CMake Build Rules

Build rules

Build rules are defined in CMakeCInformation.cmake and CMakeCXXInformation.cmake. Essentially, they're a template for the command CMake uses to invoke the compiler or linker to do different tasks.

Rules for C++ sources:

CMAKE_CXX_CREATE_SHARED_LIBRARY

CMAKE_CXX_CREATE_SHARED_MODULE

CMAKE_CXX_CREATE_STATIC_LIBRARY

CMAKE_CXX_COMPILE_OBJECT

CMAKE_CXX_LINK_EXECUTABLE

and the equivalents for C sources:

CMAKE_C_CREATE_SHARED_LIBRARY

CMAKE_C_CREATE_SHARED_MODULE

CMAKE_C_CREATE_STATIC_LIBRARY

CMAKE_C_COMPILE_OBJECT

CMAKE_C_LINK_EXECUTABLE

You can override the variables manually, e.g. replacing some flags in the linker command, but you can't change the value of the variables in sharp braces. Usually you don't have to change these rules, only in rare cases. You should only do this if you know what you are doing and there is no other way.

Expansion Rules

There are a couple dozen different less-then-greater-then tags that you can put in build rules. From examining the source code the following style names exist:

ASSEMBLY_SOURCE

FLAGS

LANGUAGE_COMPILE_FLAGS

LINK_FLAGS

LINK_LIBRARIES

OBJECT

OBJECTS

OBJECTS_QUOTED

OBJECT_DIR

PREPROCESSED_SOURCE

SOURCE

TARGET

TARGET_BASE

TARGET_IMPLIB

TARGET_INSTALLNAME_DIR

TARGET_PDB

TARGET_QUOTED

TARGET_SONAME

TARGET_VERSION_MAJOR

TARGET_VERSION_MINOR

Please note you can set these properties globally using SET or LIST, or for a single target using SET_TARGET_PROPERTIES.