[CMake] What is the default build type?

[David Cole]

Yes, your code is a good example Marcus. It was one of the previous
suggestions on this thread which had example code setting
CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES.

I would recommend against setting this variable because in some places
in CMake code, it is used as an approximate proxy for whether or not a
multi-configuration generator is being used.


For a few examples, see the CMake code base itself:

$ git grep CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES | grep -Ev
"Auxiliary/vim/syntax/cmake.vim|Help/|Tests/"

CMakeCPack.cmake:  if(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
Modules/CMakeExpandImportedTargets.cmake:#
${CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES} if set, otherwise ${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}.
Modules/CMakeExpandImportedTargets.cmake:      if(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
Modules/CMakeExpandImportedTargets.cmake:         list(GET
CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES 0 CEIT_CONFIGURATION)
Modules/CTestTargets.cmake:if(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
Modules/DeployQt4.cmake:                        if(configurations AND
(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES OR CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE))
Modules/DeployQt4.cmake:                if(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES
OR CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE)
Modules/ExternalProject.cmake:      if(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
Modules/ExternalProject.cmake:        if(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
Modules/ExternalProject.cmake:  if(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
Modules/ExternalProject.cmake:    if(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
Modules/ExternalProject.cmake:      foreach(cfg ${CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES})
Modules/FindBoost.cmake:      if(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES OR CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE)
Modules/FindCUDA.cmake:# Makefile and similar generators don't define
CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES, so we
Modules/FindCUDA.cmake:set(CUDA_configuration_types
${CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES} ${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE} Debug MinSizeRel
Release RelWithDebInfo)
Modules/FindQt4.cmake:        if (CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES OR CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE)
Modules/SelectLibraryConfigurations.cmake:           (
CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES OR CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE ) )
Source/cmGlobalVisualStudio7Generator.cxx:  if
(!mf->GetDefinition("CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES")) {
Source/cmGlobalVisualStudio7Generator.cxx:
"CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES",
"Debug;Release;MinSizeRel;RelWithDebInfo",
Source/cmGlobalXCodeGenerator.cxx:  if
(!mf->GetDefinition("CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES")) {
Source/cmGlobalXCodeGenerator.cxx:      "CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES",
"Debug;Release;MinSizeRel;RelWithDebInfo",
Source/cmGlobalXCodeGenerator.cxx:
this->CurrentMakefile->GetRequiredDefinition("CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES");
Source/cmMakefile.cxx:
this->GetDefinition("CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES")) {
Utilities/Release/WiX/CMakeLists.txt:if(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)





On Wed, Aug 2, 2017 at 2:42 PM, Marcus D. Hanwell
<marcus.hanwell at kitware.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 2, 2017 at 1:32 PM, David Cole <DLRdave at aol.com> wrote:
>> Very cool, Marcus. Thanks for the blog post.
>>
>> Florian, when you "message(${CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES})" it is empty
>> because you are using a single-configuration CMake generator. Only
>> Visual Studio and Xcode (and possibly other) **multi** config
>> generators have a list of values in CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES.
>> Contrary to the previous recommendation, I would NOT recommend setting
>> it to a list in a single configuration generator. If you're using a
>> multi-config generator, you can set up a subset for it to use with
>> this, but in a single config generator, this variable SHOULD be empty,
>> and you should not give it contents in that case.
>>
> Terrible English, try number two... Why would you not recommend
> setting it, and what do you mean by it? I was not setting
> CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES to anything, but the CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE
> property is manipulated to offer the list, and then the
> CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE variable is populated if it is empty in my example.