CMake 3.7 Release Notes

Contents

• CMake 3.7 Release Notes
  • New Features
    • Platforms
    • Generators
    • Commands
    • Variables
    • Properties
    • Modules
    • CTest
    • CPack
    • Other
  • Deprecated and Removed Features
  • Other Changes

Changes made since CMake 3.6 include the following.

New Features

Platforms

• CMake now supports Cross Compiling for Android with simple toolchain files.
• The Clang compiler is now supported on AIX.

Generators

• The Ninja generator learned to conditionally support Fortran when using a ninja tool that has the necessary features. See generator documentation for details.
• The Ninja generator learned to produce phony targets of the form sub/dir/{test,install,package} to drive the build of a subdirectory installation, test or packaging target. This is equivalent to cd sub/dir; make {test,install,package} with Makefile Generators.
• The Visual Studio 15 2017 generator was added. This is experimental and based on “Visual Studio 2017 RC” because this version of VS has not been released.
• Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above learned to place .natvis source files into VS project files properly.
• The Xcode generator’s rudimentary Swift language support learned to honor a new CMAKE_Swift_LANGUAGE_VERSION variable to tell Xcode what version of Swift is used by the source.
• The CodeLite generator gained a new CMAKE_CODELITE_USE_TARGETS option to change project creation from projects to targets.

Commands

• The add_custom_command() command gained a new DEPFILE option that works with the Ninja generator to provide implicit dependency information to the build tool.
• The cmake_parse_arguments() command gained a new PARSE_ARGV mode to read arguments directly from ARGC and ARGV# variables inside a function() body.
• The export() command gained an ANDROID_MK option to generate Android.mk files referencing CMake-built libraries as prebuilts for the Android NDK build system.
• The file(DOWNLOAD) and file(UPLOAD) commands gained HTTPHEADER <HTTP-header> and USERPWD <username>:<password> options.
• The find_library() and find_package() commands learned to search in lib32/ directories when the build targets a 32-bit architecture. See the FIND_LIBRARY_USE_LIB32_PATHS global property.
• The find_package() command gained the possibility of sorting compatible libraries by NAME or by NATURAL sorting by setting the two new variables CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_SORT_ORDER and CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_SORT_DIRECTION.
• The if() command gained new boolean comparison operations LESS_EQUAL, GREATER_EQUAL, STRLESS_EQUAL, STRGREATER_EQUAL, VERSION_LESS_EQUAL, and VERSION_GREATER_EQUAL.
• The install() command gained an EXPORT_ANDROID_MK subcommand to install Android.mk files referencing installed libraries as prebuilts for the Android NDK build system.
• The string(TIMESTAMP) and file(TIMESTAMP) commands gained support for the %a and %b placeholders. These are the abbreviated weekday and month names.
• The try_compile() command source file signature now honors configuration-specific flags (e.g. CMAKE_<LANG>_FLAGS_DEBUG) in the generated test project. Previously only the default such flags for the current toolchain were used. See policy CMP0066.

Variables

• Variable CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_SORT_ORDER was added to control the sorting mode of the find_package() command.
• Variable CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_SORT_DIRECTION was added to control the sorting direction the find_package() command.
• Toolchain files may now set a CMAKE_<LANG>_FLAGS_INIT variable to initialize the CMAKE_<LANG>_FLAGS cache entry the first time a language is enabled in a build tree.
• Toolchain files may now set CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_INIT, CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_INIT, and CMAKE_MODULE_LINKER_FLAGS_INIT variables to initialize the CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS, CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS, and CMAKE_MODULE_LINKER_FLAGS cache entries the first time a language is enabled in a build tree.

Properties

• On Apple platforms the BUNDLE_EXTENSION target property now also applies to Frameworks and App Bundles.
• A BINARY_DIR directory property was added to get the absolute path to the binary directory corresponding to the source directory on which the property is read.
• A BUILDSYSTEM_TARGETS directory property was added to get the list of logical buildsystem target names added by the project in a directory.
• A LINK_WHAT_YOU_USE target property and supporting CMAKE_LINK_WHAT_YOU_USE variable were introduced to detect (on UNIX) shared libraries that are linked but not needed by running ldd -r -u.
• A SOURCE_DIR directory property was added to get the absolute path to the source directory associated with a directory.
• A SUBDIRECTORIES directory property was added to get the list of subdirectories added by a project in a directory.
• A VS_SDK_REFERENCES target property was added to tell Visual Studio Generators to reference the named SDKs.
• A VS_TOOL_OVERRIDE source file property was created to tell Visual Studio Generators what tool to use for a source file.
• The WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS target property now applies to executable targets with the ENABLE_EXPORTS property set.
• A XCODE_FILE_ATTRIBUTES source file property was added to tell the Xcode generator to generate custom content in the Xcode project attributes for the file.

Modules

• An AndroidTestUtilities module was added to manage transfer of test data to an Android device.
• The CheckFortranSourceCompiles module macro CHECK_Fortran_SOURCE_COMPILES gained a SRC_EXT option to specify a custom test Fortran source file extension.
• The ExternalProject module gained HTTP_USERNAME and HTTP_PASSWORD options to set http download credentials.
• The ExternalProject module gained a HTTP_HEADER option to add http download headers.
• The FindBISON module BISON_TARGET macro learned a new REPORT_FILE option to specify the bison --report-file= option.
• The FindBZip2 module now provides imported targets.
• A FindICU module was introduced to find the International Components for Unicode (ICU) libraries and programs.
• The FindMatlab module learned to find the SIMULINK and MAT components.
• The FindMatlab module matlab_add_mex() command learned to add executables and modules.
• The FindMatlab module matlab_add_unit_test() command learned to support inline Matlab test code.
• The FindOpenCL module now provides imported targets.
• The FindOpenMP module learned to detect the OpenMP version (specification date) from the compiler.
• A FindVulkan module was added.
• The GenerateExportHeader module learned a new CUSTOM_CONTENT_FROM_VARIABLE option to specify a variable containing custom content for inclusion in the generated header.
• The GNUInstallDirs module gained a new GNUInstallDirs_get_absolute_install_dir() command.
• The UseJava module gained APIs to “export” jar targets for use by external CMake projects. See the install_jar_exports and export_jars functions.

CTest

• CTest now supports test fixtures through the new FIXTURES_SETUP, FIXTURES_CLEANUP and FIXTURES_REQUIRED test properties. When using regular expressions or --rerun-failed to limit the tests to be run, a fixture’s setup and cleanup tests will automatically be added to the execution set if any test requires that fixture.
• The ctest_configure(), ctest_build(), ctest_test(), ctest_coverage(), and ctest_upload() commands gained a new CAPTURE_CMAKE_ERROR option to capture any errors that occur as the commands run into a variable and avoid affecting the return code of the ctest(1) process.

CPack

• CPack gained a CPack productbuild Generator on OS X.
• CPack gained a new CPACK_PACKAGE_CHECKSUM variable to enable generation of a checksum file for each package file.
• The CPack DEB Generator learned to support long file names when archive format is set to GNU tar. See CPACK_DEBIAN_ARCHIVE_TYPE
• The CPackIFW module gained a new cpack_ifw_add_package_resources() command to include additional resources in the installer binary.
• The CPackIFW module cpack_ifw_configure_component() and cpack_ifw_configure_component_group() commands gained a new USER_INTERFACES option to add a list of additional pages to the IFW installer.
• The CPack RPM Generator learned to generate debuginfo packages on demand. See CPACK_RPM_DEBUGINFO_PACKAGE and its per component version.
• The CPack RPM Generator learned to generate source rpm (SRPM) packages on demand. See CPACK_RPM_PACKAGE_SOURCES, CPACK_RPM_SOURCE_PKG_BUILD_PARAMS and CPACK_RPM_SOURCE_PKG_PACKAGING_INSTALL_PREFIX.
• The CPack NSIS Generator now supports CPACK_NSIS_<compName>_INSTALL_DIRECTORY. This can be used to set component specific installation directories.
• The CPack WIX Generator now supports CPACK_WIX_SKIP_PROGRAM_FOLDER to allow specification of a custom absolute installation prefix outside of the ProgramFiles folders.
• The CPack WIX Generator now supports CPACK_COMPONENT_<compName>_DISABLED. This can be used to deselect a component from being installed by default.
• The CPack WIX Generator now supports CPACK_WIX_PATCH_FILE fragments for Feature elements.
• The CPack WIX Generator now supports CPACK_WIX_ROOT_FEATURE_TITLE and CPACK_WIX_ROOT_FEATURE_DESCRIPTION to allow the specification of a custom title and description for the root feature element.

Other

• cmake(1) gained a -E capabilities option to provide a machine-readable (JSON) description of the capabilities of the cmake tool (available generators, etc.).
• A new cmake-server(7) mode was added to provide semantic information about a CMake-generated buildsystem to clients through a JSON protocol. Currently all protocols are experimental and subject to change.
• The cmake(1) command learned a --trace-source=<file> option.
• ccmake(1) learned to support vim-like navigation bindings.
• cmake-gui(1) gained a button to open the generated project file for Visual Studio Generators and the Xcode generator.

Deprecated and Removed Features

• We no longer provide Linux i386 binaries for download from cmake.org for new versions of CMake.

• Vim support files cmake-indent.vim, cmake-syntax.vim, and cmake-help.vim have been removed in favor of the files now provided from the vim-cmake-syntax project.

• Support for building CMake itself with some compilers was dropped:

  • Visual Studio 7.1 and 2005 – superseded by VS 2008 and above
  • MinGW.org mingw32 – superseded by MSYS2 mingw32 and mingw64

  CMake still supports generating build systems for other projects using these compilers.

Other Changes

• The Fortran dependency scanner learned to support the syntax of Fortran Submodules.
• Vim support files indent/cmake.vim and syntax/cmake.vim from the vim-cmake-syntax project are now distributed with CMake.