CMake 3.25 Release Notes

Contents

• CMake 3.25 Release Notes

  • New Features

    • Presets

    • Languages

    • Command-Line

    • Compilers

    • Commands

    • Variables

    • Properties

    • Modules

    • CPack

  • Deprecated and Removed Features

  • Other Changes

Changes made since CMake 3.24 include the following.

New Features

Presets

• The cmake-presets(7) schema version has been bumped to 6.

• The cmake-presets(7) format now supports a packagePresets field to specify presets for cpack --preset.

• The cmake-presets(7) format now supports a workflowPresets field to specify presets for cmake --workflow.

• The cmake-presets(7) format now supports a outputJUnitFile field to specify JUnit output in test presets.

Languages

• The Compile Features functionality is now aware of C++26, and defines a cxx_std_26 meta-feature. C++26 compiler modes may also be specified via the CXX_STANDARD, CUDA_STANDARD, HIP_STANDARD, or OBJCXX_STANDARD target properties.

• CUDA language support now includes device link-time optimization when using nvcc. The CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION variable and the associated INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION target property will activate device LTO.

Command-Line

• A cmake --workflow --preset mode was added to drive sequences of configure, build, test, and package operations through a single command.

• The cmake -E capabilities command gained a new tls field that tells whether or not TLS is enabled.

• The cmake -E env command-line tool gained a --modify flag to support ENVIRONMENT_MODIFICATION operations.

• The cmake --debug-trycompile option now prints log messages reporting the directory in which each try-compile check is done.

Compilers

• Support for the Tasking compiler toolsets (SmartCode, TriCore, Standalone: ARM, MCS, 8051) was added with compiler id Tasking. See the CMAKE_TASKING_TOOLSET variable.

Commands

• The add_subdirectory() command gained a SYSTEM option to enable the SYSTEM directory property in the subdirectory.

• The block() and endblock() commands were added to manage specific scopes (policy or variable) for a contained block of commands.

• The cmake_language() command gained a new GET_MESSAGE_LOG_LEVEL sub-command. It can be used to query the current message logging level.

• The find_file(), find_path(), find_library(), and find_program() commands gained a VALIDATOR option to specify a function to be called for each candidate item to validate it.

• The find_package() command now considers paths of the form <prefix>/<name>*/(cmake|CMake)/<name>*/ when searching for package configuration files.

• The return() command gained a PROPAGATE option to propagate variables to the scope to which control returns. See policy CMP0140.

• The try_compile() and try_run() commands gained new signatures that more consistently use keyword dispatch and do not require a binary directory to be specified. Additionally, these signatures use a unique directory for each invocation, which allows multiple outputs to be preserved when using cmake --debug-trycompile.

• The try_compile() and try_run() commands gained the option NO_CACHE to store results in normal variables.

• The try_run() command gained RUN_OUTPUT_STDOUT_VARIABLE and RUN_OUTPUT_STDERR_VARIABLE options to capture stdout and stderr separately from the output of the compiled program.

Variables

• The BSD and CMAKE_HOST_BSD variables are now set to a string value when the target or host system is BSD, respectively.

• The LINUX and CMAKE_HOST_LINUX variables are now set to true when the target or host system is Linux, respectively.

• The CMAKE_MSVC_DEBUG_INFORMATION_FORMAT variable and MSVC_DEBUG_INFORMATION_FORMAT target property were introduced to select the debug information format for compilers targeting the MSVC ABI. See policy CMP0141.

• The CMAKE_XCODE_SCHEME_ENABLE_GPU_API_VALIDATION variable and corresponding XCODE_SCHEME_ENABLE_GPU_API_VALIDATION target property were added to tell the Xcode generator what to put in the scheme's Metal: API Validation setting.

• The CMAKE_XCODE_SCHEME_ENABLE_GPU_SHADER_VALIDATION variable and corresponding XCODE_SCHEME_ENABLE_GPU_SHADER_VALIDATION target property were added to tell the Xcode generator what to put in the scheme's Metal: Shader Validation setting.

• The CMAKE_XCODE_SCHEME_LAUNCH_MODE variable and corresponding XCODE_SCHEME_LAUNCH_MODE target property were added to tell the Xcode generator what to put in the scheme's "Launch" mode setting.

• The CMAKE_XCODE_SCHEME_LAUNCH_CONFIGURATION variable and corresponding XCODE_SCHEME_LAUNCH_CONFIGURATION target property were added to tell the Xcode generator what configuration to put in the scheme's Launch action.

Properties

• The <LANG>_COMPILER_LAUNCHER target property now supports generator expressions.

• The EXPORT_NO_SYSTEM target property was added to specify that install(EXPORT) and export() commands will generate na imported target with SYSTEM property OFF.

• The SYSTEM target property was added to specify whether a target should be treated as a system library (i.e. its include directories are automatically SYSTEM when compiling consumers). If not set, the default is the previous behavior: on for imported targets and off for other targets.

• The SYSTEM directory property was added to initialize the SYSTEM target property for targets created in that directory.

Modules

• The FetchContent module FetchContent_Declare() command gained a SYSTEM option to enable the SYSTEM directory property in the subdirectory.

• The FindCUDAToolkit module now provides a target for nvtx3 for CUDA 10.0+, which supersedes nvToolsExt. A deprecation warning is emitted when using nvToolsExt if the project requires CMake 3.25 and CUDA 10.0+ is used.

• The FindDoxygen module's version handling has been improved:

  • Multiple candidate installations will now be considered, if needed, to satisfy version constraints. Previously, only the first one encountered would be considered.

  • Version ranges are supported.

  • Variations in the version format reported by Doxygen are now tolerated (e.g. a trailing git commit hash).

• The FindOpenAL module now provides an imported target.

• The FindOpenSP module was added to find the OpenSP library.

• The FindVulkan module gained support for new components:

  dxc

  DirectX Shader Compiler.

  volk

  Volk open-source vulkan meta-loader.

CPack

• The CPack Archive Generator gained a new CPACK_ARCHIVE_FILE_EXTENSION variable to control the package file name extension.

• The CPack NSIS Generator gained two new variables CPACK_NSIS_EXECUTABLE_PRE_ARGUMENTS and CPACK_NSIS_EXECUTABLE_POST_ARGUMENTS to provide arguments to the nsis executable invocation.

• The CPack module gained the CPACK_READELF_EXECUTABLE, CPACK_OBJCOPY_EXECUTABLE, and CPACK_OBJDUMP_EXECUTABLE variables to control the locations of binutils used by cpack(1).

Deprecated and Removed Features

• The IMPORTED_NO_SYSTEM target property has been deprecated in favor of SYSTEM and EXPORT_NO_SYSTEM.

• The Visual Studio 10 2010 generator has been removed.

• The Visual Studio 11 2012 generator is now deprecated and will be removed in a future version of CMake.

Other Changes

• On Windows, when targeting the MSVC ABI, the find_library() command now accepts .a file names after first considering .lib. This is symmetric with existing behavior when targeting the GNU ABI, in which the command accepts .lib file names after first considering .a.

• The SSL_CERT_FILE and SSL_CERT_DIR environment variables can now be used to override where to find certificate authorities for TLS/SSL operations.

• If <LANG>_CLANG_TIDY includes a -p argument, the full compiler command line is no longer appended after --.

• The Xcode generator no longer adds the per-config suffix $(CONFIGURATION)$(EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME) to library search paths. See policy CMP0142.