Setting the compiler
See Advanced Options below.
Configuration tools
Included in the standard cmake distribution are the Windows CMake gui and the unix ccmake curses interface, which allow one to configure various aspects of the cmake build.
On Microsoft Windows run the CMake configuration program from the Start menu. On unix, run
ccmake <path-to-source>
where ccmake will be in CMake's binary directory. If you have not yet run cmake in this directory,
you will see an empty list of options:
Page 0 of 1 EMPTY CACHE EMPTY CACHE: Press [enter] to edit option CMake Version 2.6 - patch 0 Press [c] to configure Press [h] for help Press [q] to quit without generating Press [t] to toggle advanced mode (Currently Off)
After pressing c to configure, (or if you've run cmake already),
You will be presented with a list of editable build options something like this:
BUILD_BOOST_DATE_TIME ON BUILD_BOOST_FILESYSTEM ON BUILD_BOOST_GRAPH ON BUILD_BOOST_IOSTREAMS ON BUILD_BOOST_PROGRAM_OPTIONS ON BUILD_BOOST_PYTHON ON BUILD_BOOST_REGEX ON BUILD_BOOST_SERIALIZATION ON BUILD_BOOST_SIGNALS ON BUILD_BOOST_TEST ON BUILD_BOOST_THREAD ON BUILD_BOOST_WAVE ON BUILD_BOOST_WSERIALIZATION ON BUILD_DEBUG ON BUILD_MULTI_THREADED ON BUILD_RELEASE ON BUILD_SHARED ON BUILD_SINGLE_THREADED ON BUILD_STATIC ON BUILD_TESTING OFF BUILD_VERSIONED ON CMAKE_BACKWARDS_COMPATIBILITY 2.4 CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX /usr/local DEBUG_COMPILE_FLAGS -g EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH LIBRARY_OUTPUT_PATH PYTHON_EXECUTABLE /usr/bin/python2.4 PYTHON_INCLUDE_PATH /usr/include/python2.4 PYTHON_LIBRARY /usr/lib/python2.4/config/libpython2.4.so RELEASE_COMPILE_FLAGS -O3 -DNDEBUG BUILD_VERSIONED: Use versioned library names, e.g., boost_filesystem-gcc41-1_34 Press [enter] to edit option CMake Version 2.4 - patch 5 Press [c] to configure Press [g] to generate and exit Press [h] for help Press [q] to quit without generating Press [t] to toggle advanced mode (Currently Off)
Use the arrow keys to select particular options. Press c (for (c)onfigure) to perform the preliminary configuration of the CMake build system when you are done. When the options you have selected have stabilized, CMake will give you the (g)enerate option. If you do not see this option, press c again to reconfigure. Try the t key to see more options. When you're done press g to generate makefiles and exit.
CMakeCache.txt
The same information is stored in a file CMakeCache.txt located in the build directory. For this reason, after you've done the initial configuration of a build directory you can invoke ccmake like this:
ccmake <path-to-build>
or have the makefiles do it for you:
make edit_cache
The CMakeCache.txt file is hand-editable, though this is usually not as convenient as the cmake-supplied configuration tools mentioned above. An excerpt of this file:
// // Enable/Disable color output during build. // CMAKE_COLOR_MAKEFILE:BOOL=ON // // Use versioned library names, e.g., boost_filesystem-gcc41-1_34 // BUILD_VERSIONED:BOOL=ON
On unix, (?windows too?) the generated makefiles will detect if this file has been edited and will automatically rerun the makefile generation phase. If you should need to trigger this regeneration manually you may execute
make rebuild_cache
Useful options
More detail on some of these options is available elsewhere. But here is a summary:
| Option | Description |
BUILD_VERSIONED | Toggles mangling of compiler name and boost version into library names |
BUILD_TESTING | Toggles build of testing |
BUILD_feature | Toggles build of feature feature, where feature comes from the list found at CMakeBuildFeatures, e.g. BUILD_RELEASE, BUILD_DEBUG, BUILD_MULTI_THREADED, etc.
|
BUILD_BOOST_library | Toggles building and testing of library (e.g. this will appear as BUILD_BOOST_REGEX, BUILD_BOOST_PROGRAM_OPTIONS, etc.
|
TEST_BOOST_library | Toggles testing of library (this option appears only if BUILD_BOOST_library and BUILD_TESTING are enabled. See CMakeTesting
|
CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES | Mac OS X users: to build universal binaries, set this to ppc;i386.
|
Advanced options
ccmake provides the keystroke option t which toggles advanced mode. Some of the useful options here are:
| Option | Description |
CMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE | Displays full build commands during build. Good for debugging. Advanced option: use t to toggle display of this option and others. On unix, you can also build verbose by passing the command line option VERBOSE=1 to your make invocation.
|
CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER | Sets the compiler. |
