separate_arguments

Parse command-line arguments into a semicolon-separated list.

.. code-block:: cmake

separate_arguments(<variable> <mode> [PROGRAM [SEPARATE_ARGS]] <args>)

Parses a space-separated string <args> into a list of items, and stores this list in semicolon-separated standard form in <variable>.

This function is intended for parsing command-line arguments. The entire command line must be passed as one string in the argument <args>.

The exact parsing rules depend on the operating system. They are specified by the <mode> argument which must be one of the following keywords:

UNIX_COMMAND Arguments are separated by unquoted whitespace. Both single-quote and double-quote pairs are respected. A backslash escapes the next literal character (\" is "); there are no special escapes (\n is just n).

WINDOWS_COMMAND A Windows command-line is parsed using the same syntax the runtime library uses to construct argv at startup. It separates arguments by whitespace that is not double-quoted. Backslashes are literal unless they precede double-quotes. See the MSDN article Parsing C Command-Line Arguments_ for details.

NATIVE_COMMAND .. versionadded:: 3.9

Proceeds as in WINDOWS_COMMAND mode if the host system is Windows. Otherwise proceeds as in UNIX_COMMAND mode.

PROGRAM .. versionadded:: 3.19

The first item in <args> is assumed to be an executable and will be searched in the system search path or left as a full path. If not found, <variable> will be empty. Otherwise, <variable> is a list of 2 elements:

Absolute path of the program
Any command-line arguments present in <args> as a string

For example:

.. code-block:: cmake

separate_arguments (out UNIX_COMMAND PROGRAM "cc -c main.c")

First element of the list: /path/to/cc
Second element of the list: " -c main.c"

SEPARATE_ARGS When this sub-option of PROGRAM option is specified, command-line arguments will be split as well and stored in <variable>.

For example:

.. code-block:: cmake

separate_arguments (out UNIX_COMMAND PROGRAM SEPARATE_ARGS "cc -c main.c")

The contents of out will be: /path/to/cc;-c;main.c

.. _Parsing C Command-Line Arguments: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/c-language/parsing-c-command-line-arguments

.. code-block:: cmake

separate_arguments(<var>)

Convert the value of <var> to a semi-colon separated list. All spaces are replaced with ';'. This helps with generating command lines.