS
"JSON_BASED_CLASS"
"[\n^][ \t]*JSON_BASED_CLASS[ \t]*\\([^,]*,[ \t]*\"([^\"]+)\""
)

Additionally we assume meta.json is GENERATED which is why we have to add it to AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS:

set_property(TARGET my_target APPEND PROPERTY AUTOGEN_TARGET_DEPENDS "meta.json")

AUTOMOC_EXECUTABLE
AUTOMOC_EXECUTABLE is file path pointing to the moc executable to use for AUTOMOC enabled files. Setting
this property will make CMake skip the automatic detection of the moc binary as well as the sanity-tests
normally run to ensure that the binary is available and working as expected.

Usually this property does not need to be set. Only consider this property if auto-detection of moc can
not work – e.g. because you are building the moc binary as part of your project.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES
A semicolon-separated list list of macro names used by AUTOMOC to determine if a C++ file needs to be
processed by moc.

This property is only used if the AUTOMOC property is ON for this target.

When running AUTOMOC, CMake searches for the strings listed in AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES in C++ source and
header files. If any of the strings is found

• as the first non space string on a new line or

• as the first non space string after a { on a new line,

then the file will be processed by moc.

By default AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES is initialized from CMAKE_AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

Example
In this case the Q_OBJECT macro is hidden inside another macro called CUSTOM_MACRO. To let CMake know
that source files that contain CUSTOM_MACRO need to be moc processed, we call:

set_property(TARGET tgt APPEND PROPERTY AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES "CUSTOM_MACRO")

AUTOMOC_MOC_OPTIONS
Additional options for moc when using AUTOMOC

This property is only used if the AUTOMOC property is ON for this target. In this case, it holds
additional command line options which will be used when moc is executed during the build, i.e. it is
equivalent to the optional OPTIONS argument of the qt4_wrap_cpp() macro.

By default it is empty.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOMOC_PATH_PREFIX
When this property is ON, CMake will generate the -p path prefix option for moc on AUTOMOC enabled Qt
targets.

To generate the path prefix, CMake tests if the header compiled by moc is in any of the target include
directories. If so, CMake will compute the relative path accordingly. If the header is not in the
include directories, CMake will omit the -p path prefix option. moc usually generates a relative include
path in that case.

AUTOMOC_PATH_PREFIX is initialized from the variable CMAKE_AUTOMOC_PATH_PREFIX, which is ON by default.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

Reproducible builds
For reproducible builds is is recommended to keep headers that are moc compiled in one of the target
include directories and set AUTOMOC_PATH_PREFIX to ON (which is the default). This ensures that

• moc output files are identical on different build setups,

• moc output files will compile correctly when the source and/or build directory is a symbolic link.

AUTOMOC
Should the target be processed with auto-moc (for Qt projects).

AUTOMOC is a boolean specifying whether CMake will handle the Qt moc preprocessor automatically, i.e.
without having to use the QT4_WRAP_CPP() or QT5_WRAP_CPP() macro. Currently Qt4 and Qt5 are supported.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AUTOMOC variable if it is set when a target is
created.

When this property is set ON, CMake will scan the header and source files at build time and invoke moc
accordingly.

Header file processing
At configuration time, a list of header files that should be scanned by AUTOMOC is computed from the
target’s sources.

• All header files in the target’s sources are added to the scan list.

• For all C++ source files <source_base>.<source_extension> in the target’s sources, CMake searches for

• a regular header with the same base name (<source_base>.<header_extention>) and

• a private header with the same base name and a _p suffix (<source_base>_p.<header_extention>)

and adds these to the scan list.

At build time, CMake scans each unknown or modified header file from the list and searches for

• a Qt macro from AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES,

• additional file dependencies from the FILE argument of a Q_PLUGIN_METADATA macro and

• additional file dependencies detected by filters defined in AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS.

If a Qt macro is found, then the header will be compiled by the moc to the output file
moc_<base_name>.cpp. The complete output file path is described in the section Output file location.

The header will be moc compiled again if a file from the additional file dependencies changes.

Header moc output files moc_<base_name>.cpp can be included in source files. In the section Including
header moc files in sources there is more information on that topic.

Source file processing
At build time, CMake scans each unknown or modified C++ source file from the target’s sources for

• a Qt macro from AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES,

• includes of header moc files (see Including header moc files in sources),

• additional file dependencies from the FILE argument of a Q_PLUGIN_METADATA macro and

• additional file dependencies detected by filters defined in AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS.

If a Qt macro is found, then the C++ source file <base>.<source_extension> is expected to as well contain
an include statement

#include <<base>.moc> // or
#include "<base>.moc"

The source file then will be compiled by the moc to the output file <base>.moc. A description of the
complete output file path is in section Output file location.

The source will be moc compiled again if a file from the additional file dependencies changes.

Including header moc files in sources
A source file can include the moc output file of a header <header_base>.<header_extension> by using an
include statement of the form

#include <moc_<header_base>.cpp> // or
#include "moc_<header_base>.cpp"

If the moc output file of a header is included by a source, it will be generated in a different location
than if it was not included. This is described in the section Output file location.

Output file location
Included moc output files
moc output files that are included by a source file will be generated in

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/include for single configuration generators or in

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/include_<CONFIG> for multi configuration generators.

Where <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR> is the value of the target property AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR.

The include directory is automatically added to the target’s INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.

Not included moc output files
moc output files that are not included in a source file will be generated in

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/<SOURCE_DIR_CHECKSUM> for single configuration generators or in,

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/include_<CONFIG>/<SOURCE_DIR_CHECKSUM> for multi configuration generators.

Where <SOURCE_DIR_CHECKSUM> is a checksum computed from the relative parent directory path of the moc
input file. This scheme allows to have moc input files with the same name in different directories.

All not included moc output files will be included automatically by the CMake generated file

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/mocs_compilation.cpp,

which is added to the target’s sources.

Qt version detection
AUTOMOC enabled targets need to know the Qt major and minor version they’re working with. The major
version usually is provided by the INTERFACE_QT_MAJOR_VERSION property of the Qt[45]Core library, that
the target links to. To find the minor version, CMake builds a list of available Qt versions from

• Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR and Qt5Core_VERSION_MINOR variables (usually set by find_package(Qt5...))

• Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR and Qt5Core_VERSION_MINOR directory properties

• QT_VERSION_MAJOR and QT_VERSION_MINOR variables (usually set by find_package(Qt4...))

• QT_VERSION_MAJOR and QT_VERSION_MINOR directory properties

in the context of the add_executable() or add_library() call.

Assumed INTERFACE_QT_MAJOR_VERSION is a valid number, the first entry in the list with a matching major
version is taken. If no matching major version was found, an error is generated. If
INTERFACE_QT_MAJOR_VERSION is not a valid number, the first entry in the list is taken.

A find_package(Qt[45]...) call sets the QT/Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR/MINOR variables. If the call is in a
different context than the add_executable() or add_library() call, e.g. in a function, then the version
variables might not be available to the AUTOMOC enabled target. In that case the version variables can
be forwarded from the find_package(Qt[45]…) calling context to the add_executable() or add_library()
calling context as directory properties. The following Qt5 example demonstrates the procedure.

function (add_qt5_client)
find_package(Qt5 REQUIRED QUIET COMPONENTS Core Widgets)
...
set_property(DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}"
PROPERTY Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR "${Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR}")
set_property(DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}"
PROPERTY Qt5Core_VERSION_MINOR "${Qt5Core_VERSION_MAJOR}")
...
endfunction ()
...
add_qt5_client()
add_executable(myTarget main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(myTarget Qt5::QtWidgets)
set_property(TARGET myTarget PROPERTY AUTOMOC ON)

Modifiers
AUTOMOC_EXECUTABLE: The moc executable will be detected automatically, but can be forced to a certain
binary using this target property.

AUTOMOC_MOC_OPTIONS: Additional command line options for moc can be set in this target property.

AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES: This list of Qt macro names can be extended to search for additional macros in
headers and sources.

AUTOMOC_DEPEND_FILTERS: moc dependency file names can be extracted from headers or sources by defining
file name filters in this target property.

AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES: Compiler pre definitions for moc are written to the moc_predefs.h file. The
generation of this file can be enabled or disabled in this target property.

SKIP_AUTOMOC: Sources and headers can be excluded from AUTOMOC processing by setting this source file
property.

SKIP_AUTOGEN: Source files can be excluded from AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC processing by setting this
source file property.

AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP: This global property can be used to group files generated by AUTOMOC or AUTORCC
together in an IDE, e.g. in MSVS.

AUTOGEN_TARGETS_FOLDER: This global property can be used to group AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC targets
together in an IDE, e.g. in MSVS.

CMAKE_GLOBAL_AUTOGEN_TARGET: A global autogen target, that depends on all AUTOMOC or AUTOUIC generated
<ORIGIN>_autogen targets in the project, will be generated when this variable is ON.

AUTOGEN_PARALLEL: This target property controls the number of moc or uic processes to start in parallel
during builds.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOUIC
Should the target be processed with auto-uic (for Qt projects).

AUTOUIC is a boolean specifying whether CMake will handle the Qt uic code generator automatically, i.e.
without having to use the QT4_WRAP_UI() or QT5_WRAP_UI() macro. Currently Qt4 and Qt5 are supported.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AUTOUIC variable if it is set when a target is
created.

When this property is ON, CMake will scan the header and source files at build time and invoke uic
accordingly.

Header and source file processing
At build time, CMake scans each header and source file from the target’s sources for include statements
of the form

#include "ui_<ui_base>.h"

Once such an include statement is found in a file, CMake searches for the uic input file <ui_base>.ui

• in the vicinity of the file and

• in the AUTOUIC_SEARCH_PATHS of the target.

If the <ui_base>.ui file was found, uic is called on it to generate ui_<ui_base>.h in the directory

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/include for single configuration generators or in

• <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR>/include_<CONFIG> for multi configuration generators.

Where <AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR> is the value of the target property AUTOGEN_BUILD_DIR.

The include directory is automatically added to the target’s INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.

Modifiers
AUTOUIC_EXECUTABLE: The uic executable will be detected automatically, but can be forced to a certain
binary using this target property.

AUTOUIC_OPTIONS: Additional command line options for uic can be set via this source file property on a
<base_name>.ui file.

SKIP_AUTOUIC: Source files can be excluded from AUTOUIC processing by setting this source file property.

SKIP_AUTOGEN: Source files can be excluded from AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC processing by setting this
source file property.

AUTOGEN_TARGETS_FOLDER: This global property can be used to group AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC targets
together in an IDE, e.g. in MSVS.

CMAKE_GLOBAL_AUTOGEN_TARGET: A global autogen target, that depends on all AUTOMOC or AUTOUIC generated
<ORIGIN>_autogen targets in the project, will be generated when this variable is ON.

AUTOGEN_PARALLEL: This target property controls the number of moc or uic processes to start in parallel
during builds.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOUIC_EXECUTABLE
AUTOUIC_EXECUTABLE is file path pointing to the uic executable to use for AUTOUIC enabled files. Setting
this property will make CMake skip the automatic detection of the uic binary as well as the sanity-tests
normally run to ensure that the binary is available and working as expected.

Usually this property does not need to be set. Only consider this property if auto-detection of uic can
not work – e.g. because you are building the uic binary as part of your project.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTOUIC_OPTIONS
Additional options for uic when using AUTOUIC

This property holds additional command line options which will be used when uic is executed during the
build via AUTOUIC, i.e. it is equivalent to the optional OPTIONS argument of the qt4_wrap_ui() macro.

By default it is empty.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AUTOUIC_OPTIONS variable if it is set when a
target is created.

The options set on the target may be overridden by AUTOUIC_OPTIONS set on the .ui source file.

This property may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

EXAMPLE
# ...
set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY AUTOUIC_OPTIONS "--no-protection")
# ...

AUTOUIC_SEARCH_PATHS
Search path list used by AUTOUIC to find included .ui files.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AUTOUIC_SEARCH_PATHS variable if it is set when a
target is created. Otherwise it is empty.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTORCC
Should the target be processed with auto-rcc (for Qt projects).

AUTORCC is a boolean specifying whether CMake will handle the Qt rcc code generator automatically, i.e.
without having to use the QT4_ADD_RESOURCES() or QT5_ADD_RESOURCES() macro. Currently Qt4 and Qt5 are
supported.

When this property is ON, CMake will handle .qrc files added as target sources at build time and invoke
rcc accordingly. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AUTORCC variable if it is set
when a target is created.

By default AUTORCC is processed by a custom command. If the .qrc file is GENERATED, a custom target is
used instead.

When there are multiple .qrc files with the same name, CMake will generate unspecified unique output file
names for rcc. Therefore, if Q_INIT_RESOURCE() or Q_CLEANUP_RESOURCE() need to be used, the .qrc file
name must be unique.

Modifiers
AUTORCC_EXECUTABLE: The rcc executable will be detected automatically, but can be forced to a certain
binary by setting this target property.

AUTORCC_OPTIONS: Additional command line options for rcc can be set via this .qrc source file property.

SKIP_AUTORCC: .qrc files can be excluded from AUTORCC processing by setting this source file property.

SKIP_AUTOGEN: Source files can be excluded from AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC processing by setting this
source file property.

AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP: This global property can be used to group files generated by AUTOMOC or AUTORCC
together in an IDE, e.g. in MSVS.

AUTOGEN_TARGETS_FOLDER: This global property can be used to group AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC targets
together in an IDE, e.g. in MSVS.

CMAKE_GLOBAL_AUTORCC_TARGET: A global autorcc target that depends on all AUTORCC targets in the project
will be generated when this variable is ON.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTORCC_EXECUTABLE
AUTORCC_EXECUTABLE is file path pointing to the rcc executable to use for AUTORCC enabled files. Setting
this property will make CMake skip the automatic detection of the rcc binary as well as the sanity-tests
normally run to ensure that the binary is available and working as expected.

Usually this property does not need to be set. Only consider this property if auto-detection of rcc can
not work – e.g. because you are building the rcc binary as part of your project.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

AUTORCC_OPTIONS
Additional options for rcc when using AUTORCC

This property holds additional command line options which will be used when rcc is executed during the
build via AUTORCC, i.e. it is equivalent to the optional OPTIONS argument of the qt4_add_resources()
macro.

By default it is empty.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_AUTORCC_OPTIONS variable if it is set when a
target is created.

The options set on the target may be overridden by AUTORCC_OPTIONS set on the .qrc source file.

See the cmake-qt(7) manual for more information on using CMake with Qt.

EXAMPLE
# ...
set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY AUTORCC_OPTIONS "--compress;9")
# ...

BINARY_DIR
This read-only property reports the value of the CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR variable in the directory in
which the target was defined.

BUILD_RPATH
A semicolon-separated list specifying runtime path (RPATH) entries to add to binaries linked in the build
tree (for platforms that support it). The entries will not be used for binaries in the install tree.
See also the INSTALL_RPATH target property.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_BUILD_RPATH if it is set when a target is
created.

This property supports generator expressions.

BUILD_RPATH_USE_ORIGIN
Whether to use relative paths for the build RPATH.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_BUILD_RPATH_USE_ORIGIN.

On platforms that support runtime paths (RPATH) with the $ORIGIN token, setting this property to TRUE
enables relative paths in the build RPATH for executables and shared libraries that point to shared
libraries in the same build tree.

Normally the build RPATH of a binary contains absolute paths to the directory of each shared library it
links to. The RPATH entries for directories contained within the build tree can be made relative to
enable relocatable builds and to help achieve reproducible builds by omitting the build directory from
the build environment.

This property has no effect on platforms that do not support the $ORIGIN token in RPATH, or when the
CMAKE_SKIP_RPATH variable is set. The runtime path set through the BUILD_RPATH target property is also
unaffected by this property.

BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_NAME_DIR
BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_NAME_DIR is a boolean specifying whether the macOS install_name of a target in the
build tree uses the directory given by INSTALL_NAME_DIR. This setting only applies to targets on macOS.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_NAME_DIR if it is set
when a target is created.

If this property is not set and policy CMP0068 is not NEW, the value of BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_RPATH is used
in its place.

BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_RPATH
BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_RPATH is a boolean specifying whether to link the target in the build tree with the
INSTALL_RPATH. This takes precedence over SKIP_BUILD_RPATH and avoids the need for relinking before
installation.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_RPATH variable if it is set
when a target is created.

If policy CMP0068 is not NEW, this property also controls use of INSTALL_NAME_DIR in the build tree on
macOS. Either way, the BUILD_WITH_INSTALL_NAME_DIR target property takes precedence.

BUNDLE_EXTENSION
The file extension used to name a BUNDLE, a FRAMEWORK, or a MACOSX_BUNDLE target on the macOS and iOS.

The default value is bundle, framework, or app for the respective target types.

BUNDLE
This target is a CFBundle on the macOS.

If a module library target has this property set to true it will be built as a CFBundle when built on the
mac. It will have the directory structure required for a CFBundle and will be suitable to be used for
creating Browser Plugins or other application resources.

C_EXTENSIONS
Boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested.

This property specifies whether compiler specific extensions should be used. For some compilers, this
results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu11 instead of -std=c11 to the compile line. This property is ON
by default. The basic C standard level is controlled by the C_STANDARD target property.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported
compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_C_EXTENSIONS variable if it is set when a target
is created.

C_STANDARD
The C standard whose features are requested to build this target.

This property specifies the C standard whose features are requested to build this target. For some
compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu11 to the compile line. For compilers that have
no notion of a standard level, such as Microsoft Visual C++ before 2015 Update 3, this has no effect.

Supported values are 90, 99 and 11.

If the value requested does not result in a compile flag being added for the compiler in use, a previous
standard flag will be added instead. This means that using:

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY C_STANDARD 11)

with a compiler which does not support -std=gnu11 or an equivalent flag will not result in an error or
warning, but will instead add the -std=gnu99 or -std=gnu90 flag if supported. This “decay” behavior may
be controlled with the C_STANDARD_REQUIRED target property. Additionally, the C_EXTENSIONS target
property may be used to control whether compiler-specific extensions are enabled on a per-target basis.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported
compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_C_STANDARD variable if it is set when a target is
created.

C_STANDARD_REQUIRED
Boolean describing whether the value of C_STANDARD is a requirement.

If this property is set to ON, then the value of the C_STANDARD target property is treated as a
requirement. If this property is OFF or unset, the C_STANDARD target property is treated as optional and
may “decay” to a previous standard if the requested is not available. For compilers that have no notion
of a standard level, such as MSVC, this has no effect.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported
compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_C_STANDARD_REQUIRED variable if it is set when a
target is created.

COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME
By setting this target property, the target is configured to build with C++/CLI support.

The Visual Studio generator defines the clr parameter depending on the value of COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME:

• property not set: native C++ (i.e. default)

• property set but empty: mixed unmanaged/managed C++

• property set to any non empty value: managed C++

Supported values: "", "pure", "safe"

This property is only evaluated Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above.

To be able to build managed C++ targets with VS 2017 and above the component C++/CLI support must be
installed, which may not be done by default.

See also IMPORTED_COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME

COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_BOOL
Properties which must be compatible with their link interface

The COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_BOOL property may contain a list of properties for this target which must be
consistent when evaluated as a boolean with the INTERFACE variant of the property in all linked
dependees. For example, if a property FOO appears in the list, then for each dependee, the INTERFACE_FOO
property content in all of its dependencies must be consistent with each other, and with the FOO property
in the depender.

Consistency in this sense has the meaning that if the property is set, then it must have the same boolean
value as all others, and if the property is not set, then it is ignored.

Note that for each dependee, the set of properties specified in this property must not intersect with the
set specified in any of the other Compatible Interface Properties.

COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_NUMBER_MAX
Properties whose maximum value from the link interface will be used.

The COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_NUMBER_MAX property may contain a list of properties for this target whose
maximum value may be read at generate time when evaluated in the INTERFACE variant of the property in all
linked dependees. For example, if a property FOO appears in the list, then for each dependee, the
INTERFACE_FOO property content in all of its dependencies will be compared with each other and with the
FOO property in the depender. When reading the FOO property at generate time, the maximum value will be
returned. If the property is not set, then it is ignored.

Note that for each dependee, the set of properties specified in this property must not intersect with the
set specified in any of the other Compatible Interface Properties.

COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_NUMBER_MIN
Properties whose maximum value from the link interface will be used.

The COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_NUMBER_MIN property may contain a list of properties for this target whose
minimum value may be read at generate time when evaluated in the INTERFACE variant of the property of all
linked dependees. For example, if a property FOO appears in the list, then for each dependee, the
INTERFACE_FOO property content in all of its dependencies will be compared with each other and with the
FOO property in the depender. When reading the FOO property at generate time, the minimum value will be
returned. If the property is not set, then it is ignored.

Note that for each dependee, the set of properties specified in this property must not intersect with the
set specified in any of the other Compatible Interface Properties.

COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_STRING
Properties which must be string-compatible with their link interface

The COMPATIBLE_INTERFACE_STRING property may contain a list of properties for this target which must be
the same when evaluated as a string in the INTERFACE variant of the property all linked dependees. For
example, if a property FOO appears in the list, then for each dependee, the INTERFACE_FOO property
content in all of its dependencies must be equal with each other, and with the FOO property in the
depender. If the property is not set, then it is ignored.

Note that for each dependee, the set of properties specified in this property must not intersect with the
set specified in any of the other Compatible Interface Properties.

COMPILE_DEFINITIONS
Preprocessor definitions for compiling a target’s sources.

CMake will automatically drop some definitions that are not supported by the native build tool.

CMake does not reject these values outright because they do work in some cases. Use with caution.

The corresponding COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_<CONFIG> property may be set to specify per-configuration
definitions. Generator expressions should be preferred instead of setting the alternative property.

COMPILE_FEATURES
Compiler features enabled for this target.

The list of features in this property are a subset of the features listed in the
CMAKE_CXX_COMPILE_FEATURES variable.

Contents of COMPILE_FEATURES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-compile-features(7)
manual for information on compile features and a list of supported compilers.

COMPILE_FLAGS
Additional flags to use when compiling this target’s sources.

The COMPILE_FLAGS property sets additional compiler flags used to build sources within the target. Use
COMPILE_DEFINITIONS to pass additional preprocessor definitions.

This property is deprecated. Use the COMPILE_OPTIONS property or the target_compile_options() command
instead.

COMPILE_OPTIONS
List of options to pass to the compiler.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of options specified so far for its target. Use the
target_compile_options() command to append more options.

This property is initialized by the COMPILE_OPTIONS directory property when a target is created, and is
used by the generators to set the options for the compiler.

COMPILE_PDB_NAME
Output name for the MS debug symbol .pdb file generated by the compiler while building source files.

This property specifies the base name for the debug symbols file. If not set, the default is
unspecified.

NOTE:
The compiler-generated program database files are specified by the /Fd compiler flag and are not the
same as linker-generated program database files specified by the /pdb linker flag. Use the PDB_NAME
property to specify the latter.

COMPILE_PDB_NAME_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration output name for the MS debug symbol .pdb file generated by the compiler while building
source files.

This is the configuration-specific version of COMPILE_PDB_NAME.

COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
Output directory for the MS debug symbol .pdb file generated by the compiler while building source files.

This property specifies the directory into which the MS debug symbols will be placed by the compiler.
This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY variable if it is set
when a target is created.

COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration output directory for the MS debug symbol .pdb file generated by the compiler while
building source files.

This is a per-configuration version of COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, but multi-configuration generators
(Visual Studio, Xcode) do NOT append a per-configuration subdirectory to the specified directory. This
property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> variable if it is
set when a target is created.

<CONFIG>_OUTPUT_NAME
Old per-configuration target file base name. Use OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG> instead.

This is a configuration-specific version of the OUTPUT_NAME target property.

<CONFIG>_POSTFIX
Postfix to append to the target file name for configuration <CONFIG>.

When building with configuration <CONFIG> the value of this property is appended to the target file name
built on disk. For non-executable targets, this property is initialized by the value of the variable
CMAKE_<CONFIG>_POSTFIX if it is set when a target is created. This property is ignored on the Mac for
Frameworks and App Bundles.

CROSSCOMPILING_EMULATOR
Use the given emulator to run executables created when crosscompiling. This command will be added as a
prefix to add_test(), add_custom_command(), and add_custom_target() commands for built target system
executables.

If this property contains a semicolon-separated list, then the first value is the command and remaining
values are its arguments.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING_EMULATOR variable if it is set when
a target is created.

CUDA_PTX_COMPILATION
Compile CUDA sources to .ptx files instead of .obj files within Object Libraries.

For example:

add_library(myptx OBJECT a.cu b.cu)
set_property(TARGET myptx PROPERTY CUDA_PTX_COMPILATION ON)

CUDA_SEPARABLE_COMPILATION
CUDA only: Enables separate compilation of device code

If set this will enable separable compilation for all CUDA files for the given target.

For instance:

set_property(TARGET myexe PROPERTY CUDA_SEPARABLE_COMPILATION ON)

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CUDA_SEPARABLE_COMPILATION variable if it is set
when a target is created.

CUDA_RESOLVE_DEVICE_SYMBOLS
CUDA only: Enables device linking for the specific library target where required.

If set, this will tell the required compilers to enable device linking on the library target. Device
linking is an additional link step required by some CUDA compilers when CUDA_SEPARABLE_COMPILATION is
enabled. Normally device linking is deferred until a shared library or executable is generated, allowing
for multiple static libraries to resolve device symbols at the same time when they are used by a shared
library or executable.

By default static library targets have this property is disabled, while shared, module, and executable
targets have this property enabled.

Note that device linking is not supported for Object Libraries.

For instance:

set_property(TARGET mystaticlib PROPERTY CUDA_RESOLVE_DEVICE_SYMBOLS ON)

CUDA_EXTENSIONS
Boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested.

This property specifies whether compiler specific extensions should be used. For some compilers, this
results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu++11 instead of -std=c++11 to the compile line. This property
is ON by default. The basic CUDA/C++ standard level is controlled by the CUDA_STANDARD target property.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported
compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CUDA_EXTENSIONS variable if it is set when a
target is created.

CUDA_STANDARD
The CUDA/C++ standard whose features are requested to build this target.

This property specifies the CUDA/C++ standard whose features are requested to build this target. For
some compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu++11 to the compile line.

Supported values are 98, 11, 14.

If the value requested does not result in a compile flag being added for the compiler in use, a previous
standard flag will be added instead. This means that using:

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY CUDA_STANDARD 11)

with a compiler which does not support -std=gnu++11 or an equivalent flag will not result in an error or
warning, but will instead add the -std=gnu++98 flag if supported. This “decay” behavior may be
controlled with the CUDA_STANDARD_REQUIRED target property. Additionally, the CUDA_EXTENSIONS target
property may be used to control whether compiler-specific extensions are enabled on a per-target basis.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported
compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CUDA_STANDARD variable if it is set when a target
is created.

CUDA_STANDARD_REQUIRED
Boolean describing whether the value of CUDA_STANDARD is a requirement.

If this property is set to ON, then the value of the CUDA_STANDARD target property is treated as a
requirement. If this property is OFF or unset, the CUDA_STANDARD target property is treated as optional
and may “decay” to a previous standard if the requested is not available. For compilers that have no
notion of a standard level, such as MSVC, this has no effect.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported
compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CUDA_STANDARD_REQUIRED variable if it is set when
a target is created.

CXX_EXTENSIONS
Boolean specifying whether compiler specific extensions are requested.

This property specifies whether compiler specific extensions should be used. For some compilers, this
results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu++11 instead of -std=c++11 to the compile line. This property
is ON by default. The basic C++ standard level is controlled by the CXX_STANDARD target property.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported
compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CXX_EXTENSIONS variable if it is set when a target
is created.

CXX_STANDARD
The C++ standard whose features are requested to build this target.

This property specifies the C++ standard whose features are requested to build this target. For some
compilers, this results in adding a flag such as -std=gnu++11 to the compile line. For compilers that
have no notion of a standard level, such as Microsoft Visual C++ before 2015 Update 3, this has no
effect.

Supported values are 98, 11, 14, 17, and 20.

If the value requested does not result in a compile flag being added for the compiler in use, a previous
standard flag will be added instead. This means that using:

set_property(TARGET tgt PROPERTY CXX_STANDARD 11)

with a compiler which does not support -std=gnu++11 or an equivalent flag will not result in an error or
warning, but will instead add the -std=gnu++98 flag if supported. This “decay” behavior may be
controlled with the CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED target property. Additionally, the CXX_EXTENSIONS target
property may be used to control whether compiler-specific extensions are enabled on a per-target basis.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported
compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD variable if it is set when a target
is created.

CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED
Boolean describing whether the value of CXX_STANDARD is a requirement.

If this property is set to ON, then the value of the CXX_STANDARD target property is treated as a
requirement. If this property is OFF or unset, the CXX_STANDARD target property is treated as optional
and may “decay” to a previous standard if the requested is not available. For compilers that have no
notion of a standard level, such as MSVC, this has no effect.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported
compilers.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED variable if it is set when a
target is created.

DEBUG_POSTFIX
See target property <CONFIG>_POSTFIX.

This property is a special case of the more-general <CONFIG>_POSTFIX property for the DEBUG
configuration.

DEFINE_SYMBOL
Define a symbol when compiling this target’s sources.

DEFINE_SYMBOL sets the name of the preprocessor symbol defined when compiling sources in a shared
library. If not set here then it is set to target_EXPORTS by default (with some substitutions if the
target is not a valid C identifier). This is useful for headers to know whether they are being included
from inside their library or outside to properly setup dllexport/dllimport decorations.

DEPLOYMENT_REMOTE_DIRECTORY
Set the WinCE project RemoteDirectory in DeploymentTool and RemoteExecutable in DebuggerTool in .vcproj
files generated by the Visual Studio 9 2008 generator. This is useful when you want to debug on remote
WinCE device. For example:

set_property(TARGET ${TARGET} PROPERTY
DEPLOYMENT_REMOTE_DIRECTORY "\\FlashStorage")

produces:

DEPLOYMENT_ADDITIONAL_FILES
Set the WinCE project AdditionalFiles in DeploymentTool in .vcproj files generated by the Visual Studio 9
2008 generator. This is useful when you want to debug on remote WinCE device. Specify additional files
that will be copied to the device. For example:

set_property(TARGET ${TARGET} PROPERTY
DEPLOYMENT_ADDITIONAL_FILES "english.lng|local_folder|remote_folder|0"
"german.lng|local_folder|remote_folder|0")

produces:

DISABLE_PRECOMPILE_HEADERS
Disables the precompilation of header files specified by PRECOMPILE_HEADERS property.

If the property is not set, CMake will use the value provided by CMAKE_DISABLE_PRECOMPILE_HEADERS.

DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK_VERSION
Specify the .NET target framework version.

Used to specify the .NET target framework version for C++/CLI. For example: v4.5.

This property is only evaluated for Visual Studio Generators VS 2010 and above.

Can be initialized for all targets using the variable CMAKE_DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK_VERSION.

EchoString
A message to be displayed when the target is built.

A message to display on some generators (such as Makefile Generators) when the target is built.

ENABLE_EXPORTS
Specify whether an executable exports symbols for loadable modules.

Normally an executable does not export any symbols because it is the final program. It is possible for
an executable to export symbols to be used by loadable modules. When this property is set to true CMake
will allow other targets to “link” to the executable with the target_link_libraries() command. On all
platforms a target-level dependency on the executable is created for targets that link to it. Handling
of the executable on the link lines of the loadable modules varies by platform:

• On Windows-based systems (including Cygwin) an “import library” is created along with the executable to
list the exported symbols. Loadable modules link to the import library to get the symbols.

• On macOS, loadable modules link to the executable itself using the -bundle_loader flag.

• On AIX, a linker “import file” is created along with the executable to list the exported symbols for
import when linking other targets. Loadable modules link to the import file to get the symbols.

• On other platforms, loadable modules are simply linked without referencing the executable since the
dynamic loader will automatically bind symbols when the module is loaded.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_ENABLE_EXPORTS if it is set when a target
is created.

EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL
Set this target property to a true (or false) value to exclude (or include) the target from the “all”
target of the containing directory and its ancestors. If excluded, running e.g. make in the containing
directory or its ancestors will not build the target by default.

If this target property is not set then the target will be included in the “all” target of the containing
directory. Furthermore, it will be included in the “all” target of its ancestor directories unless the
EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL directory property is set.

With EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL set to false or not set at all, the target will be brought up to date as part of
doing a make install or its equivalent for the CMake generator being used. If a target has
EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL set to true, then any attempt to install that target has undefined behavior. Note that
such a target can still safely be listed in an install(TARGETS) command as long as the install components
the target belongs to are not part of the set of components that anything tries to install.

EXCLUDE_FROM_DEFAULT_BUILD_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration version of target exclusion from Build Solution.

This is the configuration-specific version of EXCLUDE_FROM_DEFAULT_BUILD. If the generic
EXCLUDE_FROM_DEFAULT_BUILD is also set on a target, EXCLUDE_FROM_DEFAULT_BUILD_<CONFIG> takes precedence
in configurations for which it has a value.

EXCLUDE_FROM_DEFAULT_BUILD
Exclude target from Build Solution.

This property is only used by Visual Studio generators. When set to TRUE, the target will not be built
when you press Build Solution.

EXPORT_NAME
Exported name for target files.

This sets the name for the IMPORTED target generated by the install(EXPORT) and export() commands. If
not set, the logical target name is used by default.

EXPORT_PROPERTIES
List additional properties to export for a target.

This property contains a list of property names that should be exported by the install(EXPORT) and
export() commands. By default only a limited number of properties are exported. This property can be
used to additionally export other properties as well.

Properties starting with INTERFACE_ or IMPORTED_ are not allowed as they are reserved for internal CMake
use.

Properties containing generator expressions are also not allowed.

FOLDER
Set the folder name. Use to organize targets in an IDE.

Targets with no FOLDER property will appear as top level entities in IDEs like Visual Studio. Targets
with the same FOLDER property value will appear next to each other in a folder of that name. To nest
folders, use FOLDER values such as ‘GUI/Dialogs’ with ‘/’ characters separating folder levels.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_FOLDER if it is set when a target is
created.

Fortran_FORMAT
Set to FIXED or FREE to indicate the Fortran source layout.

This property tells CMake whether the Fortran source files in a target use fixed-format or free-format.
CMake will pass the corresponding format flag to the compiler. Use the source-specific Fortran_FORMAT
property to change the format of a specific source file. If the variable CMAKE_Fortran_FORMAT is set
when a target is created its value is used to initialize this property.

Fortran_MODULE_DIRECTORY
Specify output directory for Fortran modules provided by the target.

If the target contains Fortran source files that provide modules and the compiler supports a module
output directory this specifies the directory in which the modules will be placed. When this property is
not set the modules will be placed in the build directory corresponding to the target’s source directory.
If the variable CMAKE_Fortran_MODULE_DIRECTORY is set when a target is created its value is used to
initialize this property.

Note that some compilers will automatically search the module output directory for modules USEd during
compilation but others will not. If your sources USE modules their location must be specified by
INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES regardless of this property.

FRAMEWORK
Build SHARED or STATIC library as Framework Bundle on the macOS and iOS.

If such a library target has this property set to TRUE it will be built as a framework when built on the
macOS and iOS. It will have the directory structure required for a framework and will be suitable to be
used with the -framework option. This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_FRAMEWORK
variable if it is set when a target is created.

To customize Info.plist file in the framework, use MACOSX_FRAMEWORK_INFO_PLIST target property.

For macOS see also the FRAMEWORK_VERSION target property.

Example of creation dynamicFramework:

add_library(dynamicFramework SHARED
dynamicFramework.c
dynamicFramework.h
)
set_target_properties(dynamicFramework PROPERTIES
FRAMEWORK TRUE
FRAMEWORK_VERSION C
MACOSX_FRAMEWORK_IDENTIFIER com.cmake.dynamicFramework
MACOSX_FRAMEWORK_INFO_PLIST Info.plist
# "current version" in semantic format in Mach-O binary file
VERSION 16.4.0
# "compatibility version" in semantic format in Mach-O binary file
SOVERSION 1.0.0
PUBLIC_HEADER dynamicFramework.h
XCODE_ATTRIBUTE_CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY "iPhone Developer"
)

FRAMEWORK_VERSION
Version of a framework created using the FRAMEWORK target property (e.g. A).

This property only affects macOS, as iOS doesn’t have versioned directory structure.

GENERATOR_FILE_NAME
Generator’s file for this target.

An internal property used by some generators to record the name of the project or dsp file associated
with this target. Note that at configure time, this property is only set for targets created by
include_external_msproject().

GHS_INTEGRITY_APP
ON / OFF boolean to determine if an executable target should be treated as an Integrity Application.

If no value is set and if a .int file is added as a source file to the executable target it will be
treated as an Integrity Application.

Supported on Green Hills MULTI.

GHS_NO_SOURCE_GROUP_FILE
ON / OFF boolean to control if the project file for a target should be one single file or multiple files.

The default behavior or when the property is OFF is to generate a project file for the target and then a
sub-project file for each source group.

When this property is ON or if CMAKE_GHS_NO_SOURCE_GROUP_FILE is ON then only a single project file is
generated for the target.

Supported on Green Hills MULTI.

GNUtoMS
Convert GNU import library (.dll.a) to MS format (.lib).

When linking a shared library or executable that exports symbols using GNU tools on Windows (MinGW/MSYS)
with Visual Studio installed convert the import library (.dll.a) from GNU to MS format (.lib). Both
import libraries will be installed by install(TARGETS) and exported by install(EXPORT) and export() to
be linked by applications with either GNU- or MS-compatible tools.

If the variable CMAKE_GNUtoMS is set when a target is created its value is used to initialize this
property. The variable must be set prior to the first command that enables a language such as project()
or enable_language(). CMake provides the variable as an option to the user automatically when
configuring on Windows with GNU tools.

HAS_CXX
Link the target using the C++ linker tool (obsolete).

This is equivalent to setting the LINKER_LANGUAGE property to CXX.

IMPLICIT_DEPENDS_INCLUDE_TRANSFORM
Specify #include line transforms for dependencies in a target.

This property specifies rules to transform macro-like #include lines during implicit dependency scanning
of C and C++ source files. The list of rules must be semicolon-separated with each entry of the form
“A_MACRO(%)=value-with-%” (the % must be literal). During dependency scanning occurrences of A_MACRO(…)
on #include lines will be replaced by the value given with the macro argument substituted for ‘%’. For
example, the entry

MYDIR(%)=<mydir/%>

will convert lines of the form

#include MYDIR(myheader.h)

#include <mydir/myheader.h>

allowing the dependency to be followed.

This property applies to sources in the target on which it is set.

IMPORTED_COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME
Property to define if the target uses C++/CLI.

Ignored for non-imported targets.

See also the COMMON_LANGUAGE_RUNTIME target property.

IMPORTED_CONFIGURATIONS
Configurations provided for an IMPORTED target.

Set this to the list of configuration names available for an IMPORTED target. The names correspond to
configurations defined in the project from which the target is imported. If the importing project uses a
different set of configurations the names may be mapped using the MAP_IMPORTED_CONFIG_<CONFIG> property.
Ignored for non-imported targets.

IMPORTED_GLOBAL
Indication of whether an IMPORTED target is globally visible.

The boolean value of this property is True for targets created with the IMPORTED GLOBAL options to
add_executable() or add_library(). It is always False for targets built within the project.

For targets created with the IMPORTED option to add_executable() or add_library() but without the
additional option GLOBAL this is False, too. However, setting this property for such a locally IMPORTED
target to True promotes that target to global scope. This promotion can only be done in the same
directory where that IMPORTED target was created in the first place.

Once an imported target has been made global, it cannot be changed back to non-global. Therefore, if a
project sets this property, it may only provide a value of True. CMake will issue an error if the project
tries to set the property to a non-True value, even if the value was already False.

IMPORTED_IMPLIB_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_IMPLIB property.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported.

IMPORTED_IMPLIB
Full path to the import library for an IMPORTED target.

Set this to the location of the .lib part of a Windows DLL, or on AIX set it to an import file created
for executables that export symbols (see the ENABLE_EXPORTS target property). Ignored for non-imported
targets.

IMPORTED_LIBNAME_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LIBNAME property.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported.

IMPORTED_LIBNAME
Specify the link library name for an imported Interface Library.

An interface library builds no library file itself but does specify usage requirements for its consumers.
The IMPORTED_LIBNAME property may be set to specify a single library name to be placed on the link line
in place of the interface library target name as a requirement for using the interface.

This property is intended for use in naming libraries provided by a platform SDK for which the full path
to a library file may not be known. The value may be a plain library name such as foo but may not be a
path (e.g. /usr/lib/libfoo.so) or a flag (e.g. -Wl,...). The name is never treated as a library target
name even if it happens to name one.

The IMPORTED_LIBNAME property is allowed only on imported Interface Libraries and is rejected on targets
of other types (for which the IMPORTED_LOCATION target property may be used).

IMPORTED_LINK_DEPENDENT_LIBRARIES_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LINK_DEPENDENT_LIBRARIES.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported. If
set, this property completely overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

IMPORTED_LINK_DEPENDENT_LIBRARIES
Dependent shared libraries of an imported shared library.

Shared libraries may be linked to other shared libraries as part of their implementation. On some
platforms the linker searches for the dependent libraries of shared libraries they are including in the
link. Set this property to the list of dependent shared libraries of an imported library. The list
should be disjoint from the list of interface libraries in the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES property. On
platforms requiring dependent shared libraries to be found at link time CMake uses this list to add
appropriate files or paths to the link command line. Ignored for non-imported targets.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LANGUAGES_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LANGUAGES.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported. If
set, this property completely overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LANGUAGES
Languages compiled into an IMPORTED static library.

Set this to the list of languages of source files compiled to produce a STATIC IMPORTED library (such as
C or CXX). CMake accounts for these languages when computing how to link a target to the imported
library. For example, when a C executable links to an imported C++ static library CMake chooses the C++
linker to satisfy language runtime dependencies of the static library.

This property is ignored for targets that are not STATIC libraries. This property is ignored for
non-imported targets.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported. If
set, this property completely overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

This property is ignored if the target also has a non-empty INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES property.

This property is deprecated. Use INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES instead.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES
Transitive link interface of an IMPORTED target.

Set this to the list of libraries whose interface is included when an IMPORTED library target is linked
to another target. The libraries will be included on the link line for the target. Unlike the
LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES property, this property applies to all imported target types, including STATIC
libraries. This property is ignored for non-imported targets.

This property is ignored if the target also has a non-empty INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES property.

This property is deprecated. Use INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES instead.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY.

If set, this property completely overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY
Repetition count for cycles of IMPORTED static libraries.

This is LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY for IMPORTED targets.

IMPORTED_LOCATION_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_LOCATION property.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported.

IMPORTED_LOCATION
Full path to the main file on disk for an IMPORTED target.

Set this to the location of an IMPORTED target file on disk. For executables this is the location of the
executable file. For bundles on macOS this is the location of the executable file inside Contents/MacOS
under the application bundle folder. For STATIC libraries and modules this is the location of the
library or module. For SHARED libraries on non-DLL platforms this is the location of the shared library.
For frameworks on macOS this is the location of the library file symlink just inside the framework
folder. For DLLs this is the location of the .dll part of the library. For UNKNOWN libraries this is
the location of the file to be linked. Ignored for non-imported targets.

The IMPORTED_LOCATION target property may be overridden for a given configuration <CONFIG> by the
configuration-specific IMPORTED_LOCATION_<CONFIG> target property. Furthermore, the
MAP_IMPORTED_CONFIG_<CONFIG> target property may be used to map between a project’s configurations and
those of an imported target. If none of these is set then the name of any other configuration listed in
the IMPORTED_CONFIGURATIONS target property may be selected and its IMPORTED_LOCATION_<CONFIG> value
used.

To get the location of an imported target read one of the LOCATION or LOCATION_<CONFIG> properties.

For platforms with import libraries (e.g. Windows) see also IMPORTED_IMPLIB.

IMPORTED_NO_SONAME_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_NO_SONAME property.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported.

IMPORTED_NO_SONAME
Specifies that an IMPORTED shared library target has no soname.

Set this property to true for an imported shared library file that has no soname field. CMake may adjust
generated link commands for some platforms to prevent the linker from using the path to the library in
place of its missing soname. Ignored for non-imported targets.

IMPORTED_OBJECTS_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_OBJECTS property.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported.

IMPORTED_OBJECTS
A semicolon-separated list of absolute paths to the object files on disk for an imported object library.

Ignored for non-imported targets.

Projects may skip IMPORTED_OBJECTS if the configuration-specific property IMPORTED_OBJECTS_<CONFIG> is
set instead.

IMPORTED
Read-only indication of whether a target is IMPORTED.

The boolean value of this property is True for targets created with the IMPORTED option to
add_executable() or add_library(). It is False for targets built within the project.

IMPORTED_SONAME_<CONFIG>
<CONFIG>-specific version of IMPORTED_SONAME property.

Configuration names correspond to those provided by the project from which the target is imported.

IMPORTED_SONAME
The soname of an IMPORTED target of shared library type.

Set this to the soname embedded in an imported shared library. This is meaningful only on platforms
supporting the feature. Ignored for non-imported targets.

IMPORT_PREFIX
What comes before the import library name.

Similar to the target property PREFIX, but used for import libraries (typically corresponding to a DLL)
instead of regular libraries. A target property that can be set to override the prefix (such as lib) on
an import library name.

IMPORT_SUFFIX
What comes after the import library name.

Similar to the target property SUFFIX, but used for import libraries (typically corresponding to a DLL)
instead of regular libraries. A target property that can be set to override the suffix (such as .lib) on
an import library name.

INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
List of preprocessor include file search directories.

This property specifies the list of directories given so far to the target_include_directories() command.
In addition to accepting values from that command, values may be set directly on any target using the
set_property() command. A target gets its initial value for this property from the value of the
INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES directory property. Both directory and target property values are adjusted by calls
to the include_directories() command.

The value of this property is used by the generators to set the include paths for the compiler.

Relative paths should not be added to this property directly. Use one of the commands above instead to
handle relative paths.

Contents of INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES may use cmake-generator-expressions(7) with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.

INSTALL_NAME_DIR
macOS directory name for installed targets.

INSTALL_NAME_DIR is a string specifying the directory portion of the “install_name” field of shared
libraries on macOS to use in the installed targets.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_INSTALL_NAME_DIR if it is set when a
target is created.

INSTALL_REMOVE_ENVIRONMENT_RPATH
Controls whether toolchain-defined rpaths should be removed during installation.

When a target is being installed, CMake may need to rewrite its rpath information. This occurs when the
install rpath (as specified by the INSTALL_RPATH target property) has different contents to the rpath
that the target was built with. Some toolchains insert their own rpath contents into the binary as part
of the build. By default, CMake will preserve those extra inserted contents in the install rpath. For
those scenarios where such toolchain-inserted entries need to be discarded during install, set the
INSTALL_REMOVE_ENVIRONMENT_RPATH target property to true.

This property is initialized by the value of CMAKE_INSTALL_REMOVE_ENVIRONMENT_RPATH when the target is
created.

INSTALL_RPATH
The rpath to use for installed targets.

A semicolon-separated list specifying the rpath to use in installed targets (for platforms that support
it). This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_INSTALL_RPATH if it is set when a
target is created.

This property supports generator expressions.

INSTALL_RPATH_USE_LINK_PATH
Add paths to linker search and installed rpath.

INSTALL_RPATH_USE_LINK_PATH is a boolean that if set to True will append directories in the linker search
path and outside the project to the INSTALL_RPATH. This property is initialized by the value of the
variable CMAKE_INSTALL_RPATH_USE_LINK_PATH if it is set when a target is created.

INTERFACE_AUTOUIC_OPTIONS
List of interface options to pass to uic.

Targets may populate this property to publish the options required to use when invoking uic. Consuming
targets can add entries to their own AUTOUIC_OPTIONS property such as
$<TARGET_PROPERTY:foo,INTERFACE_AUTOUIC_OPTIONS> to use the uic options specified in the interface of
foo. This is done automatically by the target_link_libraries() command.

This property supports generator expressions. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for
available expressions.

INTERFACE_COMPILE_DEFINITIONS
List of public compile definitions requirements for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the compile definitions required to compile against the
headers for the target. The target_compile_definitions() command populates this property with values
given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from
all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_COMPILE_DEFINITIONS may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See
the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7)
-manual for more on defining buildsystem properties.

INTERFACE_COMPILE_FEATURES
List of public compile features requirements for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the compile features required to compile against the
headers for the target. The target_compile_features() command populates this property with values given
to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from
all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_COMPILE_FEATURES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) -manual
for more on defining buildsystem properties.

See the cmake-compile-features(7) manual for information on compile features and a list of supported
compilers.

INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS
List of public compile options requirements for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the compile options required to compile against the headers
for the target. The target_compile_options() command populates this property with values given to the
PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from
all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) -manual
for more on defining buildsystem properties.

INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
List of public include directories requirements for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the include directories required to compile against the
headers for the target. The target_include_directories() command populates this property with values
given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from
all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See
the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7)
-manual for more on defining buildsystem properties.

Include directories usage requirements commonly differ between the build-tree and the install-tree. The
BUILD_INTERFACE and INSTALL_INTERFACE generator expressions can be used to describe separate usage
requirements based on the usage location. Relative paths are allowed within the INSTALL_INTERFACE
expression and are interpreted relative to the installation prefix. For example:

target_include_directories(mylib INTERFACE
$<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/mylib>
$<INSTALL_INTERFACE:include/mylib> # <prefix>/include/mylib
)

Creating Relocatable Packages
Note that it is not advisable to populate the INSTALL_INTERFACE of the INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES of a
target with absolute paths to the include directories of dependencies. That would hard-code into
installed packages the include directory paths for dependencies as found on the machine the package was
made on.

The INSTALL_INTERFACE of the INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES is only suitable for specifying the required
include directories for headers provided with the target itself, not those provided by the transitive
dependencies listed in its INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES target property. Those dependencies should
themselves be targets that specify their own header locations in INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.

See the Creating Relocatable Packages section of the cmake-packages(7) manual for discussion of
additional care that must be taken when specifying usage requirements while creating packages for
redistribution.

INTERFACE_LINK_DEPENDS
Additional public interface files on which a target binary depends for linking.

This property is supported only by Ninja and Makefile Generators. It is intended to specify dependencies
on “linker scripts” for custom Makefile link rules.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from
all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_LINK_DEPENDS may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) -manual
for more on defining buildsystem properties.

Link dependency files usage requirements commonly differ between the build-tree and the install-tree.
The BUILD_INTERFACE and INSTALL_INTERFACE generator expressions can be used to describe separate usage
requirements based on the usage location. Relative paths are allowed within the INSTALL_INTERFACE
expression and are interpreted relative to the installation prefix. For example:

set_property(TARGET mylib PROPERTY INTERFACE_LINK_DEPENDS
$<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/mylinkscript>
$<INSTALL_INTERFACE:mylinkscript> # <prefix>/mylinkscript
)

INTERFACE_LINK_DIRECTORIES
List of public link directories requirements for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the link directories required to compile against the
headers for the target. The target_link_directories() command populates this property with values given
to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from
all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_LINK_DIRECTORIES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) -manual
for more on defining buildsystem properties.

INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES
List public interface libraries for a library.

This property contains the list of transitive link dependencies. When the target is linked into another
target using the target_link_libraries() command, the libraries listed (and recursively their link
interface libraries) will be provided to the other target also. This property is overridden by the
LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES or LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES_<CONFIG> property if policy CMP0022 is OLD or unset.

Contents of INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.

NOTE:
A call to target_link_libraries(<target> ...) may update this property on <target>. If <target> was
not created in the same directory as the call then target_link_libraries() will add a suffix of the
form ::@<directory-id> to each entry, where the ::@ is a separator and the <directory-id> is
unspecified. This tells the generators that the named libraries must be looked up in the scope of the
caller rather than in the scope in which the <target> was created. Valid directory ids are stripped
on export by the install(EXPORT) and export() commands.

Creating Relocatable Packages
Note that it is not advisable to populate the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES of a target with absolute paths to
dependencies. That would hard-code into installed packages the library file paths for dependencies as
found on the machine the package was made on.

INTERFACE_LINK_OPTIONS
List of public link options requirements for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the link options required to compile against the headers
for the target. The target_link_options() command populates this property with values given to the
PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from
all target dependencies to determine the build properties of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_LINK_OPTIONS may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) -manual
for more on defining buildsystem properties.

INTERFACE_PRECOMPILE_HEADERS
List of interface header files to precompile into consuming targets.

Targets may populate this property to publish the header files for consuming targets to precompile. The
target_precompile_headers() command populates this property with values given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE
keywords. Projects may also get and set the property directly. See the discussion in
target_precompile_headers() for guidance on appropriate use of this property for installed or exported
targets.

Contents of INTERFACE_PRECOMPILE_HEADERS may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.

INTERFACE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE
Whether consumers need to create a position-independent target

The INTERFACE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE property informs consumers of this target whether they must set
their POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE property to ON. If this property is set to ON, then the
POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE property on all consumers will be set to ON. Similarly, if this property is
set to OFF, then the POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE property on all consumers will be set to OFF. If this
property is undefined, then consumers will determine their POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE property by other
means. Consumers must ensure that the targets that they link to have a consistent requirement for their
INTERFACE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE property.

Contents of INTERFACE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>.
See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7)
manual for more on defining buildsystem properties.

INTERFACE_SOURCES
List of interface sources to compile into consuming targets.

Targets may populate this property to publish the sources for consuming targets to compile. The
target_sources() command populates this property with values given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords.
Projects may also get and set the property directly.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from
all target dependencies to determine the sources of the consumer.

Contents of INTERFACE_SOURCES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.

INTERFACE_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
List of public system include directories for a library.

Targets may populate this property to publish the include directories which contain system headers, and
therefore should not result in compiler warnings. The target_include_directories(SYSTEM) command
signature populates this property with values given to the PUBLIC and INTERFACE keywords.

Projects may also get and set the property directly, but must be aware that adding directories to this
property does not make those directories used during compilation. Adding directories to this property
marks directories as SYSTEM which otherwise would be used in a non-SYSTEM manner. This can appear
similar to ‘duplication’, so prefer the high-level target_include_directories(SYSTEM) command and avoid
setting the property by low-level means.

When target dependencies are specified using target_link_libraries(), CMake will read this property from
all target dependencies to mark the same include directories as containing system headers.

Contents of INTERFACE_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>.
See the cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7)
manual for more on defining buildsystem properties.

INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration interprocedural optimization for a target.

This is a per-configuration version of INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION. If set, this property overrides the
generic property for the named configuration.

This property is initialized by the CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION_<CONFIG> variable if it is set
when a target is created.

INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION
Enable interprocedural optimization for a target.

If set to true, enables interprocedural optimizations if they are known to be supported by the compiler.
Depending on value of policy CMP0069, the error will be reported or ignored, if interprocedural
optimization is enabled but not supported.

This property is initialized by the CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION variable if it is set when a
target is created.

IOS_INSTALL_COMBINED
Build a combined (device and simulator) target when installing.

When this property is set to set to false (which is the default) then it will either be built with the
device SDK or the simulator SDK depending on the SDK set. But if this property is set to true then the
target will at install time also be built for the corresponding SDK and combined into one library.

This feature requires at least Xcode version 6.

JOB_POOL_COMPILE
Ninja only: Pool used for compiling.

The number of parallel compile processes could be limited by defining pools with the global JOB_POOLS
property and then specifying here the pool name.

For instance:

set_property(TARGET myexe PROPERTY JOB_POOL_COMPILE ten_jobs)

This property is initialized by the value of CMAKE_JOB_POOL_COMPILE.

JOB_POOL_LINK
Ninja only: Pool used for linking.

The number of parallel link processes could be limited by defining pools with the global JOB_POOLS
property and then specifying here the pool name.

For instance:

set_property(TARGET myexe PROPERTY JOB_POOL_LINK two_jobs)

This property is initialized by the value of CMAKE_JOB_POOL_LINK.

LABELS
Specify a list of text labels associated with a target.

Target label semantics are currently unspecified.

<LANG>_CLANG_TIDY
This property is implemented only when <LANG> is C or CXX.

Specify a semicolon-separated list containing a command line for the clang-tidy tool. The Makefile
Generators and the Ninja generator will run this tool along with the compiler and report a warning if the
tool reports any problems.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_CLANG_TIDY variable if it is set when a
target is created.

<LANG>_COMPILER_LAUNCHER
This property is implemented only when <LANG> is C, CXX, Fortran, OBJC, OBJCXX, or CUDA.

Specify a semicolon-separated list containing a command line for a compiler launching tool. The Makefile
Generators and the Ninja generator will run this tool and pass the compiler and its arguments to the
tool. Some example tools are distcc and ccache.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER_LAUNCHER variable if it is set
when a target is created.

<LANG>_CPPCHECK
This property is supported only when <LANG> is C or CXX.

Specify a semicolon-separated list containing a command line for the cppcheck static analysis tool. The
Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator will run cppcheck along with the compiler and report any
problems. If the command-line specifies the exit code options to cppcheck then the build will fail if
the tool returns non-zero.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_CPPCHECK variable if it is set when a
target is created.

<LANG>_CPPLINT
This property is supported only when <LANG> is C or CXX.

Specify a semicolon-separated list containing a command line for the cpplint style checker. The Makefile
Generators and the Ninja generator will run cpplint along with the compiler and report any problems.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_CPPLINT variable if it is set when a target
is created.

<LANG>_INCLUDE_WHAT_YOU_USE
This property is implemented only when <LANG> is C or CXX.

Specify a semicolon-separated list containing a command line for the include-what-you-use tool. The
Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator will run this tool along with the compiler and report a
warning if the tool reports any problems.

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_INCLUDE_WHAT_YOU_USE variable if it is set
when a target is created.

<LANG>_VISIBILITY_PRESET
Value for symbol visibility compile flags

The <LANG>_VISIBILITY_PRESET property determines the value passed in a visibility related compile option,
such as -fvisibility= for <LANG>. This property affects compilation in sources of all types of targets
(subject to policy CMP0063).

This property is initialized by the value of the CMAKE_<LANG>_VISIBILITY_PRESET variable if it is set
when a target is created.

LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration output directory for LIBRARY target files.

This is a per-configuration version of the LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY target property, but
multi-configuration generators (Visual Studio Generators, Xcode) do NOT append a per-configuration
subdirectory to the specified directory. This property is initialized by the value of the
CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> variable if it is set when a target is created.

Contents of LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> may use generator expressions.

LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
Output directory in which to build LIBRARY target files.

This property specifies the directory into which library target files should be built. The property
value may use generator expressions. Multi-configuration generators (VS, Xcode) append a
per-configuration subdirectory to the specified directory unless a generator expression is used.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY if it is set
when a target is created.

See also the LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_<CONFIG> target property.

LIBRARY_OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration output name for LIBRARY target files.

This is the configuration-specific version of the LIBRARY_OUTPUT_NAME target property.

LIBRARY_OUTPUT_NAME
Output name for LIBRARY target files.

This property specifies the base name for library target files. It overrides OUTPUT_NAME and
OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG> properties.

See also the LIBRARY_OUTPUT_NAME_<CONFIG> target property.

LINK_DEPENDS_NO_SHARED
Do not depend on linked shared library files.

Set this property to true to tell CMake generators not to add file-level dependencies on the shared
library files linked by this target. Modification to the shared libraries will not be sufficient to
re-link this target. Logical target-level dependencies will not be affected so the linked shared
libraries will still be brought up to date before this target is built.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_LINK_DEPENDS_NO_SHARED if it is set when
a target is created.

LINK_DEPENDS
Additional files on which a target binary depends for linking.

Specifies a semicolon-separated list of full-paths to files on which the link rule for this target
depends. The target binary will be linked if any of the named files is newer than it.

This property is supported only by Ninja and Makefile Generators. It is intended to specify dependencies
on “linker scripts” for custom Makefile link rules.

Contents of LINK_DEPENDS may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.

LINKER_LANGUAGE
Specifies language whose compiler will invoke the linker.

For executables, shared libraries, and modules, this sets the language whose compiler is used to link the
target (such as “C” or “CXX”). A typical value for an executable is the language of the source file
providing the program entry point (main). If not set, the language with the highest linker preference
value is the default. See documentation of CMAKE_<LANG>_LINKER_PREFERENCE variables.

If this property is not set by the user, it will be calculated at generate-time by CMake.

LINK_DIRECTORIES
List of directories to use for the link step of shared library, module and executable targets.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of directories specified so far for its target. Use the
target_link_directories() command to append more search directories.

This property is initialized by the LINK_DIRECTORIES directory property when a target is created, and is
used by the generators to set the search directories for the linker.

LINK_FLAGS_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration linker flags for a SHARED library, MODULE or EXECUTABLE target.

This is the configuration-specific version of LINK_FLAGS.

NOTE:
This property has been superseded by LINK_OPTIONS property.

LINK_FLAGS
Additional flags to use when linking this target if it is a shared library, module library, or an
executable. Static libraries need to use STATIC_LIBRARY_OPTIONS or STATIC_LIBRARY_FLAGS properties.

The LINK_FLAGS property, managed as a string, can be used to add extra flags to the link step of a
target. LINK_FLAGS_<CONFIG> will add to the configuration <CONFIG>, for example, DEBUG, RELEASE,
MINSIZEREL, RELWITHDEBINFO, …

NOTE:
This property has been superseded by LINK_OPTIONS property.

LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration list of public interface libraries for a target.

This is the configuration-specific version of LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES. If set, this property completely
overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

This property is overridden by the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES property if policy CMP0022 is NEW.

This property is deprecated. Use INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES instead.

Creating Relocatable Packages
Note that it is not advisable to populate the LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES_<CONFIG> of a target with absolute
paths to dependencies. That would hard-code into installed packages the library file paths for
dependencies as found on the machine the package was made on.

LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES
List public interface libraries for a shared library or executable.

By default linking to a shared library target transitively links to targets with which the library itself
was linked. For an executable with exports (see the ENABLE_EXPORTS target property) no default
transitive link dependencies are used. This property replaces the default transitive link dependencies
with an explicit list. When the target is linked into another target using the target_link_libraries()
command, the libraries listed (and recursively their link interface libraries) will be provided to the
other target also. If the list is empty then no transitive link dependencies will be incorporated when
this target is linked into another target even if the default set is non-empty. This property is
initialized by the value of the CMAKE_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES variable if it is set when a target is
created. This property is ignored for STATIC libraries.

This property is overridden by the INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES property if policy CMP0022 is NEW.

This property is deprecated. Use INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES instead.

Creating Relocatable Packages
Note that it is not advisable to populate the LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES of a target with absolute paths to
dependencies. That would hard-code into installed packages the library file paths for dependencies as
found on the machine the package was made on.

LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY_<CONFIG>
Per-configuration repetition count for cycles of STATIC libraries.

This is the configuration-specific version of LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY. If set, this property
completely overrides the generic property for the named configuration.

LINK_INTERFACE_MULTIPLICITY
Repetition count for STATIC libraries with cyclic dependencies.

When linking to a STATIC library target with cyclic dependencies the linker may need to scan more than
once through the archives in the strongly connected component of the dependency graph. CMake by default
constructs the link line so that the linker will scan through the component at least twice. This
property specifies the minimum number of scans if it is larger than the default. CMake uses the largest
value specified by any target in a component.

LINK_LIBRARIES
List of direct link dependencies.

This property specifies the list of libraries or targets which will be used for linking. In addition to
accepting values from the target_link_libraries() command, values may be set directly on any target using
the set_property() command.

The value of this property is used by the generators to set the link libraries for the compiler.

Contents of LINK_LIBRARIES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
more on defining buildsystem properties.

LINK_OPTIONS
List of options to use for the link step of shared library, module and executable targets. Targets that
are static libraries need to use the STATIC_LIBRARY_OPTIONS target property.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of options specified so far for its target. Use the
target_link_options() command to append more options.

This property is initialized by the LINK_OPTIONS directory property when a target is created, and is used
by the generators to set the options for the compiler.

NOTE:
This property must be used in preference to LINK_FLAGS property.

LINK_SEARCH_END_STATIC
End a link line such that static system libraries are used.

Some linkers support switches such as -Bstatic and -Bdynamic to determine whether to use static or shared
libraries for -lXXX options. CMake uses these options to set the link type for libraries whose full
paths are not known or (in some cases) are in implicit link directories for the platform. By default
CMake adds an option at the end of the library list (if necessary) to set the linker search type back to
its starting type. This property switches the final linker search type to -Bstatic regardless of how it
started.

This property is initialized by the value of the variable CMAKE_LINK_SEARCH_END_STATIC if it is set when
a target is created.

PROPERTIES ON TESTS

ATTACHED_FILES_ON_FAIL
Attach a list of files to a dashboard submission if the test fails.

Same as ATTACHED_FILES, but these files will only be included if the test does not pass.

ATTACHED_FILES
Attach a list of files to a dashboard submission.

Set this property to a list of files that will be encoded and submitted to the dashboard as an addition
to the test result.

COST
This property describes the cost of a test. When parallel testing is enabled, tests in the test set will
be run in descending order of cost. Projects can explicitly define the cost of a test by setting this
property to a floating point value.

When the cost of a test is not defined by the project, ctest will initially use a default cost of 0. It
computes a weighted average of the cost each time a test is run and uses that as an improved estimate of
the cost for the next run. The more a test is re-run in the same build directory, the more
representative the cost should become.

DEPENDS
Specifies that this test should only be run after the specified list of tests.

Set this to a list of tests that must finish before this test is run. The results of those tests are not
considered, the dependency relationship is purely for order of execution (i.e. it is really just a run
after relationship). Consider using test fixtures with setup tests if a dependency with successful
completion is required (see FIXTURES_REQUIRED).

DISABLED
If set to True, the test will be skipped and its status will be ‘Not Run’. A DISABLED test will not be
counted in the total number of tests and its completion status will be reported to CDash as Disabled.

A DISABLED test does not participate in test fixture dependency resolution. If a DISABLED test has
fixture requirements defined in its FIXTURES_REQUIRED property, it will not cause setup or cleanup tests
for those fixtures to be added to the test set.

If a test with the FIXTURES_SETUP property set is DISABLED, the fixture behavior will be as though that
setup test was passing and any test case requiring that fixture will still run.

ENVIRONMENT
Specify environment variables that should be defined for running a test.

If set to a list of environment variables and values of the form MYVAR=value those environment variables
will be defined while running the test. The environment is restored to its previous state after the test
is done.

FAIL_REGULAR_EXPRESSION
If the output matches this regular expression the test will fail.

If set, if the output matches one of specified regular expressions, the test will fail. Example:

set_tests_properties(mytest PROPERTIES
FAIL_REGULAR_EXPRESSION "[^a-z]Error;ERROR;Failed"
)

FAIL_REGULAR_EXPRESSION expects a list of regular expressions.

FIXTURES_CLEANUP
Specifies a list of fixtures for which the test is to be treated as a cleanup test. These fixture names
are distinct from test case names and are not required to have any similarity to the names of tests
associated with them.

Fixture cleanup tests are ordinary tests with all of the usual test functionality. Setting the
FIXTURES_CLEANUP property for a test has two primary effects:

• CTest will ensure the test executes after all other tests which list any of the fixtures in its
FIXTURES_REQUIRED property.

• If CTest is asked to run only a subset of tests (e.g. using regular expressions or the --rerun-failed
option) and the cleanup test is not in the set of tests to run, it will automatically be added if any
tests in the set require any fixture listed in FIXTURES_CLEANUP.

A cleanup test can have multiple fixtures listed in its FIXTURES_CLEANUP property. It will execute only
once for the whole CTest run, not once for each fixture. A fixture can also have more than one cleanup
test defined. If there are multiple cleanup tests for a fixture, projects can control their order with
the usual DEPENDS test property if necessary.

A cleanup test is allowed to require other fixtures, but not any fixture listed in its FIXTURES_CLEANUP
property. For example:

# Ok: Dependent fixture is different to cleanup
set_tests_properties(cleanupFoo PROPERTIES
FIXTURES_CLEANUP Foo
FIXTURES_REQUIRED Bar
)

# Error: cannot require same fixture as cleanup
set_tests_properties(cleanupFoo PROPERTIES
FIXTURES_CLEANUP Foo
FIXTURES_REQUIRED Foo
)

Cleanup tests will execute even if setup or regular tests for that fixture fail or are skipped.

See FIXTURES_REQUIRED for a more complete discussion of how to use test fixtures.

FIXTURES_REQUIRED
Specifies a list of fixtures the test requires. Fixture names are case sensitive and they are not
required to have any similarity to test names.

Fixtures are a way to attach setup and cleanup tasks to a set of tests. If a test requires a given
fixture, then all tests marked as setup tasks for that fixture will be executed first (once for the whole
set of tests, not once per test requiring the fixture). After all tests requiring a particular fixture
have completed, CTest will ensure all tests marked as cleanup tasks for that fixture are then executed.
Tests are marked as setup tasks with the FIXTURES_SETUP property and as cleanup tasks with the
FIXTURES_CLEANUP property. If any of a fixture’s setup tests fail, all tests listing that fixture in
their FIXTURES_REQUIRED property will not be executed. The cleanup tests for the fixture will always be
executed, even if some setup tests fail.

When CTest is asked to execute only a subset of tests (e.g. by the use of regular expressions or when run
with the --rerun-failed command line option), it will automatically add any setup or cleanup tests for
fixtures required by any of the tests that are in the execution set. This behavior can be overridden with
the -FS, -FC and -FA command line options to ctest(1) if desired.

Since setup and cleanup tasks are also tests, they can have an ordering specified by the DEPENDS test
property just like any other tests. This can be exploited to implement setup or cleanup using multiple
tests for a single fixture to modularise setup or cleanup logic.

The concept of a fixture is different to that of a resource specified by RESOURCE_LOCK, but they may be
used together. A fixture defines a set of tests which share setup and cleanup requirements, whereas a
resource lock has the effect of ensuring a particular set of tests do not run in parallel. Some
situations may need both, such as setting up a database, serialising test access to that database and
deleting the database again at the end. For such cases, tests would populate both FIXTURES_REQUIRED and
RESOURCE_LOCK to combine the two behaviours. Names used for RESOURCE_LOCK have no relationship with names
of fixtures, so note that a resource lock does not imply a fixture and vice versa.

Consider the following example which represents a database test scenario similar to that mentioned above:

add_test(NAME testsDone COMMAND emailResults)
add_test(NAME fooOnly COMMAND testFoo)
add_test(NAME dbOnly COMMAND testDb)
add_test(NAME dbWithFoo COMMAND testDbWithFoo)
add_test(NAME createDB COMMAND initDB)
add_test(NAME setupUsers COMMAND userCreation)
add_test(NAME cleanupDB COMMAND deleteDB)
add_test(NAME cleanupFoo COMMAND removeFoos)

set_tests_properties(setupUsers PROPERTIES DEPENDS createDB)

set_tests_properties(createDB PROPERTIES FIXTURES_SETUP DB)
set_tests_properties(setupUsers PROPERTIES FIXTURES_SETUP DB)
set_tests_properties(cleanupDB PROPERTIES FIXTURES_CLEANUP DB)
set_tests_properties(cleanupFoo PROPERTIES FIXTURES_CLEANUP Foo)
set_tests_properties(testsDone PROPERTIES FIXTURES_CLEANUP "DB;Foo")

set_tests_properties(fooOnly PROPERTIES FIXTURES_REQUIRED Foo)
set_tests_properties(dbOnly PROPERTIES FIXTURES_REQUIRED DB)
set_tests_properties(dbWithFoo PROPERTIES FIXTURES_REQUIRED "DB;Foo")

set_tests_properties(dbOnly dbWithFoo createDB setupUsers cleanupDB
PROPERTIES RESOURCE_LOCK DbAccess)

Key points from this example:

• Two fixtures are defined: DB and Foo. Tests can require a single fixture as fooOnly and dbOnly do, or
they can depend on multiple fixtures like dbWithFoo does.

• A DEPENDS relationship is set up to ensure setupUsers happens after createDB, both of which are setup
tests for the DB fixture and will therefore be executed before the dbOnly and dbWithFoo tests
automatically.

• No explicit DEPENDS relationships were needed to make the setup tests run before or the cleanup tests
run after the regular tests.

• The Foo fixture has no setup tests defined, only a single cleanup test.

• testsDone is a cleanup test for both the DB and Foo fixtures. Therefore, it will only execute once
regular tests for both fixtures have finished (i.e. after fooOnly, dbOnly and dbWithFoo). No DEPENDS
relationship was specified for testsDone, so it is free to run before, after or concurrently with other
cleanup tests for either fixture.

• The setup and cleanup tests never list the fixtures they are for in their own FIXTURES_REQUIRED
property, as that would result in a dependency on themselves and be considered an error.

FIXTURES_SETUP
Specifies a list of fixtures for which the test is to be treated as a setup test. These fixture names are
distinct from test case names and are not required to have any similarity to the names of tests
associated with them.

Fixture setup tests are ordinary tests with all of the usual test functionality. Setting the
FIXTURES_SETUP property for a test has two primary effects:

• CTest will ensure the test executes before any other test which lists the fixture name(s) in its
FIXTURES_REQUIRED property.

• If CTest is asked to run only a subset of tests (e.g. using regular expressions or the --rerun-failed
option) and the setup test is not in the set of tests to run, it will automatically be added if any
tests in the set require any fixture listed in FIXTURES_SETUP.

A setup test can have multiple fixtures listed in its FIXTURES_SETUP property. It will execute only once
for the whole CTest run, not once for each fixture. A fixture can also have more than one setup test
defined. If there are multiple setup tests for a fixture, projects can control their order with the usual
DEPENDS test property if necessary.

A setup test is allowed to require other fixtures, but not any fixture listed in its FIXTURES_SETUP
property. For example:

# Ok: dependent fixture is different to setup
set_tests_properties(setupFoo PROPERTIES
FIXTURES_SETUP Foo
FIXTURES_REQUIRED Bar
)

# Error: cannot require same fixture as setup
set_tests_properties(setupFoo PROPERTIES
FIXTURES_SETUP Foo
FIXTURES_REQUIRED Foo
)

If any of a fixture’s setup tests fail, none of the tests listing that fixture in its FIXTURES_REQUIRED
property will be run. Cleanup tests will, however, still be executed.

See FIXTURES_REQUIRED for a more complete discussion of how to use test fixtures.

LABELS
Specify a list of text labels associated with a test.

The list is reported in dashboard submissions.

MEASUREMENT
Specify a CDASH measurement and value to be reported for a test.

If set to a name then that name will be reported to CDASH as a named measurement with a value of 1. You
may also specify a value by setting MEASUREMENT to measurement=value.

PASS_REGULAR_EXPRESSION
The output must match this regular expression for the test to pass.

If set, the test output will be checked against the specified regular expressions and at least one of the
regular expressions has to match, otherwise the test will fail. Example:

set_tests_properties(mytest PROPERTIES
PASS_REGULAR_EXPRESSION "TestPassed;All ok"
)

PASS_REGULAR_EXPRESSION expects a list of regular expressions.

PROCESSOR_AFFINITY
Set to a true value to ask CTest to launch the test process with CPU affinity for a fixed set of
processors. If enabled and supported for the current platform, CTest will choose a set of processors to
place in the CPU affinity mask when launching the test process. The number of processors in the set is
determined by the PROCESSORS test property or the number of processors available to CTest, whichever is
smaller. The set of processors chosen will be disjoint from the processors assigned to other
concurrently running tests that also have the PROCESSOR_AFFINITY property enabled.

PROCESSORS
Set to specify how many process slots this test requires. If not set, the default is 1 processor.

Denotes the number of processors that this test will require. This is typically used for MPI tests, and
should be used in conjunction with the ctest_test() PARALLEL_LEVEL option.

This will also be used to display a weighted test timing result in label and subproject summaries in the
command line output of ctest(1). The wall clock time for the test run will be multiplied by this property
to give a better idea of how much cpu resource CTest allocated for the test.

See also the PROCESSOR_AFFINITY test property.

REQUIRED_FILES
List of files required to run the test.

If set to a list of files, the test will not be run unless all of the files exist.

RESOURCE_GROUPS
Specify resources required by a test, grouped in a way that is meaningful to the test. See resource
allocation for more information on how this property integrates into the CTest resource allocation
feature.

The RESOURCE_GROUPS property is a semicolon-separated list of group descriptions. Each entry consists of
an optional number of groups using the description followed by a series of resource requirements for
those groups. These requirements (and the number of groups) are separated by commas. The resource
requirements consist of the name of a resource type, followed by a colon, followed by an unsigned integer
specifying the number of slots required on one resource of the given type.

The RESOURCE_GROUPS property tells CTest what resources a test expects to use grouped in a way meaningful
to the test. The test itself must read the environment variables to determine which resources have been
allocated to each group. For example, each group may correspond to a process the test will spawn when
executed.

Consider the following example:

add_test(NAME MyTest COMMAND MyExe)
set_property(TEST MyTest PROPERTY RESOURCE_GROUPS
"2,gpus:2"
"gpus:4,crypto_chips:2")

In this example, there are two group descriptions (implicitly separated by a semicolon.) The content of
the first description is 2,gpus:2. This description specifies 2 groups, each of which requires 2 slots
from a single GPU. The content of the second description is gpus:4,crypto_chips:2. This description does
not specify a group count, so a default of 1 is assumed. This single group requires 4 slots from a
single GPU and 2 slots from a single cryptography chip. In total, 3 resource groups are specified for
this test, each with its own unique requirements.

Note that the number of slots following the resource type specifies slots from a single instance of the
resource. If the resource group can tolerate receiving slots from different instances of the same
resource, it can indicate this by splitting the specification into multiple requirements of one slot. For
example:

add_test(NAME MyTest COMMAND MyExe)
set_property(TEST MyTest PROPERTY RESOURCE_GROUPS
"gpus:1,gpus:1,gpus:1,gpus:1")

In this case, the single resource group indicates that it needs four GPU slots, all of which may come
from separate GPUs (though they don’t have to; CTest may still assign slots from the same GPU.)

When CTest sets the environment variables for a test, it assigns a group number based on the group
description, starting at 0 on the left and the number of groups minus 1 on the right. For example, in the
example above, the two groups in the first description would have IDs of 0 and 1, and the single group in
the second description would have an ID of 2.

Both the RESOURCE_GROUPS and RESOURCE_LOCK properties serve similar purposes, but they are distinct and
orthogonal. Resources specified by RESOURCE_GROUPS do not affect RESOURCE_LOCK, and vice versa. Whereas
RESOURCE_LOCK is a simpler property that is used for locking one global resource, RESOURCE_GROUPS is a
more advanced property that allows multiple tests to simultaneously use multiple resources of the same
type, specifying their requirements in a fine-grained manner.

RESOURCE_LOCK
Specify a list of resources that are locked by this test.

If multiple tests specify the same resource lock, they are guaranteed not to run concurrently.

See also FIXTURES_REQUIRED if the resource requires any setup or cleanup steps.

RUN_SERIAL
Do not run this test in parallel with any other test.

Use this option in conjunction with the ctest_test PARALLEL_LEVEL option to specify that this test should
not be run in parallel with any other tests.

SKIP_REGULAR_EXPRESSION
If the output matches this regular expression the test will be marked as skipped.

If set, if the output matches one of specified regular expressions, the test will be marked as skipped.
Example:

set_property(TEST mytest PROPERTY
SKIP_REGULAR_EXPRESSION "[^a-z]Skip" "SKIP" "Skipped"
)

SKIP_REGULAR_EXPRESSION expects a list of regular expressions.

PROPERTIES ON SOURCE FILES

ABSTRACT
Is this source file an abstract class.

A property on a source file that indicates if the source file represents a class that is abstract. This
only makes sense for languages that have a notion of an abstract class and it is only used by some tools
that wrap classes into other languages.

AUTOUIC_OPTIONS
Additional options for uic when using AUTOUIC

By default it is empty.

The options set on the .ui source file may override AUTOUIC_OPTIONS set on the target.

EXAMPLE
# ...
set_property(SOURCE widget.ui PROPERTY AUTOUIC_OPTIONS "--no-protection")
# ...

AUTORCC_OPTIONS
Additional options for rcc when using AUTORCC

By default it is empty.

The options set on the .qrc source file may override AUTORCC_OPTIONS set on the target.

EXAMPLE
# ...
set_property(SOURCE resources.qrc PROPERTY AUTORCC_OPTIONS "--compress;9")
# ...

COMPILE_DEFINITIONS
Preprocessor definitions for compiling a source file.

The COMPILE_DEFINITIONS property may be set to a semicolon-separated list of preprocessor definitions
using the syntax VAR or VAR=value. Function-style definitions are not supported. CMake will
automatically escape the value correctly for the native build system (note that CMake language syntax may
require escapes to specify some values). This property may be set on a per-configuration basis using the
name COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_<CONFIG> where <CONFIG> is an upper-case name (ex. COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_DEBUG).

CMake will automatically drop some definitions that are not supported by the native build tool. Xcode
does not support per-configuration definitions on source files.

CMake does not reject these values outright because they do work in some cases. Use with caution.

Contents of COMPILE_DEFINITIONS may use cmake-generator-expressions(7) with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. However, Xcode does not support
per-config per-source settings, so expressions that depend on the build configuration are not allowed
with that generator.

Generator expressions should be preferred instead of setting the alternative per-configuration property.

COMPILE_FLAGS
Additional flags to be added when compiling this source file.

The COMPILE_FLAGS property, managed as a string, sets additional compiler flags used to build source
files. Use COMPILE_DEFINITIONS to pass additional preprocessor definitions.

Contents of COMPILE_FLAGS may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. However, Xcode does not support
per-config per-source settings, so expressions that depend on the build configuration are not allowed
with that generator.

NOTE:
This property has been superseded by the COMPILE_OPTIONS property.

COMPILE_OPTIONS
List of additional options to pass to the compiler.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of options and will be added to the list of compile flags
when this source file builds. Use COMPILE_DEFINITIONS to pass additional preprocessor definitions and
INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES to pass additional include directories.

Contents of COMPILE_OPTIONS may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. However, Xcode does not support
per-config per-source settings, so expressions that depend on the build configuration are not allowed
with that generator.

NOTE:
This property should be preferred over the COMPILE_FLAGS property.

EXTERNAL_OBJECT
If set to true then this is an object file.

If this property is set to True then the source file is really an object file and should not be compiled.
It will still be linked into the target though.

Fortran_FORMAT
Set to FIXED or FREE to indicate the Fortran source layout.

This property tells CMake whether a given Fortran source file uses fixed-format or free-format. CMake
will pass the corresponding format flag to the compiler. Consider using the target-wide Fortran_FORMAT
property if all source files in a target share the same format.

GENERATED
Is this source file generated as part of the build or CMake process.

Tells the internal CMake engine that a source file is generated by an outside process such as another
build step, or the execution of CMake itself. This information is then used to exempt the file from any
existence or validity checks. Generated files are created by the execution of commands such as
add_custom_command() and file(GENERATE).

When a generated file created by an add_custom_command() command is explicitly listed as a source file
for any target in the same directory scope (which usually means the same CMakeLists.txt file), CMake will
automatically create a dependency to make sure the file is generated before building that target.

Generated sources may be hidden in some IDE tools, while in others they might be shown. For the special
case of sources generated by CMake’s AUTOMOC or AUTORCC functionality, the AUTOGEN_SOURCE_GROUP,
AUTOMOC_SOURCE_GROUP and AUTORCC_SOURCE_GROUP target properties may influence where the generated sources
are grouped in the project’s file lists.

HEADER_FILE_ONLY
Is this source file only a header file.

A property on a source file that indicates if the source file is a header file with no associated
implementation. This is set automatically based on the file extension and is used by CMake to determine
if certain dependency information should be computed.

By setting this property to ON, you can disable compilation of the given source file, even if it should
be compiled because it is part of the library’s/executable’s sources.

This is useful if you have some source files which you somehow pre-process, and then add these
pre-processed sources via add_library() or add_executable(). Normally, in IDE, there would be no
reference of the original sources, only of these pre-processed sources. So by setting this property for
all the original source files to ON, and then either calling add_library() or add_executable() while
passing both the pre-processed sources and the original sources, or by using target_sources() to add
original source files will do exactly what would one expect, i.e. the original source files would be
visible in IDE, and will not be built.

INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
List of preprocessor include file search directories.

This property holds a semicolon-separated list of paths and will be added to the list of include
directories when this source file builds. These directories will take precedence over directories defined
at target level except for Xcode generator due to technical limitations.

Relative paths should not be added to this property directly.

Contents of INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>. See the
cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions. However, Xcode does not support
per-config per-source settings, so expressions that depend on the build configuration are not allowed
with that generator.

KEEP_EXTENSION
Make the output file have the same extension as the source file.

If this property is set then the file extension of the output file will be the same as that of the source
file. Normally the output file extension is computed based on the language of the source file, for
example .cxx will go to a .o extension.

LABELS
Specify a list of text labels associated with a source file.

This property has meaning only when the source file is listed in a target whose LABELS property is also
set. No other semantics are currently specified.

LANGUAGE
What programming language is the file.

A property that can be set to indicate what programming language the source file is. If it is not set
the language is determined based on the file extension. Typical values are CXX (i.e. C++), C, CSharp,
CUDA, Fortran, and ASM. Setting this property for a file means this file will be compiled. Do not set
this for headers or files that should not be compiled.

LOCATION
The full path to a source file.

A read only property on a SOURCE FILE that contains the full path to the source file.

MACOSX_PACKAGE_LOCATION
Place a source file inside a Application Bundle (MACOSX_BUNDLE), Core Foundation Bundle (BUNDLE), or
Framework Bundle (FRAMEWORK). It is applicable for macOS and iOS.

Executable targets with the MACOSX_BUNDLE property set are built as macOS or iOS application bundles on
Apple platforms. Shared library targets with the FRAMEWORK property set are built as macOS or iOS
frameworks on Apple platforms. Module library targets with the BUNDLE property set are built as macOS
CFBundle bundles on Apple platforms. Source files listed in the target with this property set will be
copied to a directory inside the bundle or framework content folder specified by the property value. For
macOS Application Bundles the content folder is <name>.app/Contents. For macOS Frameworks the content
folder is <name>.framework/Versions/<version>. For macOS CFBundles the content folder is
<name>.bundle/Contents (unless the extension is changed). See the PUBLIC_HEADER, PRIVATE_HEADER, and
RESOURCE target properties for specifying files meant for Headers, PrivateHeaders, or Resources
directories.

If the specified location is equal to Resources, the resulting location will be the same as if the
RESOURCE property had been used. If the specified location is a sub-folder of Resources, it will be
placed into the respective sub-folder. Note: For iOS Apple uses a flat bundle layout where no Resources
folder exist. Therefore CMake strips the Resources folder name from the specified location.

OBJECT_DEPENDS
Additional files on which a compiled object file depends.

Specifies a semicolon-separated list of full-paths to files on which any object files compiled from this
source file depend. On Makefile Generators and the Ninja generator an object file will be recompiled if
any of the named files is newer than it. Visual Studio Generators and the Xcode generator cannot
implement such compilation dependencies.

This property need not be used to specify the dependency of a source file on a generated header file that
it includes. Although the property was originally introduced for this purpose, it is no longer
necessary. If the generated header file is created by a custom command in the same target as the source
file, the automatic dependency scanning process will recognize the dependency. If the generated header
file is created by another target, an inter-target dependency should be created with the
add_dependencies() command (if one does not already exist due to linking relationships).

OBJECT_OUTPUTS
Additional outputs for a Ninja or Makefile Generators rule.

Additional outputs created by compilation of this source file. If any of these outputs is missing the
object will be recompiled. This is supported only on the Ninja and Makefile Generators and will be
ignored on other generators.

SKIP_AUTOGEN
Exclude the source file from AUTOMOC, AUTOUIC and AUTORCC processing (for Qt projects).

For finer exclusion control see SKIP_AUTOMOC, SKIP_AUTOUIC and SKIP_AUTORCC.

EXAMPLE
# ...
set_property(SOURCE file.h PROPERTY SKIP_AUTOGEN ON)
# ...

SKIP_AUTOMOC
Exclude the source file from AUTOMOC processing (for Qt projects).

For broader exclusion control see SKIP_AUTOGEN.

EXAMPLE
# ...
set_property(SOURCE file.h PROPERTY SKIP_AUTOMOC ON)
# ...

SKIP_AUTORCC
Exclude the source file from AUTORCC processing (for Qt projects).

For broader exclusion control see SKIP_AUTOGEN.

EXAMPLE
# ...
set_property(SOURCE file.qrc PROPERTY SKIP_AUTORCC ON)
# ...

SKIP_AUTOUIC
Exclude the source file from AUTOUIC processing (for Qt projects).

SKIP_AUTOUIC can be set on C++ header and source files and on .ui files.

For broader exclusion control see SKIP_AUTOGEN.

EXAMPLE
# ...
set_property(SOURCE file.h PROPERTY SKIP_AUTOUIC ON)
set_property(SOURCE file.cpp PROPERTY SKIP_AUTOUIC ON)
set_property(SOURCE widget.ui PROPERTY SKIP_AUTOUIC ON)
# ...

SKIP_PRECOMPILE_HEADERS
Is this source file skipped by PRECOMPILE_HEADERS feature.

This property helps with build problems that one would run into when using the PRECOMPILE_HEADERS
feature.

One example would be the usage of Objective-C (.m) files, and Objective-C++ (.mm) files, which lead to
compilation failure because they are treated (in case of Ninja / Makefile generator) as C, and CXX
respectively. The precompile headers are not compatible between languages.

SKIP_UNITY_BUILD_INCLUSION
Setting this property to true ensures the source file will be skipped by unity builds when its associated
target has its UNITY_BUILD property set to true. The source file will instead be compiled on its own in
the same way as it would with unity builds disabled.

This property helps with “ODR (One definition rule)” problems where combining a particular source file
with others might lead to build errors or other unintended side effects.

Swift_DEPENDENCIES_FILE
This property sets the path for the Swift dependency file (swiftdeps) for the source. If one is not
specified, it will default to <OBJECT>.swiftdeps.

Swift_DIAGNOSTICS_FILE
This property controls where the Swift diagnostics are serialized.

SYMBOLIC
Is this just a name for a rule.

If SYMBOLIC (boolean) is set to True the build system will be informed that the source file is not
actually created on disk but instead used as a symbolic name for a build rule.

VS_COPY_TO_OUT_DIR
Sets the <CopyToOutputDirectory> tag for a source file in a Visual Studio project file. Valid values are
Never, Always and PreserveNewest.

VS_CSHARP_<tagname>
Visual Studio and CSharp source-file-specific configuration.

Tell the Visual Studio generators to set the source file tag <tagname> to a given value in the generated
Visual Studio CSharp project. Ignored on other generators and languages. This property can be used to
define dependencies between source files or set any other Visual Studio specific parameters.

Example usage:

set_source_files_property(<filename>
PROPERTIES
VS_CSHARP_DependentUpon <other file>
VS_CSHARP_SubType "Form")

VS_DEPLOYMENT_CONTENT
Mark a source file as content for deployment with a Windows Phone or Windows Store application when built
with a Visual Studio generators. The value must evaluate to either 1 or 0 and may use generator
expressions to make the choice based on the build configuration. The .vcxproj file entry for the source
file will be marked either DeploymentContent or ExcludedFromBuild for values 1 and 0, respectively.

VS_DEPLOYMENT_LOCATION
Specifies the deployment location for a content source file with a Windows Phone or Windows Store
application when built with a Visual Studio generators. This property is only applicable when using
VS_DEPLOYMENT_CONTENT. The value represent the path relative to the app package and applies to all
configurations.

VS_INCLUDE_IN_VSIX
Boolean property to specify if the file should be included within a VSIX (Visual Studio Integration
Extension) extension package. This is needed for development of Visual Studio extensions.

VS_RESOURCE_GENERATOR
This property allows to specify the resource generator to be used on this file. It defaults to
PublicResXFileCodeGenerator if not set.

This property only applies to C# projects.

VS_SHADER_DISABLE_OPTIMIZATIONS
Disable compiler optimizations for an .hlsl source file. This adds the -Od flag to the command line for
the FxCompiler tool. Specify the value true for this property to disable compiler optimizations.

VS_SHADER_ENABLE_DEBUG
Enable debugging information for an .hlsl source file. This adds the -Zi flag to the command line for
the FxCompiler tool. Specify the value true to generate debugging information for the compiled shader.

VS_SHADER_ENTRYPOINT
Specifies the name of the entry point for the shader of a .hlsl source file.

VS_SHADER_FLAGS
Set additional Visual Studio shader flags of a .hlsl source file.

VS_SHADER_MODEL
Specifies the shader model of a .hlsl source file. Some shader types can only be used with recent shader
models

VS_SHADER_OBJECT_FILE_NAME
Specifies a file name for the compiled shader object file for an .hlsl source file. This adds the -Fo
flag to the command line for the FxCompiler tool.

VS_SHADER_OUTPUT_HEADER_FILE
Set filename for output header file containing object code of a .hlsl source file.

VS_SHADER_TYPE
Set the Visual Studio shader type of a .hlsl source file.

VS_SHADER_VARIABLE_NAME
Set name of variable in header file containing object code of a .hlsl source file.

VS_TOOL_OVERRIDE
Override the default Visual Studio tool that will be applied to the source file with a new tool not based
on the extension of the file.

VS_XAML_TYPE
Mark a Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) source file as a different type than the default
Page. The most common usage would be to set the default App.xaml file as ApplicationDefinition.

WRAP_EXCLUDE
Exclude this source file from any code wrapping techniques.

Some packages can wrap source files into alternate languages to provide additional functionality.

For example, C++ code can be wrapped into Java or Python, using SWIG. If WRAP_EXCLUDE is set to True,
that indicates that this source file should not be wrapped.

XCODE_EXPLICIT_FILE_TYPE
Set the Xcode explicitFileType attribute on its reference to a source file. CMake computes a default
based on file extension but can be told explicitly with this property.

PROPERTIES ON CACHE ENTRIES

ADVANCED
True if entry should be hidden by default in GUIs.

This is a boolean value indicating whether the entry is considered interesting only for advanced
configuration. The mark_as_advanced() command modifies this property.

HELPSTRING
Help associated with entry in GUIs.

This string summarizes the purpose of an entry to help users set it through a CMake GUI.

MODIFIED
Internal management property. Do not set or get.

This is an internal cache entry property managed by CMake to track interactive user modification of
entries. Ignore it.

STRINGS
Enumerate possible STRING entry values for GUI selection.

For cache entries with type STRING, this enumerates a set of values. CMake GUIs may use this to provide
a selection widget instead of a generic string entry field. This is for convenience only. CMake does
not enforce that the value matches one of those listed.

TYPE
Widget type for entry in GUIs.

Cache entry values are always strings, but CMake GUIs present widgets to help users set values. The GUIs
use this property as a hint to determine the widget type. Valid TYPE values are:

BOOL = Boolean ON/OFF value.
PATH = Path to a directory.
FILEPATH = Path to a file.
STRING = Generic string value.
INTERNAL = Do not present in GUI at all.
STATIC = Value managed by CMake, do not change.
UNINITIALIZED = Type not yet specified.

Generally the TYPE of a cache entry should be set by the command which creates it ( set(), option(),
find_library(), etc.).

VALUE
Value of a cache entry.

This property maps to the actual value of a cache entry. Setting this property always sets the value
without checking, so use with care.

PROPERTIES ON INSTALLED FILES

CPACK_DESKTOP_SHORTCUTS
Species a list of shortcut names that should be created on the Desktop for this file.

The property is currently only supported by the CPack WIX Generator.

CPACK_NEVER_OVERWRITE
Request that this file not be overwritten on install or reinstall.

The property is currently only supported by the CPack WIX Generator.

CPACK_PERMANENT
Request that this file not be removed on uninstall.

The property is currently only supported by the CPack WIX Generator.

CPACK_START_MENU_SHORTCUTS
Species a list of shortcut names that should be created in the Start Menu for this file.

The property is currently only supported by the CPack WIX Generator.

CPACK_STARTUP_SHORTCUTS
Species a list of shortcut names that should be created in the Startup folder for this file.

The property is currently only supported by the CPack WIX Generator.

CPACK_WIX_ACL
Specifies access permissions for files or directories installed by a WiX installer.

The property can contain multiple list entries, each of which has to match the following format.

<user>[@<domain>]=<permission>[,<permission>]

<user> and <domain> specify the windows user and domain for which the <Permission> element should be
generated.

<permission> is any of the YesNoType attributes listed here:

http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/xsd/wix/permission.html

The property is currently only supported by the CPack WIX Generator.

DEPRECATED PROPERTIES ON DIRECTORIES

   ADDITIONAL_MAKE_CLEAN_FILES
       Deprecated since version 3.15: Use ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES instead.

       Additional files to remove during the clean stage.

       A ;-list of files that will be removed as a part of the make clean target.

       Arguments to ADDITIONAL_MAKE_CLEAN_FILES may use generator expressions.

       This property only works for the Makefile generators.  It is ignored on other generators.

   COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_<CONFIG>
       Ignored.  See CMake Policy CMP0043.

       Per-configuration preprocessor definitions in a directory.

       This is the configuration-specific version of COMPILE_DEFINITIONS where <CONFIG> is  an  upper-case  name
       (ex. COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_DEBUG).

       This property will be initialized in each directory by its value in the directory’s parent.

       Contents of COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_<CONFIG> may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>.  See the
       cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.  See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
       more on defining buildsystem properties.

       Generator expressions should be preferred instead of setting this property.

   TEST_INCLUDE_FILE
       Deprecated.  Use TEST_INCLUDE_FILES instead.

       A cmake file that will be included when ctest is run.

       If  you  specify  TEST_INCLUDE_FILE,  that  file  will be included and processed when ctest is run on the
       directory.

DEPRECATED PROPERTIES ON TARGETS

   COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_<CONFIG>
       Ignored.  See CMake Policy CMP0043.

       Per-configuration preprocessor definitions on a target.

       This is the configuration-specific version of COMPILE_DEFINITIONS where <CONFIG> is  an  upper-case  name
       (ex. COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_DEBUG).

       Contents of COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_<CONFIG> may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>.  See the
       cmake-generator-expressions(7) manual for available expressions.  See the cmake-buildsystem(7) manual for
       more on defining buildsystem properties.

       Generator expressions should be preferred instead of setting this property.

   POST_INSTALL_SCRIPT
       Deprecated install support.

       The PRE_INSTALL_SCRIPT and POST_INSTALL_SCRIPT properties are the old way to specify CMake scripts to run
       before and after installing a target.  They are used only when the old INSTALL_TARGETS command is used to
       install the target.  Use the install() command instead.

   PRE_INSTALL_SCRIPT
       Deprecated install support.

       The PRE_INSTALL_SCRIPT and POST_INSTALL_SCRIPT properties are the old way to specify CMake scripts to run
       before and after installing a target.  They are used only when the old INSTALL_TARGETS command is used to
       install the target.  Use the install() command instead.

DEPRECATED PROPERTIES ON SOURCE FILES

   COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_<CONFIG>
       Ignored.  See CMake Policy CMP0043.

       Per-configuration preprocessor definitions on a source file.

       This  is  the  configuration-specific  version  of COMPILE_DEFINITIONS.  Note that Xcode does not support
       per-configuration source file flags so this property will be ignored by the Xcode generator.

COPYRIGHT

       2000-2022 Kitware, Inc. and Contributors