Debug vs Release in CMake

Question

In a GCC compiled project,

• How do I run CMake for each target type (debug/release)?
• How do I specify debug and release C/C++ flags using CMake?
• How do I express that the main executable will be compiled with g++ and one nested library with gcc?

Solution 1

With CMake, it's generally recommended to do an "out of source" build. Create your CMakeLists.txt in the root of your project. Then from the root of your project:

mkdir Release
cd Release
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
make

And for Debug (again from the root of your project):

mkdir Debug
cd Debug
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ..
make

Release / Debug will add the appropriate flags for your compiler. There are also RelWithDebInfo and MinSizeRel build configurations.

---

You can modify/add to the flags by specifying a toolchain file in which you can add CMAKE_<LANG>_FLAGS_<CONFIG>_INIT variables, e.g.:

set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG_INIT "-Wall")
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE_INIT "-Wall")

See CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE for more details.

---

As for your third question, I'm not sure what you are asking exactly. CMake should automatically detect and use the compiler appropriate for your different source files.

Solution 2

For debug/release flags, see the CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE variable (you pass it as cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=value). It takes values like Release, Debug, etc.

https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/community/wikis/doc/cmake/Useful-Variables#compilers-and-tools

cmake uses the extension to choose the compiler, so just name your files .c.

You can override this with various settings:

For example:

set_source_files_properties(yourfile.c LANGUAGE CXX) 

Would compile .c files with g++. The link above also shows how to select a specific compiler for C/C++.

Solution 3

Instead of manipulating the CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS strings directly (which could be done more nicely using string(APPEND CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG " -g3") btw), you can use add_compile_options:

add_compile_options(
  "-Wall" "-Wpedantic" "-Wextra" "-fexceptions"
  "$<$<CONFIG:DEBUG>:-O0;-g3;-ggdb>"
)

This would add the specified warnings to all build types, but only the given debugging flags to the DEBUG build. Note that compile options are stored as a CMake list, which is just a string separating its elements by semicolons ;.

Solution 4

If you want to build a different configuration without regenerating if using you can also run cmake --build {$PWD} --config <cfg> For multi-configuration tools, choose <cfg> ex. Debug, Release, MinSizeRel, RelWithDebInfo

https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v2.8.11/cmake.html#opt%3a--builddir

Solution 5

// CMakeLists.txt : release

set(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES "Release" CACHE STRING "" FORCE)

// CMakeLists.txt : debug

set(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES "Debug" CACHE STRING "" FORCE)

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