CMake 3.4.0-rc1 is now ready!
I am proud to announce the first CMake 3.4 release candidate.
Sources and binaries are available at:
https://cmake.org/download/
Documentation is available at:
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.4
Release notes appear below and are also published at
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.4/release/3.4.html
Some of the more significant features of CMake 3.4 are:
* The "if()" command learned a new "TEST" operator that evaluates to
true if a given test name has been defined by the "add_test()"
command. See policy "CMP0064".
* The "install(DIRECTORY)" command "DESTINATION" option learned to
support "generator expressions".
* The "install(FILES)" command "DESTINATION" option learned to
support "generator expressions".
* CMake learned to honor "*.manifest" source files with MSVC tools.
Manifest files named as sources of ".exe" and ".dll" targets will be
merged with linker-generated manifests and embedded in the binary.
Deprecated and Removed Features:
* The "CMakeExpandImportedTargets" module is now documented as
deprecated. See module documentation for an explanation.
* The "CMAKE_USE_RELATIVE_PATHS" variable no longer has any effect.
Previously it was partially implemented and unreliable.
CMake 3.4 Release Notes
***********************
Changes made since CMake 3.3 include the following.
New Features
============
Generators
———-
* The "Visual Studio 14 2015" generator learned to select a Windows
10 SDK based on the value of the "CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION" variable and
the SDKs available on the host.
* CMake learned rudimentary support for the Apple Swift language.
When using the "Xcode" generator with Xcode 6.1 or higher, one may
enable the "Swift" language with the "enable_language()" command or
the "project()" command (this is an error with other generators or
when Xcode is too old). Then one may list ".swift" source files in
targets for compilation.
Commands
——–
* The "find_program()" command learned a "NAMES_PER_DIR" option to
consider all given "NAMES" in each directory before moving on to the
next directory.
* The "get_filename_component()" command learned a new "BASE_DIR"
subcommand. This is used to specify a base directory when
calculating an absolute path from a relative path.
* The "if()" command learned a new "TEST" operator that evaluates to
true if a given test name has been defined by the "add_test()"
command. See policy "CMP0064".
* The "install(DIRECTORY)" command "DESTINATION" option learned to
support "generator expressions".
* The "install(FILES)" command "DESTINATION" option learned to
support "generator expressions".
* The "string()" command learned a new "APPEND" subcommand.
Variables
———
* The Makefile Generators and the "Ninja" generator learned to add
compiler launcher tools like distcc and ccache along with the
compiler for "C" and "CXX" languages. See the
"CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER_LAUNCHER" variable and
"<LANG>_COMPILER_LAUNCHER" target property for details.
* New "CMAKE_LINK_SEARCH_START_STATIC" and
"CMAKE_LINK_SEARCH_END_STATIC" variables were introduced to
initialize the "LINK_SEARCH_START_STATIC" and
"LINK_SEARCH_END_STATIC" target properties, respectively.
Properties
———-
* Visual Studio Generators learned to support additonal target
properties to customize projects for NVIDIA Nsight Tegra Visual
Studio Edition:
* "ANDROID_ANT_ADDITIONAL_OPTIONS"
* "ANDROID_ARCH"
* "ANDROID_ASSETS_DIRECTORIES"
* "ANDROID_JAR_DEPENDENCIES"
* "ANDROID_JAR_DIRECTORIES"
* "ANDROID_JAVA_SOURCE_DIR"
* "ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DEPENDENCIES"
* "ANDROID_NATIVE_LIB_DIRECTORIES"
* "ANDROID_PROCESS_MAX"
* "ANDROID_PROGUARD"
* "ANDROID_PROGUARD_CONFIG_PATH"
* "ANDROID_SECURE_PROPS_PATH"
* "ANDROID_SKIP_ANT_STEP"
* "ANDROID_STL_TYPE"
* The "ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY", "LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY", and
"RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY" target properties learned to support
"generator expressions".
* The "SOURCE_DIR" and "BINARY_DIR" target properties were
introduced to allow project code to query where a target is defined.
* The "OUTPUT_NAME" target property and its variants learned to
support "generator expressions".
* A "TARGET_MESSAGES" global property was added to tell the Makefile
Generators whether to generate commands to print output after each
target is completed.
* On Windows with MS-compatible tools, CMake learned to optionally
generate a module definition (".def") file for "SHARED" libraries.
See the "WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS" target property.
Modules
——-
* The "ExternalProject" module "ExternalProject_Add()" function
"GIT_SUBMODULES" option now also limits the set of submodules that
are initialized in addition to the prior behavior of limiting the
set of submodules that are updated.
* The "ExternalProject" module learned new "USES_TERMINAL" arguments
for giving steps exclusive terminal access. This is useful with the
"Ninja" generator to monitor CMake superbuild progress and prevent
CPU oversubscription.
* The "FindBISON" module "BISON_TARGET" macro learned a new
"DEFINES_FILE" option to specify a custom output header to be
generated.
* The "FindHDF5" module learend a new "HDF5_PREFER_PARALLEL" option
allowing users to specify that a parallel HDF5 tool is preferred if
both are available.
* The "FindIce" module now provides imported targets.
* The "FindJava" module learned to optionally find the "idlj" and
"jarsigner" tools.
* The "FindOpenSSL" module now provides imported targets.
* The "FindOpenSSL" module learned a new "OPENSSL_USE_STATIC_LIBS"
option to search only for static libraries.
* The "FindPkgConfig" learned a new "pkg_get_variable()" command
which may be used to query for arbitrary variables from a package
(such as for related tools or data and plugin install paths).
* The "FindProtobuf" module gained a new
"protobuf_generate_python()" function to generate python sources
from ".proto" files.
* The "FindTIFF" module learned to search separately for debug and
release variants.
* The "FindwxWidgets" module learned to support version requests.
* The "FindXercesC" module learned to search separately for debug
and release variants.
* The "FindZLIB" module learned to search separately for debug and
release variants.
* The "GNUInstallDirs" module learned special default values for
certain installation prefixes according to the GNU Coding Standards
and the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.
* The "UseJava" module "add_jar" function learned to support
response files (e.g. "@srcs.txt") for source specification.
* The "UseJava" module "install_jar" function learned new
"DESTINATION" and "COMPONENT" options to specify the corresponding
"install()" command options.
* The "UseJava" module gained a new "create_javah" function to
create C headers from Java classes.
Generator Expressions
———————
* A new "$<SHELL_PATH:…>" "generator expression" has been added.
CTest
—–
* CTest learned to optionally measure the CPU load during parallel
testing and avoid starting tests that may cause the load to exceed a
given threshold. See the "ctest(1)" command "–test-load" option,
the "TestLoad" setting of the CTest Test Step, the "CTEST_TEST_LOAD"
variable, and the "TEST_LOAD" option of the "ctest_test()" command.
* "ctest(1)" learned options "–test-output-size-passed" and "–
test- output-size-failed" to customize the limit on test output size
submitted when running as a Dashboard Client.
CPack
—–
* The "CPackDeb" module learned to set package dependencies per
component. See variables:
* "CPACK_DEBIAN_<COMPONENT>_PACKAGE_BREAKS"
* "CPACK_DEBIAN_<COMPONENT>_PACKAGE_CONFLICTS"
* "CPACK_DEBIAN_<COMPONENT>_PACKAGE_ENHANCES"
* "CPACK_DEBIAN_<COMPONENT>_PACKAGE_PREDEPENDS"
* "CPACK_DEBIAN_<COMPONENT>_PACKAGE_PROVIDES"
* "CPACK_DEBIAN_<COMPONENT>_PACKAGE_RECOMMENDS"
* "CPACK_DEBIAN_<COMPONENT>_PACKAGE_REPLACES"
* "CPACK_DEBIAN_<COMPONENT>_PACKAGE_SUGGESTS"
* The "CPack" module learned to package empty directories.
* The "CPack" module gained a new setting,
"CPACK_VERBATIM_VARIABLES", which can be used to ensure the cpack
program receives the settings' values exactly as they were set, even
if they contain CMake-special characters. For compatibility, it's
off by default.
Other
—–
* The "Compile Features" functionality is now aware of features
supported by GNU C compilers on Windows.
* CMake learned to honor "*.manifest" source files with MSVC tools.
Manifest files named as sources of ".exe" and ".dll" targets will be
merged with linker-generated manifests and embedded in the binary.
* The Concurrent Fortran 77 compiler is now supported. Its "compiler
id" is "CCur".
* "cmake(1)" gained a new "–trace-expand" command line option that
is like "–trace" but expands variable references in the output.
Deprecated and Removed Features
===============================
* The "CMakeExpandImportedTargets" module is now documented as
deprecated. See module documentation for an explanation.
* The "CMAKE_USE_RELATIVE_PATHS" variable no longer has any effect.
Previously it was partially implemented and unreliable.
Other Changes
=============
* The "CheckFunctionExists", "CheckLibraryExists",
"CheckSymbolExists", and "FindThreads" modules learned to work in
environments where only CXX is enabled.
* The "CPackDeb" module now correctly excludes symlinks during
package checksum calculation.
* The "CPackDeb" no longer uses fakeroot and system tar program for
packaging.
* The "CPack" module no longer mangles settings with CMake-special
characters when they're used as defaults for other settings. The
macro "cpack_set_if_not_set", which was responsible for this, is now
deprecated.
* CMake no longer links executables with flags to export symbols
unless the "ENABLE_EXPORTS" target property is set. See policy
"CMP0065".
* The "SONAME" field is no longer set for "MODULE" libraries created
with the "add_library()" command. "MODULE" libraries are meant for
explicit dynamic loading at runtime. They cannot be linked so
"SONAME" is not useful.