[CMake] Latest versions of CMake/Qt Creator lock up configuration on CMake error

[Moreland, Kenneth]

Haocheng,

Yes, if I go to the CMake GUI, use that to set all the CMake variables so that the configure succeeds, and then load that configuration into Qt Creator, everything works fine. The problem is only when CMake configuration fails because a variable needs to change. The common case where you have configuration code like the following:

find_package(foo)
if (NOT foo_FOUND)
  message(SEND_ERROR “Need package foo”)
endif()

Often on the first run of CMake, you’ll get the error about not finding package foo. Then you set the foo_DIR variable (or whatever CMake needs to find the library) and the configure succeed. But Qt Creator is not letting me set those variables, which is clearly wrong.

One more data point, this is on Windows 10. I don’t know if there is a difference on different systems.

-Ken

From: Haocheng Liu <haocheng.liu at kitware.com>
Date: Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 3:50 PM
To: "Moreland, Kenneth" <kmorel at sandia.gov>
Cc: "cmake at cmake.org" <cmake at cmake.org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [CMake] Latest versions of CMake/Qt Creator lock up configuration on CMake error

Hi Ken,

On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 4:08 PM, Moreland, Kenneth <kmorel at sandia.gov<mailto:kmorel at sandia.gov>> wrote:
This might be a question for the folks at Qt, but I thought I would float it here first as other CMake users might have run into it.

This morning I updated to the most recent versions of CMake (3.10.2) and Qt Creator (4.5.1). I then tried to use Qt Creator to configure a non-trivial CMake project from scratch and ran into an issue. The problem is that any time CMake fails to configure, the Qt Creator Build Settings GUI becomes non-responsive. This is a serious issue since it is common for CMake to fail because it cannot find some required component (like a library it depends on), and then to use the GUI to point CMake to the proper location of the library. However, once CMake fails to configure, Qt Creator doesn’t let you change the CMake variables to point it in the right direction.

Out of curiosity, I updated my Qt Creator to 4.5.1 and tested it with CMake(3.10.1) on my Ubuntu 16.04 laptop and it works fine. I'm able to modify the CMake variables.
I suspect this is caused by the ne w server-mode feature of CMake. My guess is that once the CMake server fails to configure, it stops providing any information to Qt Creator, which then becomes nonresponsive until the configure succeeds.

Since CMake introduces its server mode in 3.7, ideally my CMake(3.10.1) should also be affected. Humm.
Has anyone seen this behavior or have any workarounds?

Have you tried to tweak the CMake variables via ccmake or cmake-gui then right click your project in Qt Creator ->  call `Run CMake` in the context menu?

best regards
Haocheng
-Ken

   ****      Kenneth Moreland
    ***      Sandia National Laboratories
***********
*** *** ***  email: kmorel at sandia.gov<mailto:kmorel at sandia.gov>
**  ***  **  phone: (505) 844-8919<tel:(505)%20844-8919>
    ***      web:   http://kennethmoreland.com



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Best regards
Haocheng

Haocheng LIU
Kitware, Inc.
R&D Engineer
21 Corporate Drive
Clifton Park, NY 12065-8662
Phone: 518-881-4421<tel:(518)%20881-4421>
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