CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME

The name of the operating system for which CMake is to build. See the :variable:CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION variable for the OS version.

Note that CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME is not set to anything by default when running in script mode, since it's not building anything.

System Name for Host Builds ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME is by default set to the same value as the :variable:CMAKE_HOST_SYSTEM_NAME variable so that the build targets the host system.

System Name for Cross Compiling ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME may be set explicitly when first configuring a new build tree in order to enable :ref:cross compiling <Cross Compiling Toolchain>. In this case the :variable:CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION variable must also be set explicitly.

System Names Known to CMake ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The following is a list of possible values, each associated with corresponding operating systems or environments.

Apple Platforms """""""""""""""

Darwin Apple stationary operating systems (macOS, OS X, etc.)

iOS .. versionadded:: 3.14

Apple mobile phone operating system

tvOS .. versionadded:: 3.14

Apple TV operating system

visionOS .. versionadded:: 3.28

Apple mixed reality operating system

watchOS .. versionadded:: 3.14

Apple watch operating system

UNIX Platforms """"""""""""""

ADSP Analog Devices Audio Digital Signal Processing

AIX IBM Unix operating system

Android .. versionadded:: 3.1

Android operating system

ARTOS .. versionadded:: 3.4

Operating system for microcontrollers

BeOS Operating system for personal computers (discontinued)

BlueGeneL Blue Gene/L static environment

BlueGeneP-dynamic Blue Gene/P dynamic environment

BlueGeneP-static Blue Gene/P static environment

BlueGeneQ-dynamic .. versionadded:: 3.3

Blue Gene/Q dynamic environment

BlueGeneQ-static .. versionadded:: 3.3

Blue Gene/Q static environment

BSDOS BSD operating system (discontinued)

Catamount Operating system for Cray XT series

CrayLinuxEnvironment .. versionadded:: 3.5

Cray Linux Environment

DragonFly BSD-derived operating system

eCos Real-time embedded operating system

Emscripten .. versionadded:: 4.2

Compiler toolchain to WebAssembly.

Euros .. versionadded:: 3.4

Real-time operating system for embedded devices

FreeBSD FreeBSD operating system

Fuchsia .. versionadded:: 3.8

Operating system by Google based on the Zircon kernel

Generic-ADSP Generic ADSP (Audio DSP) environment

Generic-ELF .. versionadded:: 3.23

Generic ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) environment

Generic Some platforms, e.g. bare metal embedded devices

GHS-MULTI .. versionadded:: 3.3

Green Hills Software MULTI environment

GNU GNU/Hurd-based operating system

Haiku Unix operating system inspired by BeOS

HP-UX Hewlett Packard Unix (discontinued)

Linux All Linux-based distributions

MirBSD MirOS BSD operating system

MP-RAS MP-RAS UNIX operating system

NetBSD NetBSD operating systems

OHOS .. versionadded:: 3.30

OpenHarmony family of operating systems (e.g., HarmonyOS)

Toolchain file can set this value when targeting OpenHarmony operating systems.

OpenBSD OpenBSD operating systems

OpenVMS OpenVMS operating system by HP

OS2 .. versionadded:: 3.18

OS/2 operating system

OSF1 Compaq Tru64 UNIX (formerly DEC OSF/1, Digital Unix) (discontinued)

QNX Unix-like operating system by BlackBerry

RISCos RISC OS operating system

SCO_SV SCO OpenServer 5

SerenityOS .. versionadded:: 3.25

Unix-like operating system

SINIX SINIX operating system

SunOS Oracle Solaris and all illumos operating systems

syllable Syllable operating system

Tru64 Compaq Tru64 UNIX (formerly DEC OSF/1) operating system

ULTRIX Unix operating system (discontinued)

UNIX_SV SCO UnixWare (pre release 7)

UnixWare SCO UnixWare 7

WASI .. versionadded:: 3.31

WebAssembly System Interface

Xenix SCO Xenix Unix operating system (discontinued)

Windows Platforms """""""""""""""""

CYGWIN Cygwin environment for Windows

Cygwin's cmake package (/usr/bin/cmake) uses system name CYGWIN. A non-cygwin CMake on Windows (e.g. $PROGRAMFILES/CMake/bin/cmake) uses system name Windows even when it runs under a Cygwin environment.

DOS MS-DOS or compatible

Midipix .. versionadded:: 3.10

POSIX-compatible layer for Windows

MSYS MSYS environment (MSYSTEM=MSYS)

MSYS2's msys/cmake package (/usr/bin/cmake) works only under MSYSTEM=MSYS environments, with system name MSYS. Under other environments like MSYSTEM=MINGW64, use another package such as mingw64/mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake (/mingw64/bin/cmake), which targets MSYSTEM=MINGW64 with system name Windows.

Windows Windows stationary operating systems

WindowsCE Windows Embedded Compact

WindowsKernelModeDriver .. versionadded:: 4.1

Windows Kernel-Mode Driver

When building drivers for Kernel-Mode Driver Framework on Windows, toolchain file can set this value. See also the :variable:CMAKE_WINDOWS_KMDF_VERSION variable.

WindowsPhone .. versionadded:: 3.1

Windows mobile phone operating system

WindowsStore .. versionadded:: 3.1

Universal Windows Platform applications

Removed Platforms """""""""""""""""

The following platforms were once supported by CMake and got removed either due to platform's EOL, or other incompatibilities:

kFreeBSD .. versionchanged:: 4.1 Removed from CMake.

FreeBSD kernel with a GNU userland