Value from CMakeCache.txt not used consistently during makefile generation [duplicate] - cmake

I'm having trouble setting a configuration variable via the command line. I can't determine it from the system, so I expect the user to specify:
cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../android.toolchain -DANDROID_ABI:STRING="arm64" ..
Inside my android.toolchain, I have the following:
message(STATUS "Android ABI: ${ANDROID_ABI}")
if( "${ANDROID_ABI}" STREQUAL "" )
message(FATAL_ERROR "Please specifiy ABI at cmake call -DANDROID_ABI:STRING=armeabi or -DANDROID_ABI:STRING=arm64")
endif()
No matter what, it fails at this line EVEN THOUGH it prints out the correct arm64:
-- Android ABI: arm64
CMake Error at yaml-cpp/android.toolchain:45 (message):
Please specifiy ABI at cmake call -DANDROID_ABI:STRING=armeabi or -DANDROID_ABI:STRING=arm64
Could anyone direct me to what I'm doing wrong?
I think this has to do with:
-D adds a cache variable instead of a normal variable
This is in a toolchain file... it seems to ignore cache variables
Any thoughts or suggestions?

I don't pretend to fully understand what's going on behind the scenes, but here's a workaround that works for me:
# Problem: CMake runs toolchain files multiple times, but can't read cache variables on some runs.
# Workaround: On first run (in which cache variables are always accessible), set an intermediary environment variable.
if (FOO)
# Environment variables are always preserved.
set(ENV{_FOO} "${FOO}")
else ()
set(FOO "$ENV{_FOO}")
endif ()

CMake 3.6 introduces variable CMAKE_TRY_COMPILE_PLATFORM_VARIABLES which contains a list of variables, automatically passed from the main project to the project, created with try_compile.
A toolchain may add its variables to that list, so they could be extracted in a subproject:
message(STATUS "Android ABI: ${ANDROID_ABI}")
if( "${ANDROID_ABI}" STREQUAL "" )
message(FATAL_ERROR "Please specifiy ABI at cmake call -DANDROID_ABI:STRING=armeabi or -DANDROID_ABI:STRING=arm64")
endif()
# propagate the variable into "inner" subprojects.
list(APPEND CMAKE_TRY_COMPILE_PLATFORM_VARIABLES "ANDROID_ABI")
Caveats:
This approach affects only to source flow of try_compile command. It won't work when try_compile is used for create fully-fledged CMake project with signature
try_compile(<resultVar> <bindir> <srcdir> <projectName> ...)
(Approach with setting environment variable, as described in the #sorbet answer, works perfectly in this case.)
This approach won't work for a subproject, created with ExternalProject_Add.
(Approach with setting environment variable fails in that case too.)

Related

build cmake subproject with differents toolchain [duplicate]

I have embedded project using cross compiler. I would like to introduce Google test, compiled with native GCC compiler. Additionally build some unit test targets with CTC compiler.
Briefly:
I have 3 different targets and compile them with 3 different compilers. How to express it in CMakeLists.txt? I Tried SET_TARGET_PROPERTIES;
but it seems impossible to set CXX variable with this command!
I just had the same issue right now, but the other answer didn't help me. I'm also cross-compiling, and I need some utility programs to be compiled with GCC, but my core code to be compiled with avr-gcc.
Basically, if you have a CMakeLists.txt, and you want all targets in this file to be compiled with another compiler, you can just set the variables by hand.
Define these macros somewhere:
macro(use_host_compiler)
if (${CURRENT_COMPILER} STREQUAL "NATIVE")
# Save current native flags
set(NATIVE_C_FLAGS ${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} CACHE STRING "GCC flags for the native compiler." FORCE)
# Change compiler
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME ${CMAKE_HOST_SYSTEM_NAME})
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR ${CMAKE_HOST_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR})
set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER ${HOST_C_COMPILER})
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS ${HOST_C_FLAGS})
set(CURRENT_COMPILER "HOST" CACHE STRING "Which compiler we are using." FORCE)
endif()
endmacro()
macro(use_native_compiler)
if (CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING AND ${CURRENT_COMPILER} STREQUAL "HOST")
# Save current host flags
set(HOST_C_FLAGS ${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} CACHE STRING "GCC flags for the host compiler." FORCE)
# Change compiler
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME ${NATIVE_SYSTEM_NAME})
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR ${NATIVE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR})
set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER ${NATIVE_C_COMPILER})
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS ${NATIVE_C_FLAGS})
set(CURRENT_COMPILER "NATIVE" CACHE STRING "Which compiler we are using." FORCE)
endif()
endmacro()
At the very beginning of your CMakeLists.txt script (or in a toolchain file), set the following variables according to what you need:
CURRENT_COMPILER
HOST_C_COMPILER
HOST_C_FLAGS
NATIVE_SYSTEM_NAME
NATIVE_C_COMPILER
NATIVE_C_FLAGS
The idea is that CMAKE_C_COMPILER (and company) is a variable like any other, so setting it inside a certain scope will only leave it changed within that scope.
Example usage:
use_host_compiler()
add_executable(foo foo.c) # Compiled with your host (computer)'s compiler.
use_native_compiler()
add_executable(bar bar.c) # Compiled with your native compiler (e.g. `avr-gcc`).
There is no proper way to change compiler for individual target.
According to cmake manual "Once set, you can not change this variable". This is about CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER.
The solution suggested by AnthonyD973 does not seem to work, which is sad of course. The ability to use several compilers in a project without custom_command things is very useful.
One solution (that I haven't tried yet) is to use
set_target_properties(your_target CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER foo_wrapper)
Then make foo_wrapper a script that just drops the first argument (which will be the default compiler, e.g. c++) and then calls the compiler you want.
There's also CXX_LINKER_LAUNCHER and the same for C_....
CMake is a make file generator. It generates a file that you can then use to build. If you want to more than one target platform, you need to run CMake multiple times with different generators.
So what you want to do is not possible in CMake, but with CMake: You can create a shell script that invokes CMake multiple times.

Prevent cmake from allowing any value for CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES

I am trying to do something like
cmake -DCMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES="Debug;RelWithDebInfo" ...
I wanted to check if I did not have any mistakes in type names so I tried something nonsensical hoping cmake will error out and confirm that my configuration types are correct.
cmake -DCMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES="Debug;Relalaland" ...
But cmake just creates the configuration types I specify...
Is there a way to tell cmake to not accept unfamiliar CONFIGURATION_TYPES?
Is there a way to tell cmake to not accept unfamiliar CONFIGURATION_TYPES?
Don't. A user might want to define a custom configuration type externally, which is perfectly possible to do in a toolchain file or at the command line. One use for this might be for sanitizer builds. In general, you should avoid restricting what your users can do with your build. Only hard requirements go in your CMakeLists.txt and denying a custom build type doesn't qualify.
All that said, here's how you can do this:
set(known_types Debug Release RelWithDebInfo MinSizeRel)
get_property(is_multi_config GLOBAL PROPERTY GENERATOR_IS_MULTI_CONFIG)
if (is_multi_config)
foreach (config IN LISTS CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
if (NOT config IN_LIST known_types)
message(FATAL_ERROR "Build type '${config}' invalid. Expected one of: ${known_types}")
endif ()
endforeach ()
elseif (NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE IN_LIST known_types)
message(FATAL_ERROR "Build type '${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}' invalid. Expected one of: ${known_types}")
endif ()
This works for both single and multi config generators.
So just check them.
set(allowed_types Debug Release RelWithDebInfo MinSizeRel)
foreach(i IN LISTS CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
if(NOT i IN_LIST allowed_types)
message(FATAL_ERROR "${i} is not valie configuration type")
endif()
endforeach()

Display CMake variables without running CMake on a CMakeLists.txt file or manually inspecting config.cmake?

Suppose I have a package called Foo. If I run CMake on a CMakeLists.txt file that contains find_package(Foo), then I can print out the values of variables such as ${Foo_LIBRARIES} and ${Foo_INCLUDES}.
Is there an easy way to display these variables without having to run CMake on a CMakeLists.txt file, and without having to manually inspect the config.cmake file?
You asked: (1) Is there an easy way to display these variables without having to run cmake on a CMakeLists.txt file, and (2) without having to manually inspect the config.cmake file?
I can give you a yes answer to (2) but it does require that you (re)run cmake. But since you can re-run your cmake configure step by simply executing cmake . in the build directory, re-running cmake should not keep you from trying this approach. My answer is given in this SO answer and uses the get_cmake_property command. Here is that code encapsulated into a cmake macro, print_all_variables, so I can use it when debugging my cmake scripts.
macro(print_all_variables)
message(STATUS "print_all_variables------------------------------------------{")
get_cmake_property(_variableNames VARIABLES)
foreach (_variableName ${_variableNames})
message(STATUS "${_variableName}=${${_variableName}}")
endforeach()
message(STATUS "print_all_variables------------------------------------------}")
endmacro()
The macros are invoked with same syntax as cmake functions:
print_all_variables()
To simply print a value, you could do something like this:
message(STATUS "foo include dir: ${foo_INCLUDE}")
where ${foo_INCLUDE} is the value you desire to print.
Note: I'm using cmake > 3.14
Run CMake and have a look at the cache with the ccmake GUI tool. Then you'll get all the variables.
Or run CMake with -LH then you will get all variables printed after configuration.
So I think it is not possible to get the variables without running CMake.
Run cmake in find-package mode. Example to display a package`s include directories:
cmake -DNAME=ZLIB -DCOMPILER_ID=GNU -DLANGUAGE=C -DMODE=COMPILE --find-package
Example to display the libraries:
cmake -DNAME=ZLIB -DCOMPILER_ID=GNU -DLANGUAGE=C -DMODE=LINK --find-package
The NAME must be set to the package name. You can obtain your COMPILER_ID on this page. LANGUAGE can be C, CXX or Fortran.
I am always suspicious of variables changing values throughout a script somewhere so I like to see the value of a variable at a particular point in the running script. Combining the ideas from both Phil and Aaron B. this is what I'm using:
function(PRINT_VAR VARNAME)
message(STATUS "${VARNAME}: ${${VARNAME}}")
endfunction()
PRINT_VAR("CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER")
Then I can just litter PRINT_VAR statements around like I'm debugging code back in 1980
These variables are generally hardcoded into FindFoo.cmake so that it is not possible to extract them without running the function first. Note that sometimes the value of Foo_LIBRARIES depends on the system configuration, which is unknown until find_package(Foo) is run.

Check CMake Cache Variable in Toolchain File

I'm having trouble setting a configuration variable via the command line. I can't determine it from the system, so I expect the user to specify:
cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../android.toolchain -DANDROID_ABI:STRING="arm64" ..
Inside my android.toolchain, I have the following:
message(STATUS "Android ABI: ${ANDROID_ABI}")
if( "${ANDROID_ABI}" STREQUAL "" )
message(FATAL_ERROR "Please specifiy ABI at cmake call -DANDROID_ABI:STRING=armeabi or -DANDROID_ABI:STRING=arm64")
endif()
No matter what, it fails at this line EVEN THOUGH it prints out the correct arm64:
-- Android ABI: arm64
CMake Error at yaml-cpp/android.toolchain:45 (message):
Please specifiy ABI at cmake call -DANDROID_ABI:STRING=armeabi or -DANDROID_ABI:STRING=arm64
Could anyone direct me to what I'm doing wrong?
I think this has to do with:
-D adds a cache variable instead of a normal variable
This is in a toolchain file... it seems to ignore cache variables
Any thoughts or suggestions?
I don't pretend to fully understand what's going on behind the scenes, but here's a workaround that works for me:
# Problem: CMake runs toolchain files multiple times, but can't read cache variables on some runs.
# Workaround: On first run (in which cache variables are always accessible), set an intermediary environment variable.
if (FOO)
# Environment variables are always preserved.
set(ENV{_FOO} "${FOO}")
else ()
set(FOO "$ENV{_FOO}")
endif ()
CMake 3.6 introduces variable CMAKE_TRY_COMPILE_PLATFORM_VARIABLES which contains a list of variables, automatically passed from the main project to the project, created with try_compile.
A toolchain may add its variables to that list, so they could be extracted in a subproject:
message(STATUS "Android ABI: ${ANDROID_ABI}")
if( "${ANDROID_ABI}" STREQUAL "" )
message(FATAL_ERROR "Please specifiy ABI at cmake call -DANDROID_ABI:STRING=armeabi or -DANDROID_ABI:STRING=arm64")
endif()
# propagate the variable into "inner" subprojects.
list(APPEND CMAKE_TRY_COMPILE_PLATFORM_VARIABLES "ANDROID_ABI")
Caveats:
This approach affects only to source flow of try_compile command. It won't work when try_compile is used for create fully-fledged CMake project with signature
try_compile(<resultVar> <bindir> <srcdir> <projectName> ...)
(Approach with setting environment variable, as described in the #sorbet answer, works perfectly in this case.)
This approach won't work for a subproject, created with ExternalProject_Add.
(Approach with setting environment variable fails in that case too.)

CMake: how to change compiler for individual target

I have embedded project using cross compiler. I would like to introduce Google test, compiled with native GCC compiler. Additionally build some unit test targets with CTC compiler.
Briefly:
I have 3 different targets and compile them with 3 different compilers. How to express it in CMakeLists.txt? I Tried SET_TARGET_PROPERTIES;
but it seems impossible to set CXX variable with this command!
I just had the same issue right now, but the other answer didn't help me. I'm also cross-compiling, and I need some utility programs to be compiled with GCC, but my core code to be compiled with avr-gcc.
Basically, if you have a CMakeLists.txt, and you want all targets in this file to be compiled with another compiler, you can just set the variables by hand.
Define these macros somewhere:
macro(use_host_compiler)
if (${CURRENT_COMPILER} STREQUAL "NATIVE")
# Save current native flags
set(NATIVE_C_FLAGS ${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} CACHE STRING "GCC flags for the native compiler." FORCE)
# Change compiler
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME ${CMAKE_HOST_SYSTEM_NAME})
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR ${CMAKE_HOST_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR})
set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER ${HOST_C_COMPILER})
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS ${HOST_C_FLAGS})
set(CURRENT_COMPILER "HOST" CACHE STRING "Which compiler we are using." FORCE)
endif()
endmacro()
macro(use_native_compiler)
if (CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING AND ${CURRENT_COMPILER} STREQUAL "HOST")
# Save current host flags
set(HOST_C_FLAGS ${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} CACHE STRING "GCC flags for the host compiler." FORCE)
# Change compiler
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME ${NATIVE_SYSTEM_NAME})
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR ${NATIVE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR})
set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER ${NATIVE_C_COMPILER})
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS ${NATIVE_C_FLAGS})
set(CURRENT_COMPILER "NATIVE" CACHE STRING "Which compiler we are using." FORCE)
endif()
endmacro()
At the very beginning of your CMakeLists.txt script (or in a toolchain file), set the following variables according to what you need:
CURRENT_COMPILER
HOST_C_COMPILER
HOST_C_FLAGS
NATIVE_SYSTEM_NAME
NATIVE_C_COMPILER
NATIVE_C_FLAGS
The idea is that CMAKE_C_COMPILER (and company) is a variable like any other, so setting it inside a certain scope will only leave it changed within that scope.
Example usage:
use_host_compiler()
add_executable(foo foo.c) # Compiled with your host (computer)'s compiler.
use_native_compiler()
add_executable(bar bar.c) # Compiled with your native compiler (e.g. `avr-gcc`).
There is no proper way to change compiler for individual target.
According to cmake manual "Once set, you can not change this variable". This is about CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER.
The solution suggested by AnthonyD973 does not seem to work, which is sad of course. The ability to use several compilers in a project without custom_command things is very useful.
One solution (that I haven't tried yet) is to use
set_target_properties(your_target CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER foo_wrapper)
Then make foo_wrapper a script that just drops the first argument (which will be the default compiler, e.g. c++) and then calls the compiler you want.
There's also CXX_LINKER_LAUNCHER and the same for C_....
CMake is a make file generator. It generates a file that you can then use to build. If you want to more than one target platform, you need to run CMake multiple times with different generators.
So what you want to do is not possible in CMake, but with CMake: You can create a shell script that invokes CMake multiple times.