Cmake: how to force it to use colormake? - cmake

Question

in order to use colormake I did set this alias in my .bashrc
alias make="/usr/bin/colormake"
It works, as if I try to compile (with qmake) a simple C++ example code with errors (just a main.cpp with a cout ), they are correctly coloured.
However, if I compile the same code with cmake, colormake is not used. What can I do to force cmake to use it?
my minimal CMakeList.txt example is
CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED(VERSION 3.0.2)
ADD_DEFINITIONS(-std=c++11)
ADD_EXECUTABLE(exe main.cpp)
System: Debian 8.8 jessie
Thanks, Valerio
Update:
I modified the CMakeLists.txt in this way, but no success:
CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED(VERSION 3.0.2)
ADD_DEFINITIONS(-std=c++11)
set(CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM /usr/bin/colormake)
ADD_EXECUTABLE(exe main.cpp)
message("CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM: " ${CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM})
Update 2:
I modified the CMakeList in this way:
CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED(VERSION 3.0.2)
ADD_DEFINITIONS(-std=c++11)
#set(CMAKE_COLOR_MAKEFILE OFF)
#set(CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM /usr/bin/colormake)
ADD_EXECUTABLE(exe main.cpp)
message("CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM: " ${CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM})
message("CMAKE_COLOR_MAKEFILE: " ${CMAKE_COLOR_MAKEFILE})
then launched cmake with this argument from command line:
cmake -DCMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM=/usr/bin/colormake -DCMAKE_COLOR_MAKEFILE=OFF ../
But again, the main.cpp synthax error after make is not coloured.
This is the output of cmake, note the messages about CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM and CMAKE_COLOR_MAKEFILE
-- The C compiler identification is GNU 4.9.2
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 4.9.2
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc -- works
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++ -- works
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM: /usr/bin/colormake
CMAKE_COLOR_MAKEFILE: OFF
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /home/valeriosperati/Desktop/VALERIO_SPERATI/prova_codice_c/colormake/cmake/build
Some additional (maybe helpful) info: this is the output
I obtain when compiling with qmake, the error 'hjskf' is in red.
this is the output when comiling with cmake:

Answer 1

It should be enough to set the CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM cache variable to point at the build tool you want to use. You can do this by running cmake with a -D option like so:
cmake -DCMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM=/usr/bin/colormake path/to/src
For the benefit of others, this technique can be used with other generators too, not just make. Just be aware that it is your responsibility to make sure the build tool specified matches the generator type CMake is using (i.e. don't pass a make tool if you've told CMake to use Ninja with -G Ninja instead).
Note, however, that this only really matters if you are invoking the build via CMake like so:
cmake --build path/to/build/dir
Some IDE tools may invoke the build that way. Most of the time, however, developers invoke the tool directly. In your case, you can simply invoke colormake instead of make. If you are still not getting colored output after doing that, then your problem must be elsewhere (check your terminal type settings perhaps).