CMake 3.31.0-rc1 is ready for testing

October 10, 2024

John Parent

I am proud to announce the first CMake 3.31 release candidate.
https://cmake.org/download/

Documentation is available at:
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.31

Release notes appear below and are also published at
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.31/release/3.31.html

Release milestone is available at:
release milestone

Some of the most significant changes in CMake 3.31 are:

“cmake-presets(7)” files may now include comments using the key
“$comment” at any level within the JSON object to provide
documentation.
The Ninja Generators and Makefile Generators now produce a “codegen”
build target. See policy “CMP0171”. It drives a subset of the
build graph sufficient to run custom commands created with
“add_custom_command()”‘s new “CODEGEN” option.
The “CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARIES_STRATEGY” variable and corresponding
“LINK_LIBRARIES_STRATEGY” target property were added to optionally
specify the strategy CMake uses to generate link lines.
The “CMAKE_AIX_SHARED_LIBRARY_ARCHIVE” variable and corresponding
“AIX_SHARED_LIBRARY_ARCHIVE” target property were added to create
shared libraries on AIX as shared library archives.
The “CMAKE_EXPORT_BUILD_DATABASE” variable, a corresponding
“CMAKE_EXPORT_BUILD_DATABASE” environment variable, and an
“EXPORT_BUILD_DATABASE” target property, were added to enable
exporting C++ module compile commands. This is only supported with
Ninja Generators.
The “CMAKE_<LANG>HOST_COMPILER_ID” and
“CMAKE<LANG>HOST_COMPILER_VERSION” variables were added, where
“<LANG>” is either “CUDA” or “HIP”. They are populated when
“CMAKE<LANG>_COMPILER_ID” is “NVIDIA” to identify NVCC’s host
compiler.
Compatibility with versions of CMake older than 3.10 is now
deprecated and will be removed from a future version. Calls to
“cmake_minimum_required()” or “cmake_policy()” that set the policy
version to an older value now issue a deprecation diagnostic.
When static libraries on link lines are de-duplicated (by policy
“CMP0156”), the first occurrence is now kept on all platforms. See
policy “CMP0179”.
The “file(DOWNLOAD)” and “file(UPLOAD)” commands now verify TLS
server certificates for connections to “https://” URLs by default.
See the “CMAKE_TLS_VERIFY” variable for details. This change was
made without a policy so that users are protected even when building
projects that have not been updated. Users may set the
“CMAKE_TLS_VERIFY” environment variable to “0” to restore the old
default.

CMake 3.31 Release Notes
************************

Changes made since CMake 3.30 include the following.


New Features
============


Presets
-------

* "cmake-presets(7)" files may now include comments using the key
  "$comment" at any level within the JSON object to provide
  documentation.

* "cmake-presets(7)" files may now request graphviz output using the
  "graphviz" key in a configure preset.


Generators
----------

* The Ninja Generators and Makefile Generators now produce a "codegen"
  build target.  See policy "CMP0171".  It drives a subset of the
  build graph sufficient to run custom commands created with
  "add_custom_command()"'s new "CODEGEN" option.


Command-Line
------------

* The "cmake --workflow" mode now accepts a preset name as the first
  argument, allowing the simpler command line "cmake --workflow
  <preset>".

* The "cmake -LR[A][H]" option was added to list cache entries whose
  names match a regular expression.


Compilers
---------

* The LFortran compiler is now supported with "compiler id"
  "LFortran".


Commands
--------

* The "add_custom_command()" command gained a "CODEGEN" option to mark
  a custom command's outputs as dependencies of a "codegen" target.
  See policy "CMP0171".

* The "cmake_pkg_config()" command was added as an endpoint for using
  CMake's native pkg-config format parser. The only supported option
  in this release is "EXTRACT", which provides low-level access to the
  values produced by parsing a pkg-config file. For most users, this
  is not yet a suitable replacement for the "FindPkgConfig" module.

* The "file(ARCHIVE_CREATE)" command gained a "WORKING_DIRECTORY"
  option to specify a working directory for the archiving process.

* The "install(FILES)" and "install(DIRECTORY)" commands' "TYPE"
  argument gained support for a "LIBEXEC" type.


Variables
---------

* The "CMAKE_AIX_SHARED_LIBRARY_ARCHIVE" variable and corresponding
  "AIX_SHARED_LIBRARY_ARCHIVE" target property were added to create
  shared libraries on AIX as shared library archives.

* The "CMAKE_EXPORT_BUILD_DATABASE" variable, a corresponding
  "CMAKE_EXPORT_BUILD_DATABASE" environment variable, and an
  "EXPORT_BUILD_DATABASE" target property, were added to enable
  exporting C++ module compile commands. This is only supported with
  Ninja Generators.

* The "CMAKE_HOST_EXECUTABLE_SUFFIX" variable was added to provide the
  suffix for executable names on the host platform.

* The "CMAKE_<LANG>_HOST_COMPILER_ID" and
  "CMAKE_<LANG>_HOST_COMPILER_VERSION" variables were added, where
  "<LANG>" is either "CUDA" or "HIP".  They are populated when
  "CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER_ID" is "NVIDIA" to identify NVCC's host
  compiler.

* The "CMAKE_<LANG>_STANDARD_LINK_DIRECTORIES" variable was added.
  Toolchain files can set this variable to control which link library
  directory paths are always passed to the compiler for the specified
  language.

* The "CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARIES_STRATEGY" variable and corresponding
  "LINK_LIBRARIES_STRATEGY" target property were added to optionally
  specify the strategy CMake uses to generate link lines.


Properties
----------

* The "MACOSX_FRAMEWORK_BUNDLE_NAME" target property was added to set
  the "CFBundleName" key in an Apple "FRAMEWORK"'s "Info.plist" file.

* The "UNITY_BUILD" target property now supports the "CUDA" language.

* The "VS_FRAMEWORK_REFERENCES" target property was added to tell
  Visual Studio Generators to add framework references.


Modules
-------

* Check modules now support a "CMAKE_REQUIRED_LINK_DIRECTORIES"
  variable. The following modules gained this support:

  * "CMakePushCheckState"

  * "CheckCCompilerFlag"

  * "CheckCSourceCompiles"

  * "CheckCSourceRuns"

  * "CheckCXXCompilerFlag"

  * "CheckCXXSourceCompiles"

  * "CheckCXXSourceRuns"

  * "CheckCXXSymbolExists"

  * "CheckCompilerFlag"

  * "CheckFortranCompilerFlag"

  * "CheckFortranFunctionExists"

  * "CheckFortranSourceCompiles"

  * "CheckFortranSourceRuns"

  * "CheckFunctionExists"

  * "CheckIncludeFile"

  * "CheckIncludeFileCXX"

  * "CheckIncludeFiles"

  * "CheckOBJCCompilerFlag"

  * "CheckLibraryExists"

  * "CheckOBJCCompilerFlag"

  * "CheckOBJCSourceCompiles"

  * "CheckOBJCSourceRuns"

  * "CheckOBJCXXCompilerFlag"

  * "CheckOBJCXXSourceCompiles"

  * "CheckOBJCXXSourceRuns"

  * "CheckPrototypeDefinition"

  * "CheckSourceCompiles"

  * "CheckSourceRuns"

  * "CheckStructHasMember"

  * "CheckSymbolExists"

  * "CheckTypeSize"

  * "CheckVariableExists"

* The "CMakePackageConfigHelpers" module's
  "generate_apple_platform_selection_file()" function gained support
  for iOS Mac Catalyst.

* The "GoogleTest" module "gtest_discover_tests()" command gained a
  new "DISCOVERY_EXTRA_ARGS" keyword.  It allows extra arguments to be
  appended to the command line when querying for the list of tests.

* The "FindCUDAToolkit" module now provides a "CUDA::nvml_static"
  target.

* The "FindOpenMP" module gained support for the "CUDA" language.


CTest
-----

* The "ctest_submit()" command and "ctest -T Submit" step now verify
  TLS server certificates for connections to "https://" URLs by
  default.  See the "CTEST_TLS_VERIFY" variable for details.

* The "ctest_submit()" command and "ctest -T Submit" step now require
  TLS 1.2 or higher for connections to "https://" URLs by default.
  See the "CTEST_TLS_VERSION" variable for details.


CPack
-----

* The "CPack DEB Generator" gained a "CPACK_DEBIAN_PACKAGE_MULTIARCH"
  option to support multi-arch packages.

* The "CPack IFW Generator" gained the new
  "CPACK_IFW_PACKAGE_PRODUCT_IMAGE_URLS" variable to specify images
  associated with entries of "CPACK_IFW_PACKAGE_PRODUCT_IMAGES". This
  feature is available for QtIFW 4.0 and newer.

* The "CPack RPM Generator" gained support for "zstd" as a
  "CPACK_RPM_COMPRESSION_TYPE" value.

* The "CPack" module enables per-machine installation by default in
  the "CPack WIX Generator".  See policy "CMP0172" and the
  "CPACK_WIX_INSTALL_SCOPE" variable.


Deprecated and Removed Features
===============================

* Compatibility with versions of CMake older than 3.10 is now
  deprecated and will be removed from a future version.  Calls to
  "cmake_minimum_required()" or "cmake_policy()" that set the policy
  version to an older value now issue a deprecation diagnostic.

* The "CMakeFindFrameworks" module has been deprecated via "CMP0173".
  Projects should use "find_library()" instead.

* The "Visual Studio 12 2013" generator has been removed.


Other Changes
=============

* When static libraries on link lines are de-duplicated (by policy
  "CMP0156"), the first occurrence is now kept on all platforms. See
  policy "CMP0179".

* Empty list elements in the "TEST_LAUNCHER" and
  "CROSSCOMPILING_EMULATOR" target properties are now preserved by:

  * The "add_test()" command.

  * The "ExternalData_Add_Test()" command from the "ExternalData"
    module.

  * The "gtest_add_tests()" and "gtest_discover_tests()" commands from
    the "GoogleTest" module. Empty list elements after the
    "EXTRA_ARGS" keyword of these two commands are also now preserved.

  See policy "CMP0178".

* The "execute_process()" command's "ENCODING" option, meaningful on
  Windows, now defaults to "UTF-8". See policy "CMP0176".

* The "file(DOWNLOAD)" and "file(UPLOAD)" commands now verify TLS
  server certificates for connections to "https://" URLs by default.
  See the "CMAKE_TLS_VERIFY" variable for details. This change was
  made without a policy so that users are protected even when building
  projects that have not been updated. Users may set the
  "CMAKE_TLS_VERIFY" environment variable to "0" to restore the old
  default.

* The "file(DOWNLOAD)" and "file(UPLOAD)" commands now require TLS 1.2
  or higher for connections to "https://" URLs by default. See the
  "CMAKE_TLS_VERSION" variable for details.

* The "file(GET_RUNTIME_DEPENDENCIES)" command was updated to more
  closely match the dynamic loader's behavior on Linux.

* The "install()" command's "DESTINATION" arguments are now
  normalized, with the exception of "INCLUDES DESTINATION" arguments
  in "install(TARGETS)". See policy "CMP0177".

* The "project()" command now always sets "<PROJECT-NAME>_SOURCE_DIR",
  "<PROJECT-NAME>_BINARY_DIR", and "<PROJECT-NAME>_IS_TOP_LEVEL" as
  both normal variables and cache entries.  See policy "CMP0180".

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CMake Release Notes Software Process

CMake 3.31.0-rc1 is ready for testing

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