CMake depend.make file empty - cmake

Question

I start using CMake to build my c++ source files, I see a strange comportament when I build inicially:
'cmake ../' will gerate the directory structure
'make' will build all
any successive make command will build nothing, as expected
'cmake ../' will apparent do nothing
'make' WILL REBUILD all
any successive make command will build nothing, as expected
There is my CMakelists.txt:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.6)
set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER "g++")
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-Wall -pipe")
set(var_target CommonBase)
set(var_path_source base)
project(Prj_${var_target})
file(GLOB_RECURSE var_sources ${var_path_source}/*.cpp)
add_library(${var_target} SHARED ${var_sources})
install(TARGETS ${var_target} DESTINATION ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/install)
Looking better, at first 'cmake ../' command the file 'CMakeFiles/CommonBase.dir/depend.make' is empty, and the successive make command will insert the list of file dependencies
There is something wrong with my CMakelists.txt?
Thanks

Answer 1

There are a couple of issues here.
The actual cause of your problem is having the line set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS ...) before the project command.
The project command does quite a lot of work the first time it is run, and actually clears out this variable as a side-effect. So on your first run of CMake, the compiler flags are empty, and thereafter always contain what you set them to. (It's only the second time you run CMake which causes make to recompile all, not subsequent runs of CMake).
Try wrapping your project call with messages to see the effect:
message("CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS - ${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS}")
project(Prj_${var_target})
message("CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS - ${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS}")
Delete your CMakeCache.txt file (in your build root), then just run cmake .. repeatedly.
To fix this, move your set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS ...) to after the project command.
The second issue is that it's not recommended to set CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER in a CMakeLists.txt. Have a look at the comment below "Setting default compiler in CMake", and also the link there to CMake's FAQ entry How do I use a different compiler?