[Cmake] CMAKE_BACKWARDS_COMPATABILITY

Ken Martin ken.martin at kitware.com
Thu Jan 9 09:31:19 EST 2003


Hello Folks,

 

A little while ago I introduced a change in how CMake handles backwards
compatibility. In version 1.4 CMake would by default allow all old
commands to be used. Only when you did CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED(VERSION
1.4) would it become strict. The problem with this approach was that
people would write CMakeList files not knowing that they were using old
deprecated commands. In CMake 1.6 we have changed the approach so that
by default CMake is strict and doesn't allow old commands. It places a
variable in the cache called CMAKE_BACKWARDS_COMPATABILITY which
defaults to the current version of CMake. If a CMakeList file uses an
old command a nice warning (or error depending on how old it is) appears
indicating what to do to fix the problem. You can either update the
CMakeLists.txt file or just set the value of
CMAKE_BACKWARDS_COMPATABILITY to the version specified in the warning
message. On the good side the commands that were in CMake 1.4 are all in
CMake 1.6. I don't think we had to deprecate any commands in 1.6. Some
variables changed which has caused some issues but the actual commands
seem to be becoming more stable.

 

Thanks

Ken

 

Ken Martin, PhD

Kitware Inc.

518 371 3971 x101

469 Clifton Corporate Pkwy

Clifton Park NY 12065

 

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