CMake 3.10.0-rc1 is ready for testing

October 5, 2017

I am proud to announce the first CMake 3.10 release candidate.
https://cmake.org/download/

Documentation is available at:
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.10

Release notes appear below and are also published at
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.10/release/3.10.html

Some of the more significant changes in CMake 3.10 are:

  • The flang Fortran compiler is now supported, with compiler id
    “Flang”.
  • Support for the MSVC ARM64 architecture was added. Visual Studio
    2017 Update 4 and above offer an ARM64 toolchain.
  • The “include_guard()” command was introduced to allow guarding
    CMake scripts from being included more than once. The command
    supports “DIRECTORY” and “GLOBAL” options to adjust the
    corresponding include guard scope. If no options given, include
    guard is similar to basic variable-based check.
  • “FindMPI” received a major overhaul. It now features language specific
    components, better Fortran support, and support for statically linked
    MPI implementations.
  • A “FindOpenACC” module was added to detect compiler support for
    OpenACC. Currently only supports PGI, GNU and Cray compilers.
  • The “FindOpenGL” module underwent numerous improvements. It has gained
    support for GLVND and EGL on Linux. It now has import targets that
    separate the OpenGL library and OpenGL contexts.
  • The “GoogleTest” module gained a new command
    “gtest_discover_tests()” implementing dynamic (build-time) test
    discovery.
  • When using “AUTOMOC” or “AUTOUIC”, source files that are
    “GENERATED” will be processed as well. They were ignored by
    “AUTOMOC” and “AUTOUIC” in earlier releases. See policy “CMP0071”.
  • A “CTEST_LABELS_FOR_SUBPROJECTS” CTest module variable and CTest
    script variable were added to specify a list of labels that should
    be treated as subprojects by CDash. To use this value in both the
    CTest module and the ctest command line Dashboard Client mode (e.g.
    “ctest -S”) set it in the “CTestConfig.cmake” config file.
  • CPack gained a “FREEBSD” generator for FreeBSD “pkg(8)”,
    configured by the “CPackFreeBSD” module.
  • The CPack “DEB” generator, configured by the “CPackDeb” module,
    was enabled on Windows. While not fully featured (due to the lack
    of external UNIX tools) this will allow building basic cross-
    platform Debian packages.
  • The “cmake(1)” “-E” mode gained support for “sha1sum”,
    “sha224sum”, “sha256sum”, “sha384sum”, and “sha512sum”.
  • The “file(GENERATE)” command now interprets relative paths given
    to its “OUTPUT” and “INPUT” arguments with respect to the caller’s
    current binary and source directories, respectively. See policy
    “CMP0070”.
CMake 3.10 Release Notes
************************

Changes made since CMake 3.9 include the following.


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


Platforms
---------

* The flang Fortran compiler is now supported, with compiler id
  "Flang".

* A new minimal platform file for "Midipix" was added.

* Support for the MSVC ARM64 architecture was added. Visual Studio
  2017 Update 4 and above offer an ARM64 toolchain.

* Support for the IAR ARM Compiler was improved.


Generators
----------

* The Makefile Generators and the "Ninja" generator learned to add
  compiler launcher tools like ccache along with the compiler for the
  "CUDA" language ("C" and "CXX" were supported previously).  See the
  "CMAKE__COMPILER_LAUNCHER" variable and
  "_COMPILER_LAUNCHER" target property for details.

* The "CodeBlocks" extra generator learned to optionally exclude
  files from outside the project root directory from the generated
  project. See the "CMAKE_CODEBLOCKS_EXCLUDE_EXTERNAL_FILES" variable.


Commands
--------

* The "cmake_host_system_information()" command learned more keys to
  get information about the processor capabilities and the host OS
  version.

* The "configure_file()" command learned to support indented "#
  cmakedefine" and "#  cmakedefine01". Spaces and/or tabs between the
  "#" character and the "cmakedefine"/"cmakedefine01" words are now
  understood and preserved in the output.

* The "execute_process()" command gained a "RESULTS_VARIABLE" option
  to collect a list of results from all children in a pipeline of
  processes when multiple "COMMAND" arguments are given.

* The "include_guard()" command was introduced to allow guarding
  CMake scripts from being included more than once. The command
  supports "DIRECTORY" and "GLOBAL" options to adjust the
  corresponding include guard scope. If no options given, include
  guard is similar to basic variable-based check.

* The "string()" command learned a new "PREPEND" subcommand.

* The "string(TIMESTAMP)" command now supports "%A" for full weekday
  name and "%B" for full month name.


Variables
---------

* A "CMAKE_DIRECTORY_LABELS" variable was added to specify labels
  for all tests in a directory.


Properties
----------

* A "_CPPCHECK" target property and supporting
  "CMAKE__CPPCHECK" variable were introduced to tell the
  Makefile Generators and the "Ninja" generator to run "cppcheck" with
  the compiler for "C" and "CXX" languages.

* A "LABELS" directory property was added to specify labels for all
  targets and tests in a directory.

* A "TEST_INCLUDE_FILES" directory property was added to list any
  number of files to be included when running tests with "ctest(1)".
  This generalizes the "TEST_INCLUDE_FILE" property.

* The "VS_DOTNET_REFERENCEPROP__TAG_" target
  property was added to support custom XML tags for reference
  assemblies in C# targets.

* Source file properties "VS_SHADER_OUTPUT_HEADER_FILE" and
  "VS_SHADER_VARIABLE_NAME" have been added to specify more details of
  ".hlsl" sources with Visual Studio Generators.


Modules
-------

* The "FindCurses" module gained a "CURSES_NEED_WIDE" option to
  request the wide-character variant.

* The "FindEXPAT" module now provides imported targets.

* The "FindFreetype" module now provides imported targets.

* "FindMPI" gained a number of new features, including:
  * Language-specific components have been added to the module.
  * Many more MPI environments are now supported.
  * The environmental support for Fortran has been improved.
  * A user now has fine-grained control over the MPI selection
    process, including passing custom parameters to the MPI compiler.
  * The version of the implemented MPI standard is now being
    exposed.
  * MPI-2 C++ bindings can now be detected and also suppressed if so
    desired.
  * The available Fortran bindings are now being detected and
    verified.
  * Various MPI-3 information can be requested, including the
    library version and Fortran capabilities of the individual
    bindings.
  * Statically linked MPI implementations are supported.

* A "FindOpenACC" module was added to detect compiler support for
  OpenACC.  Currently only supports PGI, GNU and Cray compilers.

* The "FindOpenGL" module gained support for GLVND on Linux.

* The "FindOpenMP" module gained support for language-specific
  components.

* A "FindPatch" module was added to find the "patch" command-line
  executable.

* The "FindProtobuf" module "protobuf_generate_cpp()" command gained
  a "DESCRIPTORS" option to generate descriptor files.

* The "GoogleTest" module gained a new command
  "gtest_discover_tests()" implementing dynamic (build-time) test
  discovery.  Unlike the source parsing approach, dynamic discovery
  executes the test (in 'list available tests' mode) at build time to
  discover tests. This is robust against unusual ways of labeling
  tests, provides much better support for advanced features such as
  parameterized tests, and does not require re-running CMake to
  discover added or removed tests within a test executable.

* The "InstallRequiredSystemLibraries" module gained support for
  installing Intel compiler runtimes.


Autogen
-------

* When using "AUTOMOC" or "AUTOUIC" with a multi configuration
  generator (e.g. "Xcode"), included "*.moc",  "moc_*.cpp" and
  "ui_*.h" files are generated in
  "/include_" instead of
  "/include".

* When using "AUTOMOC" or "AUTOUIC", source files that are
  "GENERATED" will be processed as well. They were ignored by
  "AUTOMOC" and "AUTOUIC" in earlier releases. See policy "CMP0071".

* When using "AUTOMOC", CMake searches for the strings "Q_OBJECT",
  "Q_GADGET" or "Q_NAMESPACE" in a source file to determine if it
  needs to be "moc" processed. The new variable
  "CMAKE_AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES" allows to register additional strings
  (macro names) so search for.

* When using "AUTOMOC", CMake searches for the strings "Q_OBJECT",
  "Q_GADGET" or "Q_NAMESPACE" in a source file to determine if it
  needs to be "moc" processed. The new target property
  "AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES" allows to register additional strings (macro
  names) so search for.

* When using "AUTOMOC", the new variable
  "CMAKE_AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES" allows to default enable or
  disable the generation of the compiler pre definitions file
  "moc_predefs.h".

* When using "AUTOMOC", the new boolean target property
  "AUTOMOC_COMPILER_PREDEFINES" allows to enable or disable the
  generation of the compiler pre definitions file "moc_predefs.h".


CTest
-----

* A "CTEST_LABELS_FOR_SUBPROJECTS" CTest module variable and CTest
  script variable were added to specify a list of labels that should
  be treated as subprojects by CDash. To use this value in both the
  CTest module and the ctest command line Dashboard Client mode (e.g.
  "ctest -S") set it in the "CTestConfig.cmake" config file.


CPack
-----

* CPack gained a "FREEBSD" generator for FreeBSD "pkg(8)",
  configured by the "CPackFreeBSD" module.

* The CPack "DEB" generator, configured by the "CPackDeb" module,
  was enabled on Windows.  While not fully featured (due to the lack
  of external UNIX tools) this will allow building basic cross-
  platform Debian packages.

* The "CPackDeb" module learned to set package release version in
  "Version" info property. See the "CPACK_DEBIAN_PACKAGE_RELEASE"
  variable.

* The "CPackDeb" module learned more strict package version checking
  that complies with Debian rules.

* The "CPackIFW" module "cpack_ifw_configure_component()" and
  "cpack_ifw_configure_component_group()" commands gained a new
  "REPLACES" and "CHECKABLE" options.

* The "CPackIFW" module gained new
  "CPACK_IFW_PACKAGE_FILE_EXTENSION" variable to customize target
  binary format.

* The "CPackIFW" module gained new
  "CPACK_IFW_REPOSITORIES_DIRECTORIES" variable to specify additional
  repositories dirs that will be used to resolve and repack dependent
  components. This feature available only since QtIFW 3.1.

* Modules "CPackRPM" and "CPackDeb" learned to set package epoch
  version. See "CPACK_RPM_PACKAGE_EPOCH" and
  "CPACK_DEBIAN_PACKAGE_EPOCH" variables.


Other
-----

* The "cmake(1)" "-E" mode gained support for "sha1sum",
  "sha224sum", "sha256sum", "sha384sum", and "sha512sum".

* The graphviz output now distinguishes among the different
  dependency types "PUBLIC", "PRIVATE" and "INTERFACE" and represents
  them in the output graph as solid, dashed and dotted edges.


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

* Support for building CMake itself with C++98 compilers was
  dropped. CMake is now implemented using C++11.

* Support for building CMake on HP-UX has been dropped pending
  better support for C++11 and a port of libuv.  See CMake Issue
  17137. Use CMake 3.9 or lower instead for HP-UX support.


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

* On FreeBSD the C++ compiler named "c++" is now the preferred
  default.

* The "file(GENERATE)" command now interprets relative paths given
  to its "OUTPUT" and "INPUT" arguments with respect to the caller's
  current binary and source directories, respectively. See policy
  "CMP0070".

* The "get_filename_component()" "PROGRAM" mode semantics have been
  revised to not tolerate unquoted spaces in the path to the program
  while also accepting arguments.  While technically incompatible with
  the old behavior, it is expected that behavior under typical use
  cases with properly-quoted command-lines has not changed.

 

2 comments to CMake 3.10.0-rc1 is ready for testing

  1. FYI – This paragraph is duplicated twice:

    * When using “AUTOMOC”, CMake searches for the strings “Q_OBJECT”,
    “Q_GADGET” or “Q_NAMESPACE” in a source file to determine if it
    needs to be “moc” processed. The new target property
    “AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES” allows to register additional strings (macro
    names) so search for.

    1. They are subtly different, the first paragraph documents the global property “CMAKE_AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES” while the second documents the target property “AUTOMOC_MACRO_NAMES”.

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