CMake 3.2 Release Notes — CMake 3.24.1 Documentation

# CMake 3.2 Release Notes

Changes made since CMake 3.1 include the following.

## New Features

### Syntax

- CMake learned to support unicode characters encoded as UTF-8 on Windows. This was already supported on platforms whose system APIs accept UTF-8 encoded strings. Unicode characters may now be used in CMake code, paths to source files, configured files such as `.h.in` files, and other files read and written by CMake. Note that because CMake interoperates with many other tools, there may still be some limitations when using certain unicode characters.

### Commands

- The `add_custom_command()` and `add_custom_target()` commands learned a new `BYPRODUCTS` option to specify files produced as side effects of the custom commands. These are not outputs because they do not always have to be newer than inputs.

- The `add_custom_command()` and `add_custom_target()` commands learned a new `USES_TERMINAL` option to request that the command be given direct access to the terminal if possible. The `Ninja` generator will places such commands in the `console` `pool`. Build targets provided by CMake that are meant for individual interactive use, such as `install`, are now placed in this pool.

- A new `continue()` command was added that can be called inside loop contexts to end the current iteration and start the next one at the top of the loop block.

- The `file(LOCK)` subcommand was created to allow CMake processes to synchronize through file and directory locks.

- The `file(STRINGS)` now supports UTF-16LE, UTF-16BE, UTF-32LE, UTF-32BE as `ENCODING` options.

- The `install(EXPORT)` command now works with an absolute `DESTINATION` even if targets in the export set are installed with a destination or usage requirements specified relative to the install prefix. The value of the `CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX` variable is hard-coded into the installed export file as the base for relative references.

- The `try_compile()` command source file signature now honors link flags (e.g. `CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS`) in the generated test project. See policy `CMP0056`.

- The `try_run()` command learned to honor the `LINK_LIBRARIES` option just as `try_compile()` already does.

- The `file(GENERATE)` command now generates the output file with the same permissions as the input file if set.

- The `file(GENERATE)` command can now generate files which are used as source files for buildsystem targets. Generated files automatically get their `GENERATED` property set to `TRUE`.

### Variables

- The `CMAKE_MATCH_COUNT` variable was introduced to record the number of matches made in the last regular expression matched in an `if()` command or a `string()` command.

### Properties

- An `ANDROID_API_MIN` target property was introduced to specify the minimum version to be targeted by the toolchain.

- A `VS_SHADER_FLAGS` source file property was added to specify additional shader flags to `.hlsl` files, for the Visual Studio generators.

### Modules

- The `ExternalData` module learned to support Custom Fetch Scripts. This allows projects to specify custom `.cmake` scripts for fetching data objects during the build.

- The `ExternalProject` module learned options to create independent external project step targets that do not depend on the builtin steps.

- The `ExternalProject` module `ExternalProject_Add()` command learned a new `CMAKE_CACHE_DEFAULT_ARGS` option to initialize cache values in the external project without setting them on future builds.

- The `ExternalProject` module `ExternalProject_Add()` command learned a new `TEST_EXCLUDE_FROM_MAIN` option to exclude tests from the main build.

- The `ExternalProject` module `ExternalProject_Add()` command learned a new `UPDATE_DISCONNECTED` option to avoid automatically updating the source tree checkout from version control.

- The `FindCUDA` module learned about the `cusolver` library in CUDA 7.0.

- The `FindGit` module learned to find the `git` command-line tool that comes with GitHub for Windows installed in user home directories.

- A `FindGSL` module was introduced to find the GNU Scientific Library.

- A `FindIntl` module was introduced to find the Gettext `libintl` library.

- The `FindLATEX` module learned to support components.

- The `FindMPI` module learned to find MS-MPI on Windows.

- The `FindOpenSSL` module now reports `crypto` and `ssl` libraries separately in `OPENSSL_CRYPTO_LIBRARY` and `OPENSSL_SSL_LIBRARY`, respectively, to allow applications to link to one without the other.

- The `WriteCompilerDetectionHeader` module learned to create a define for portability of the `cxx_thread_local` feature. The define expands to either the C++11 `thread_local` keyword, or a pre-standardization compiler-specific equivalent, as appropriate.

- The `WriteCompilerDetectionHeader` module learned to create multiple output files per compiler and per language, instead of creating one large file.

### CTest

- The `ctest_coverage()` command learned to support Delphi coverage.

- The `ctest_coverage()` command learned to support Javascript coverage.

- The `CTestCoverageCollectGCOV` module was introduced as an alternative to the `ctest_coverage()` command for collecting `gcov` results for submission to CDash.

### CPack

- The `CPack RPM Generator` learned options to set per-component descriptions and summaries. See the `CPACK_RPM_<component>_PACKAGE_DESCRIPTION` and `CPACK_RPM_<component>_PACKAGE_SUMMARY` variables.

- The `CPack RPM Generator` learned options to specify requirements for pre- and post-install scripts. See the `CPACK_RPM_PACKAGE_REQUIRES_PRE` and `CPACK_RPM_PACKAGE_REQUIRES_POST` variables.

- The `CPack RPM Generator` learned options to specify requirements for pre- and post-uninstall scripts. See the `CPACK_RPM_PACKAGE_REQUIRES_PREUN` and `CPACK_RPM_PACKAGE_REQUIRES_POSTUN` variables.

- The `CPack RPM Generator` learned a new `CPACK_RPM_<COMPONENT>_PACKAGE_PREFIX` variable to specify a component-specific value to use instead of `CPACK_PACKAGING_INSTALL_PREFIX`.

- The `CPack RPM Generator` learned a new `CPACK_RPM_RELOCATION_PATHS` variable to specify multiple relocation prefixes for a single rpm package.

### Other

- The `cmake(1)` `-E tar` command now supports creating `.xz`-compressed archives with the `J` flag.

- The `cmake(1)` `-E tar` command learned a new `--files-from=<file>` option to specify file names using lines in a file to overcome command-line length limits.

- The `cmake(1)` `-E tar` command learned a new `--mtime=<date>` option to specify the modification time recorded in tarball entries.

- The `Compile Features` functionality is now aware of features supported by more compilers, including:

  - Apple Clang (`AppleClang`) for Xcode versions 4.4 though 6.1.

  - GNU compiler versions 4.4 through 5.0 on UNIX and Apple (`GNU`).

  - Microsoft Visual Studio (`MSVC`) for versions 2010 through 2015.

  - Oracle SolarisStudio (`SunPro`) version 12.4.

- The AUTORCC feature now tracks files listed in `.qrc` files as dependencies. If an input file to the `rcc` tool is changed, the tool is automatically re-run.

## New Diagnostics

- The `break()` command now rejects calls outside of a loop context or that pass arguments to the command. See policy `CMP0055`.

## Deprecated and Removed Features

- Files written in the `cmake-language(7)`, such as `CMakeLists.txt` or `*.cmake` files, are now expected to be encoded as UTF-8. If files are already ASCII, they will be compatible. If files were in a different encoding, including Latin 1, they will need to be converted.

- The `FindOpenGL` module no longer explicitly searches for any dependency on X11 libraries with the `FindX11` module. Such dependencies should not need to be explicit. Applications using X11 APIs themselves should find and link to X11 libraries explicitly.

- The implementation of CMake now relies on some C++ compiler features which are not supported by some older compilers. As a result, those old compilers can no longer be used to build CMake itself. CMake continues to be able to generate Makefiles and project files for users of those old compilers however. Compilers known to no longer be capable of building CMake are:

  - Visual Studio 6 and 7.0 -- superseded by VisualStudio 7.1 and newer.

  - GCC 2.95 -- superseded by GCC 3 and newer compilers.

  - Borland compilers -- superseded by other Windows compilers.

  - Compaq compilers -- superseded by other compilers.

  - SGI compilers -- IRIX was dropped as a host platform.

## Other Changes

- On Windows and OS X, commands supporting network communication via `https`, such as `file(DOWNLOAD)`, `file(UPLOAD)`, and `ctest_submit()`, now support SSL/TLS even when CMake is not built against OpenSSL. The Windows or OS X native SSL/TLS implementation is used by default. OS-configured certificate authorities will be trusted automatically.

  On other platforms, when CMake is built with OpenSSL, these commands now search for OS-configured certificate authorities in a few `/etc` paths to be trusted automatically.

- On OS X with Makefile and Ninja generators, when a compiler is found in `/usr/bin` it is now mapped to the corresponding compiler inside the Xcode application folder, if any. This allows such build trees to continue to work with their original compiler even when `xcode-select` switches to a different Xcode installation.

- The Visual Studio generators now write solution and project files in UTF-8 instead of Windows-1252. Windows-1252 supported Latin 1 languages such as those found in North and South America and Western Europe. With UTF-8, additional languages are now supported.

- The `Xcode` generator no longer requires a value for the `CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM` variable to be located up front. It now locates `xcodebuild` when needed at build time.

- When building CMake itself using SolarisStudio 12, the default `libCStd` standard library is not sufficient to build CMake. The SolarisStudio distribution supports compiler options to use `STLPort4` or `libstdc++`. An appropriate option to select the standard library is now added automatically when building CMake with SolarisStudio compilers.