CMake path with special symbols - cmake

Question

I'm using CLion and whenever I'm working on a project, it can't be in path with special symbols (such as º, ç, ã...), failing with the following message:
The C compiler
"C:/Program Files (x86)/mingw-w64/i686-8.1.0-posix-dwarf-rt_v6-rev0/mingw32/bin/gcc.exe"
is not able to compile a simple test program.

Answer 1

MinGW's make program does not handle non-ASCII characters smoothly. I was able to reproduce this on my machine using a path containing ñ:
The C compiler
"C:/apps/MinGW/bin/gcc.exe"
is not able to compile a simple test program.
It fails with the following output:
Change Dir: C:/workspace/peña/build2/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp
Run Build Command(s):C:/apps/MinGW/bin/mingw32-make.exe cmTC_fe654/fast && C:/apps/MinGW/bin/mingw32-make.exe -f CMakeFiles\cmTC_fe654.dir\build.make CMakeFiles/cmTC_fe654.dir/build
mingw32-make.exe[1]: Entering directory 'C:/workspace/pe±a/build2/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp'
Building C object CMakeFiles/cmTC_fe654.dir/testCCompiler.c.obj
C:\apps\MinGW\bin\gcc.exe -o CMakeFiles\cmTC_fe654.dir\testCCompiler.c.obj -c C:\workspace\pe├▒a\build2\CMakeFiles\CMakeTmp\testCCompiler.c
gcc.exe: error: C:\workspace\pe├▒a\build2\CMakeFiles\CMakeTmp\testCCompiler.c: No such file or directory
gcc.exe: fatal error: no input files
compilation terminated.
CMakeFiles\cmTC_fe654.dir\build.make:81: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/cmTC_fe654.dir/testCCompiler.c.obj' failed
mingw32-make.exe[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/cmTC_fe654.dir/testCCompiler.c.obj] Error 1
mingw32-make.exe[1]: Leaving directory 'C:/workspace/pe±a/build2/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp'
Makefile:137: recipe for target 'cmTC_fe654/fast' failed
mingw32-make.exe: *** [cmTC_fe654/fast] Error 2
Note, CMake switches to the temporary build directory with the correct path, but when mingw32-make.exe is executing, the path is now garbled:
C:/workspace/pe±a/build2/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp
The easiest way to avoid this issue is to simply change your project path to be one that does not contain non-ASCII characters.
Another option would be to use a different generator (something other than MinGW Makefiles). For example, Visual Studio configures and builds correctly, even though the non-ASCII characters are in the project path:
> cmake -G"Visual Studio 16 2019" ..
Re-run cmake no build system arguments
C:/workspace/peña
-- The CXX compiler identification is MSVC 19.23.28106.4
-- Check for working CXX compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.23.28105/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe
-- Check for working CXX compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.23.28105/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe - works
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: C:/workspace/peña/build