qt-creator/doc/qtcreator/src/cmake/creator-projects-cmake-building.qdoc

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/*!
    \previouspage creator-build-settings.html
    \page creator-build-settings-cmake.html
    \nextpage creator-build-settings-qmake.html

    \title CMake Build Configuration

    Configuring medium-sized to large CMake projects in \QC can be a
    challenge due to the number of variables that you need to pass to
    CMake to configure the project correctly. To make this easier,
    \QC creates an initial configuration for you based on the kit
    settings and displays it in \uicontrol {Initial Configuration} in
    the \l{Specifying Build Settings}{Build Settings} of the project.

    \image qtcreator-cmake-build-settings-initial.png "CMake build settings"

    \uicontrol {Initial Configuration} lists the variables that are used to
    configure the CMake project for the first time. The default values that
    are inherited from the kit's CMake configuration are displayed in italic.
    The initial configuration list of variables is saved in the project's source
    directory as the \e CMakeLists.txt.user file.

    \uicontrol {Current Configuration} lists the CMake variables in the
    \c cmake-file-api JSON export in the \c {.cmake/api/v1/reply} directory.
    The variables that are inherited from the initial configuration are
    displayed in italic. Mismatched values are displayed in red.

    You can view and edit the actual values of the variables that are passed
    to CMake. Variable names are listed in the \uicontrol Key column and their
    current values in the \uicontrol Value column. For more information about
    the available variables, select \uicontrol Help in the context menu or see
    \l{CMake: cmake-variables(7)}. For more information about Qt-specific
    variables, see \l{CMake Variable Reference}.

    You can specify additional CMake options, such as \c {--find-debug},
    \c {--preset}, \c {--trace-expand}, or \c {--warn-uninitialized}, in
    \uicontrol {Additional CMake options}. For more information about
    the available options, click the link in the field name or see
    \l{CMake: cmake(1)}.

    After successfully running CMake, you can view and modify the current
    configuration in \uicontrol {Current Configuration}.

    Select \uicontrol {Kit Configuration} to edit the CMake settings for the
    build and run kit selected for the project.

    \section1 Multi-Config Support

    \QC supports
    \l{https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/prop_gbl/GENERATOR_IS_MULTI_CONFIG.html}
    {Multi-config generators}, such as Xcode, Visual Studio, and Ninja
    Multi-Config. This means that you need to configure CMake only once, have
    only one build directory, and can switch between build types faster.

    However, this means that \QC can no longer simply parse the first CMake
    file-api JSON export. Therefore, the value of the \uicontrol {Build type}
    field must match that of the \c CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE variable for the single
    configuration generators (Ninja, Makefile) to determine, which generator
    to use.

    When developing with Qt 6 for iOS, only the Xcode generator is supported.

    \section1 Modifying Variable Values

    You can view and edit the actual values of the variables that
    are passed to CMake in \uicontrol {Initial Configuration} or
    \uicontrol {Current Configuration}.

    \image qtcreator-cmake-build-settings.png "CMake variables"

    To view all variables, select the \uicontrol Advanced check box.

    To add variables, select \uicontrol Add, and then select the type of
    the variable that you are adding: \uicontrol Boolean, \uicontrol String,
    \uicontrol Directory, or \uicontrol File.

    To change the type of the selected variable, right-click the
    variable name in the \uicontrol Key column, and then select
    \uicontrol {Force to bool}, \uicontrol {Force to file},
    \uicontrol {Force to directory}, or \uicontrol {Force to string}
    in the context menu.

    To copy the name or value of the selected variable to the clipboard,
    select \uicontrol Copy in the context menu.

    To modify the value of a variable, double-click it, or select it,
    and then select \uicontrol Edit. If the initial, current, and kit
    configuration get out of sync, select \uicontrol {Apply Kit Value} or
    \uicontrol {Apply Initial Configuration Value} in the context menu in
    \uicontrol {Initial Configuration} or \uicontrol {Current Configuration}.

    You can apply actions to multiple variables at a time. To clear
    the selection, select \uicontrol {Clear Selection}.

    To remove the selected variables, select \uicontrol Unset. To undo
    the removal, select \uicontrol Set.

    To reset all the changes that you made, select \uicontrol Reset.

    To modify the environment variable values for the CMake build environment,
    select \uicontrol {Batch Edit}. For more information, see \l{Batch Editing}.

    To build using the current configuration, select \uicontrol {Run CMake}.
    While building, the button text changes to \uicontrol {Stop CMake}. Select
    the button to cancel the current build.

    The variable values that you change are passed via \c -D<option>=<value>
    to CMake, which stores the options in the CMakeCache.txt file. This means
    that if you remove the build directory, all the custom variables that are
    not part of the initial CMake configuration are also removed.

    To reconfigure a project using the modified variable values,
    select \uicontrol Build > \uicontrol {Clear CMake Configuration}, which
    removes the CMakeCache.txt file. This enables you to do a full rebuild.

    \section1 Re-configuring with Initial Variables

    To reset CMake variables to the initial ones, select
    \uicontrol {Re-configure with Initial Variables} in
    \uicontrol {Initial Configuration}. \QC deletes the current CMake
    configuration and runs CMake. The initial configuration values are
    stored in the CMakeLists.txt.user file, so deleting a build directory
    does not delete the initial configuration.

    To be asked before \QC resets the changes, select \uicontrol Tools >
    \uicontrol Options > \uicontrol {Build & Run} > \uicontrol CMake >
    \uicontrol {Ask before re-configuring with initial parameters}.

    \image qtcreator-build-run-options-cmake.png "CMake Build & Run options"

    \section1 Viewing CMake Output

    Output from CMake is displayed next to the \uicontrol {Build Settings} and
    \uicontrol {Run Settings} panes in the \uicontrol Projects mode.

    \image qtcreator-build-cmake-output.png "CMake output in Projects mode"

    To clear the search results, select the \inlineimage icons/clean_pane_small.png
    (\uicontrol Clear) button.

    You can enter a string in the \uicontrol Filter field to filter output.
    To specify filtering options, select the
    \inlineimage icons/magnifier.png "Filtering options menu"
    button. You can filter output by using regular expressions or
    case-sensitivity. Select \uicontrol {Show Non-matching Lines} to
    hide the lines that match the filter.

    Press \key {Ctrl+F} to \l{Finding and Replacing}{search} for a string from
    the output.

    To increase or decrease the output text size, select \inlineimage icons/plus.png
    (\uicontrol {Zoom In}) or \inlineimage icons/minus.png
    (\uicontrol {Zoom Out}), or press \key Ctrl++ or \key Ctrl+-.

    \section1 CMake Build Steps

    \QC builds CMake projects by running \c {cmake . --build}, which then runs
    the CMake generator specified in the project configuration: \c make,
    \c mingw32-make, \c nmake, or \c ninja, for example. The CMake generator
    produces project files for \QC. Multi-config generators are also supported.

    You can add arguments to pass to CMake and the generator and targets for
    the build command in \uicontrol {Build Steps}.

    \image qtcreator-cmake-build-steps.png "CMake build steps"

    \note While the other CMake generators are installed together with Qt,
    you usually need to install Ninja yourself.

    \section1 Using Ninja as a CMake Generator

    To use \l {https://ninja-build.org/}{Ninja} with CMake, you must install it
    and select it as the CMake generator in the build and run kit:

    \list 1
        \li Install Ninja.
        \li Add the path to the Ninja executable to the value of the PATH system
            variable.
        \li In \uicontrol Projects > \uicontrol {Build & Run} > \uicontrol Build
            > \uicontrol {Build Settings}, select \uicontrol {Kit Configuration}.
            \image qtcreator-cmake-kit-configuration.png "Kit CMake Configuration dialog"
        \li Select \uicontrol Change next to the \uicontrol {CMake generator}
            field to open the \uicontrol {CMake Generator} dialog.
            \image qtcreator-cmake-generator.png "CMake Generator dialog"
        \li In \uicontrol Generator, select \uicontrol Ninja.
        \li Select \uicontrol OK to save your changes and close the dialog.
        \li Select \uicontrol Close to close the
            \uicontrol {Kit CMake Configuration} dialog
            and return to \uicontrol {Build Settings}.
    \endlist

    \note To make sure that old build artifacts don't get in the way
    the first time you build the project after the change, select
    \uicontrol Build > \uicontrol {Rebuild Project}. This cleans up the
    build directory and performs a new build.

    \section1 Using CMake with Conan

    \QC can automatically set up the \l {Setting Up Conan}
    {Conan package manager} for use with CMake.

    Select \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Options > \uicontrol {Build & Run} >
    \uicontrol CMake > \uicontrol {Package manager auto setup} to set the
    value of the \c CMAKE_PROJECT_INCLUDE_BEFORE variable to the path to a
    CMake script that installs dependencies from a \c conanfile.txt,
    \c conanfile.py, or \c vcpkg.json file in the project source directory.

    \section1 CMake Clean Steps

    When building with CMake, you can add arguments to pass to CMake and the
    generator and targets for the clean command in \uicontrol {Clean Steps}.

    \image qtcreator-cmake-clean-steps.png

    The build errors and warnings are parsed and displayed in \l Issues.
*/