Help/release/3.18.rst
CMake 3.18 Release Notes
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Changes made since CMake 3.17 include the following.
CUDA language can now be compiled using Clang on non-Windows
platforms. Separable compilation is not yet supported on any platform.:manual:cmake(1) gained support for profiling of CMake scripts through
the parameters --profiling-output and --profiling-format.
:manual:cmake(1) gained a cat command line
option that can be used to concatenate files and print them
on standard output.
The :command:add_library and :command:add_executable commands
learned to create :ref:Alias Targets referencing non-GLOBAL
:ref:Imported Targets.
The :command:cmake_language() command was added for meta-operations on
scripted or built-in commands, starting with a mode to CALL other
commands, and EVAL CODE to inplace evaluate a CMake script.
The :command:execute_process command gained the ECHO_OUTPUT_VARIABLE
and ECHO_ERROR_VARIABLE options.
The :command:export command now raise an error if used multiple times with
same FILE without APPEND. See policy :policy:CMP0103.
The :command:file command gained the ARCHIVE_CREATE and
ARCHIVE_EXTRACT subcommands to expose the :manual:cmake(1) -E tar
functionality to CMake scripting code.
The :command:file(CONFIGURE) subcommand was created in order to replicate
the :command:configure_file functionality without resorting to a
pre-existing file on disk as input. The content is instead passed as a
string.
The :command:file(UPLOAD) command gained TLS_VERIFY and TLS_CAINFO
options to control server certificate verification.
The :command:find_program, :command:find_library, :command:find_path
and :command:find_file commands gained a new REQUIRED option that will
stop processing with an error message if nothing is found.
The :command:get_property command with SOURCE scope gained the
DIRECTORY and TARGET_DIRECTORY options to get a property
from the provided directory scope.
The :command:get_source_file_property command gained the DIRECTORY
and TARGET_DIRECTORY options to get a property from the
provided directory scope.
The :command:list operation SORT gained the NATURAL sort
option to sort using natural order (see strverscmp(3) manual).
The :command:set_property command with the SOURCE scope gained the
DIRECTORY and TARGET_DIRECTORY options to set properties
in the provided directory scopes.
The :command:set_source_files_properties command gained the DIRECTORY
and TARGET_DIRECTORY options to set properties in the provided
directory scopes.
The :command:string command learned a new HEX sub-command, which
converts strings into their hexadecimal representation.
A :variable:CMAKE_CUDA_ARCHITECTURES variable was added to specify
CUDA output architectures. Users are encouraged to use this instead of
specifying options manually, as this approach is compiler-agnostic.
The variable is initialized automatically when
:variable:CMAKE_CUDA_COMPILER_ID <CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER_ID> is NVIDIA.
The variable is used to initialize the new :prop_tgt:CUDA_ARCHITECTURES
target property. See policy :policy:CMP0104.
The :variable:CMAKE_PCH_WARN_INVALID variable was added to initialize the
:prop_tgt:PCH_WARN_INVALID target property to allow the removal of the
precompiled header invalid warning.
The :prop_tgt:CUDA_ARCHITECTURES target property was added to specify
CUDA output architectures. Users are encouraged to use this instead of
specifying options manually, as this approach is compiler-agnostic.
The property is initialized by the new :variable:CMAKE_CUDA_ARCHITECTURES
variable. See policy :policy:CMP0104.
The :prop_tgt:Fortran_PREPROCESS target property and
:prop_sf:Fortran_PREPROCESS source-file property were added to
control preprocessing of Fortran source files.
The :prop_tgt:FRAMEWORK_MULTI_CONFIG_POSTFIX_<CONFIG> target property
and associated :variable:CMAKE_FRAMEWORK_MULTI_CONFIG_POSTFIX_<CONFIG>
variable were created to allow adding a postfix to the name of a
framework file name when using a multi-config generator.
The :prop_sf:OBJECT_OUTPUTS source file property now supports
:manual:generator expressions <cmake-generator-expressions(7)>.
The :prop_tgt:PCH_WARN_INVALID target property was added to allow the
removal of the precompiled header invalid warning.
The :prop_tgt:UNITY_BUILD_MODE target property was added to tell
generators which algorithm to use for grouping included source
files.
The :prop_tgt:VS_SOURCE_SETTINGS_<tool> target property was added
to tell :ref:Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above to add
metadata to non-built source files using <tool>.
The :prop_sf:VS_SETTINGS source file property was added to tell
:ref:Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above to add
metadata to a non-built source file.
The :prop_tgt:VS_PLATFORM_TOOLSET target property was added to tell
:ref:Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above to override
the platform toolset.
The :prop_tgt:VS_SOLUTION_DEPLOY target property was added to tell
:ref:Visual Studio Generators for VS 2010 and above to mark a
target for deployment even when not building for Windows Phone/Store/CE.
The :module:CheckLinkerFlag module has been added to provide a
facility to check validity of link flags.
The :module:ExternalProject module :command:ExternalProject_Add command
gained a new GIT_REMOTE_UPDATE_STRATEGY keyword. This can be used to
specify how failed rebase operations during a git update should be handled.
The CMAKE_EP_GIT_REMOTE_UPDATE_STRATEGY variable was also added as a
global default and is honored by both the :module:ExternalProject and
:module:FetchContent modules.
The :module:FetchContent module :command:FetchContent_Declare command
now supports a SOURCE_SUBDIR option. It can be used to direct
:command:FetchContent_MakeAvailable to look in a different location
for the CMakeLists.txt file.
The :module:FindBLAS module now provides an imported target.
The :module:FindCUDAToolkit module:
gained the variable
CUDAToolkit_LIBRARY_ROOT, which is the directory containing the
nvvm directory and version.txt.
uses toolkit and library root found during CUDA compiler detection.
The :module:FindLAPACK module now provides an imported target.
The :module:FindPython3, :module:FindPython2 and :module:FindPython
modules:
gained the possibility to create per-artifact cache variables for
interactive editing in :manual:cmake-gui(1) and :manual:ccmake(1).
gained sub-components Development.Module and
Development.Embed under the Development component.
gained the capability to specify which Python implementations to find,
including IronPython and PyPy.
The :module:FindRuby module input and output variables were all renamed
from RUBY_ to Ruby_ for consistency with other find modules.
Input variables of the old case will be honored if provided, and output
variables of the old case are always provided.
The :module:FindSWIG module now accepts target languages as COMPONENTS
and OPTIONAL_COMPONENTS arguments to find_package.
The :module:GoogleTest module :command:gtest_discover_tests command:
gained a new DISCOVERY_MODE option to control when the test
discovery step is run. It offers a new PRE_TEST setting to
run the discovery at test time instead of build time. A new
CMAKE_GTEST_DISCOVER_TESTS_DISCOVERY_MODE variable can be used
to change the default globally.
gained a new optional parameter XML_OUTPUT_DIR. When set the
JUnit XML test results are stored in that directory.
The :module:FindLibXslt module now provides imported targets.
The :module:UseSWIG module now supports Fortran as a target language if
the SWIG_EXECUTABLE is SWIG-Fortran_.
.. _SWIG-Fortran: https://github.com/swig-fortran/swig
The :genex:$<DEVICE_LINK:...> and :genex:$<HOST_LINK:...>
generator expressions were added to manage device and host link steps.
The :genex:$<LINK_LANGUAGE:...> and :genex:$<LINK_LANG_AND_ID:...>
generator expressions were added.
:manual:ctest(1) gained a new :variable:CTEST_RESOURCE_SPEC_FILE
variable, which can be used to specify a
:ref:resource specification file <ctest-resource-specification-file>.
:manual:ctest(1) gained a --stop-on-failure option,
which can be used to stop running the tests once one has failed.
The :command:ctest_test command gained a STOP_ON_FAILURE option
which can be used to stop running the tests once one has failed.
The :module:CTestCoverageCollectGCOV module
:command:ctest_coverage_collect_gcov command gained a
TARBALL_COMPRESSION option to control compression of the
tarball of collected results.
The :cpack_gen:CPack Archive Generator's TXZ format learned the
:variable:CPACK_ARCHIVE_THREADS variable to enable parallel compression.
Requires support in the liblzma used by CMake.
The :cpack_gen:CPack NSIS Generator gained a new variable
:variable:CPACK_NSIS_MANIFEST_DPI_AWARE to declare that the
installer is DPI-aware.
The :cpack_gen:CPack RPM Generator gained
:variable:CPACK_RPM_PRE_TRANS_SCRIPT_FILE and
:variable:CPACK_RPM_POST_TRANS_SCRIPT_FILE
variables to specify pre- and post-transaction scripts.
:manual:cmake-gui(1) now populates its generator selection
widget default value from the :envvar:CMAKE_GENERATOR environment
variable. Additionally, environment variables
:envvar:CMAKE_GENERATOR_PLATFORM and :envvar:CMAKE_GENERATOR_TOOLSET
are used to populate their respective widget defaults.
:manual:ccmake(1) learned to read a :envvar:CCMAKE_COLORS
environment variable to customize colors.
The :manual:Compile Features <cmake-compile-features(7)> functionality
is now aware of the availability of C11 features in MSVC 19.27 and 19.28,
including support for the c_restrict, c_static_assert features and
the -std:c11 flag.
The :module:Documentation module has been deprecated via
:policy:CMP0106. This module was essentially VTK code that CMake should
not be shipping anymore.
An explicit deprecation diagnostic was added for policy CMP0070
and policy CMP0071 (CMP0069 and below were already deprecated).
The :manual:cmake-policies(7) manual explains that the OLD behaviors
of all policies are deprecated and that projects should port to the
NEW behaviors.
On Windows, the :generator:Ninja and :generator:Ninja Multi-Config
generators, when a compiler is not explicitly specified, now select
the first compiler (of any name) found in directories listed by the
PATH environment variable.
The :prop_tgt:LINK_OPTIONS and :prop_tgt:INTERFACE_LINK_OPTIONS target
properties are now used for the device link step.
See policy :policy:CMP0105.
Creation of an ALIAS target overwriting an existing target now raises an
error. See policy :policy:CMP0107.
Linking a target to itself through an alias now raises an error.
See policy :policy:CMP0108.
The :module:FindPackageHandleStandardArgs module option REQUIRED_VARS
is now optional if HANDLE_COMPONENTS is specified.
The :command:source_group command now also recognizes forward slashes
as subgroup delimiters, not just backslashes.
:manual:ctest(1) now logs environment variables that it sets for each test,
either due to the :prop_test:ENVIRONMENT property or the
:ref:resource allocation <ctest-resource-allocation> feature, and submits
this log to CDash. It does not log environment variables that were set
outside of CTest.
When building CMake itself from source and not using a system-provided
libcurl, HTTP/2 support is now enabled for commands supporting
network communication via http(s), such as :command:file(DOWNLOAD),
:command:file(UPLOAD), and :command:ctest_submit.
The precompiled binaries provided on cmake.org now support HTTP/2.
The :manual:cmake-file-api(7) "codemodel" version 2 version field has
been updated to 2.1.
The :manual:cmake-file-api(7) "codemodel" version 2 "target" object gained
a new precompileHeaders field in the compileGroups objects.
Changes made since CMake 3.18.0 include the following.
The :generator:Xcode generator, when :variable:CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES
is not defined, now selects $(NATIVE_ARCH_ACTUAL) as the default
architecture (the Xcode ARCHS setting). This is needed for Xcode 12
to select the host's architecture, which older versions of Xcode did
by default.
In CMake 3.18.0 the :command:add_test command learned to support
special characters in test names. This was accidentally left out of
its release notes. Unfortunately the fix breaks existing projects
that were using manual quoting or escaping to work around the prior
limitation. This fix has been reverted in 3.18.1, but may be
re-introduced in future versions of CMake with a policy for compatibility.
The default value of :variable:CMAKE_AUTOMOC_PATH_PREFIX was changed to
OFF because this feature can break existing projects that have
identically named header files in different include directories.
This restores compatibility with behavior of CMake 3.15 and below.
The default was also changed to OFF in 3.16.9 and 3.17.5.
The :manual:Compile Features <cmake-compile-features(7)> functionality
was updated for MSVC 19.27 as mentioned above (c_restrict).
Compile Features <cmake-compile-features(7)> functionality
was updated for MSVC 19.28 as mentioned above (c_static_assert).