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# try_compile

Try building some code.

    try_compile(RESULT_VAR <bindir> <srcdir>
                <projectName> [targetName] [CMAKE_FLAGS flags...]
                [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <var>])

Try building a project. In this form, srcdir should contain a complete CMake project with a CMakeLists.txt file and all sources. The bindir and srcdir will not be deleted after this command is run. Specify targetName to build a specific target instead of the ‘all’ or ‘ALL_BUILD’ target.

    try_compile(RESULT_VAR <bindir> <srcfile|SOURCES srcfile...>
                [CMAKE_FLAGS flags...]
                [COMPILE_DEFINITIONS flags...]
                [LINK_LIBRARIES libs...]
                [OUTPUT_VARIABLE <var>]
                [COPY_FILE <fileName> [COPY_FILE_ERROR <var>]])

Try building an executable from one or more source files. In this form the user need only supply one or more source files that include a definition for ‘main’. CMake will create a CMakeLists.txt file to build the source(s) as an executable. Specify COPY_FILE to get a copy of the linked executable at the given fileName and optionally COPY_FILE_ERROR to capture any error.

In this version all files in bindir/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp will be cleaned automatically. For debugging, –debug-trycompile can be passed to cmake to avoid this clean. However, multiple sequential try_compile operations reuse this single output directory. If you use –debug-trycompile, you can only debug one try_compile call at a time. The recommended procedure is to configure with cmake all the way through once, then delete the cache entry associated with the try_compile call of interest, and then re-run cmake again with –debug-trycompile.

Some extra flags that can be included are, INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES, LINK_DIRECTORIES, and LINK_LIBRARIES. COMPILE_DEFINITIONS are -Ddefinition that will be passed to the compile line.

The srcfile signature also accepts a LINK_LIBRARIES argument which may contain a list of libraries or IMPORTED targets which will be linked to in the generated project. If LINK_LIBRARIES is specified as a parameter to try_compile, then any LINK_LIBRARIES passed as CMAKE_FLAGS will be ignored.

try_compile creates a CMakeList.txt file on the fly that looks like this:

    add_definitions( <expanded COMPILE_DEFINITIONS from calling cmake>)
    include_directories(${INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES})
    link_directories(${LINK_DIRECTORIES})
    add_executable(cmTryCompileExec sources)
    target_link_libraries(cmTryCompileExec ${LINK_LIBRARIES})

In both versions of the command, if OUTPUT_VARIABLE is specified, then the output from the build process is stored in the given variable. The success or failure of the try_compile, i.e. TRUE or FALSE respectively, is returned in RESULT_VAR. CMAKE_FLAGS can be used to pass -DVAR:TYPE=VALUE flags to the cmake that is run during the build. Set variable CMAKE_TRY_COMPILE_CONFIGURATION to choose a build configuration.

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