CMake 3.2.0-rc1 now ready for testing!

February 13, 2015

I am proud to announce that CMake 3.2 has entered the release candidate stage.

Sources and binaries are available at:
  http://www.cmake.org/download/
  http://www.cmake.org/files/v3.2/?C=M;O=D

Documentation is available at:
  http://www.cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.2

Release notes appear below and are also published at
  http://www.cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.2/release/3.2.html

Some of the more significant features of CMake 3.2 are:

* CMake learned to support unicode characters *encoded as UTF-8* on
  Windows.  This was already supported on platforms whose system APIs
  accept UTF-8 encoded strings. Unicode characters may now be used in
  CMake code, paths to source files, configured files such as ".h.in"
  files, and other files read and written by CMake.  Note that because
  CMake interoperates with many other tools, there may still be some
  limitations when using certain unicode characters.

* The "Compile Features" functionality is now aware of features
  supported by more compilers, including:

  * Apple Clang ("AppleClang") for Xcode versions 4.4 though 6.1.

  * GNU compiler versions 4.4 through 5.0 on UNIX and Apple ("GNU").

  * Microsoft Visual Studio ("MSVC") for versions 2010 through 2015.

  * Oracle SolarisStudio ("SunPro") version 12.4.

* The "add_custom_command()" and "add_custom_target()" commands
  learned a new "BYPRODUCTS" option to specify files produced as side
  effects of the custom commands.  These are not outputs because they
  do not always have to be newer than inputs.

* The "file(GENERATE)" command can now generate files which are used
  as source files for buildsystem targets.  Generated files
  automatically get their "GENERATED" property set to "TRUE".

Deprecated and Removed Features:

* Files written in the "cmake-language(7)", such as "CMakeLists.txt"
  or "*.cmake" files, are now expected to be encoded as UTF-8.  If
  files are already ASCII, they will be compatible.  If files were in
  a different encoding, including Latin 1, they will need to be
  converted.

* The "FindOpenGL" module no longer explicitly searches for any
  dependency on X11 libraries with the "FindX11" module.  Such
  dependencies should not need to be explicit. Applications using X11
  APIs themselves should find and link to X11 libraries explicitly.

 
 
CMake 3.2.0 Release Notes
*************************


Changes made since CMake 3.1.0 include the following.
 
 
New Features
============
 
 
Syntax
——
 
* CMake learned to support unicode characters *encoded as UTF-8* on
  Windows.  This was already supported on platforms whose system APIs
  accept UTF-8 encoded strings. Unicode characters may now be used in
  CMake code, paths to source files, configured files such as ".h.in"
  files, and other files read and written by CMake.  Note that because
  CMake interoperates with many other tools, there may still be some
  limitations when using certain unicode characters.
 
 
Commands
——–
 
* The "add_custom_command()" and "add_custom_target()" commands
  learned a new "BYPRODUCTS" option to specify files produced as side
  effects of the custom commands.  These are not outputs because they
  do not always have to be newer than inputs.
 
* The "add_custom_command()" and "add_custom_target()" commands
  learned a new "USES_TERMINAL" option to request that the command be
  given direct access to the terminal if possible. The "Ninja"
  generator will places such commands in the "console" "pool".  Build
  targets provided by CMake that are meant for individual interactive
  use, such as "install", are now placed in this pool.
 
* A new "continue()" command was added that can be called inside
  loop contexts to end the current iteration and start the next one at
  the top of the loop block.
 
* The "file(LOCK)" subcommand was created to allow CMake processes
  to synchronize through file and directory locks.
 
* The "file(STRINGS)" now supports UTF-16LE, UTF-16BE, UTF-32LE,
  UTF- 32BE as "ENCODING" options.
 
* The "install(EXPORT)" command now works with an absolute
  "DESTINATION" even if targets in the export set are installed with a
  destination or *usage requirements* specified relative to the
  install prefix.  The value of the "CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX" variable is
  hard-coded into the installed export file as the base for relative
  references.
 
* The "try_compile()" command source file signature now honors link
  flags (e.g. "CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS") in the generated test project.
  See policy "CMP0056".
 
* The "try_run()" command learned to honor the "LINK_LIBRARIES"
  option just as "try_compile()" already does.
 
* The "file(GENERATE)" command now generates the output file with
  the same permissions as the input file if set.
 
* The "file(GENERATE)" command can now generate files which are used
  as source files for buildsystem targets.  Generated files
  automatically get their "GENERATED" property set to "TRUE".
 
 
Variables
———
 
* The "CMAKE_MATCH_COUNT" variable was introduced to record the
  number of matches made in the last regular expression matched in an
  "if()" command or a "string()" command.
 
 
Properties
———-
 
* An "ANDROID_API_MIN" target property was introduced to specify the
  minimum version to be targeted by the toolchain.
 
* A "VS_SHADER_FLAGS" source file property was added to specify
  additional shader flags to ".hlsl" files, for the Visual Studio
  generators.
 
 
Modules
——-
 
* The "ExternalData" module learned to support *Custom Fetch
  Scripts*. This allows projects to specify custom ".cmake" scripts
  for fetching data objects during the build.
 
* The "ExternalProject" module learned options to create independent
  external project step targets that do not depend on the builtin
  steps.
 
* The "ExternalProject" module "ExternalProject_Add()" command
  learned a new "CMAKE_CACHE_DEFAULT_ARGS" option to initialize cache
  values in the external project without setting them on future
  builds.
 
* The "ExternalProject" module "ExternalProject_Add()" command
  learned a new "TEST_EXCLUDE_FROM_MAIN" option to exclude tests from
  the main build.
 
* The "ExternalProject" module "ExternalProject_Add()" command
  learned a new "UPDATE_DISCONNECTED" option to avoid automatically
  updating the source tree checkout from version control.
 
* The "FindCUDA" module learned about the "cusolver" library in CUDA
  7.0.
 
* The "FindGit" module learned to find the "git" command-line tool
  that comes with GitHub for Windows installed in user home
  directories.
 
* A "FindGSL" module was introduced to find the GNU Scientific
  Library.
 
* A "FindIntl" module was introduced to find the Gettext "libintl"
  library.
 
* A "FindJsonCpp" module was introduced to find the JsonCpp package.
 
* The "FindLATEX" module learned to support components.
 
* The "FindMPI" module learned to find MS-MPI on Windows.
 
* The "FindOpenSSL" module now reports "crypto" and "ssl" libraries
  separately in "OPENSSL_CRYPTO_LIBRARY" and "OPENSSL_SSL_LIBRARY",
  respectively, to allow applications to link to one without the
  other.
 
* The "WriteCompilerDetectionHeader" module learned to create a
  define for portability of the "cxx_thread_local" feature. The define
  expands to either the C++11 "thread_local" keyword, or a pre-
  standardization compiler-specific equivalent, as appropriate.
 
* The "WriteCompilerDetectionHeader" module learned to create
  multiple output files per compiler and per language, instead of
  creating one large file.
 
 
CTest
—–
 
* The "ctest_coverage()" command learned to support Delphi coverage.
 
* The "ctest_coverage()" command learned to support Javascript
  coverage.
 
* The "CTestCoverageCollectGCOV" module was introduced as an
  alternative to the "ctest_coverage()" command for collecting "gcov"
  results for submission to CDash.
 
 
CPack
—–
 
* The "CPackRPM" module learned options to set per-component
  descriptions and summaries.  See the
  "CPACK_RPM_<component>_PACKAGE_DESCRIPTION" and
  "CPACK_RPM_<component>_PACKAGE_SUMMARY" variables.
 
* The "CPackRPM" module learned options to specify requirements for
  pre- and post-install scripts.  See the
  "CPACK_RPM_PACKAGE_REQUIRES_PRE" and
  "CPACK_RPM_PACKAGE_REQUIRES_POST" variables.
 
* The "CPackRPM" module learned options to specify requirements for
  pre- and post-uninstall scripts.  See the
  "CPACK_RPM_PACKAGE_REQUIRES_PREUN" and
  "CPACK_RPM_PACKAGE_REQUIRES_POSTUN" variables.
 
* The "CPackRPM" module learned a new
  "CPACK_RPM_<COMPONENT>_PACKAGE_PREFIX" variable to specify a
  component-specific value to use instead of
  "CPACK_PACKAGING_INSTALL_PREFIX".
 
* The "CPackRPM" module learned a new "CPACK_RPM_RELOCATION_PATHS"
  variable to specify multiple relocation prefixes for a single rpm
  package.
 
 
Other
—–
 
* The "cmake(1)" "-E tar" command now supports creating
  ".xz"-compressed archives with the "J" flag.
 
* The "cmake(1)" "-E tar" command learned a new "–files-
  from=<file>" option to specify file names using lines in a file to
  overcome command-line length limits.
 
* The "cmake(1)" "-E tar" command learned a new "–mtime=<date>"
  option to specify the modification time recorded in tarball entries.
 
* The "Compile Features" functionality is now aware of features
  supported by more compilers, including:
 
  * Apple Clang ("AppleClang") for Xcode versions 4.4 though 6.1.
 
  * GNU compiler versions 4.4 through 5.0 on UNIX and Apple ("GNU").
 
  * Microsoft Visual Studio ("MSVC") for versions 2010 through 2015.
 
  * Oracle SolarisStudio ("SunPro") version 12.4.
 
* The *AUTORCC* feature now tracks files listed in ".qrc" files as
  dependencies. If an input file to the "rcc" tool is changed, the
  tool is automatically re-run.
 
 
New Diagnostics
===============
 
* The "break()" command now rejects calls outside of a loop context
  or that pass arguments to the command. See policy "CMP0055".
 
 
Deprecated and Removed Features
===============================
 
* Files written in the "cmake-language(7)", such as "CMakeLists.txt"
  or "*.cmake" files, are now expected to be encoded as UTF-8.  If
  files are already ASCII, they will be compatible.  If files were in
  a different encoding, including Latin 1, they will need to be
  converted.
 
* The "FindOpenGL" module no longer explicitly searches for any
  dependency on X11 libraries with the "FindX11" module.  Such
  dependencies should not need to be explicit. Applications using X11
  APIs themselves should find and link to X11 libraries explicitly.
 
* The implementation of CMake now relies on some C++ compiler
  features which are not supported by some older compilers.  As a
  result, those old compilers can no longer be used to build CMake
  itself.  CMake continues to be able to generate Makefiles and
  project files for users of those old compilers however.  Compilers
  known to no longer be capable of building CMake are:
 
  * Visual Studio 6 and 7.0 — superseded by VisualStudio 7.1 and
    newer.
 
  * GCC 2.95 — superseded by GCC 3 and newer compilers.
 
  * Borland compilers — superseded by other Windows compilers.
 
  * Compaq compilers — superseded by other compilers.
 
  * SGI compilers — IRIX was dropped as a host platform.
 
 
Other Changes
=============
 
* On Windows and OS X, commands supporting network communication via
  "https", such as "file(DOWNLOAD)", "file(UPLOAD)", and
  "ctest_submit()", now support SSL/TLS even when CMake is not built
  against OpenSSL. The Windows or OS X native SSL/TLS implementation
  is used by default. OS-configured certificate authorities will be
  trusted automatically.
 
  On other platforms, when CMake is built with OpenSSL, these commands
  now search for OS-configured certificate authorities in a few "/etc"
  paths to be trusted automatically.
 
* On OS X with Makefile and Ninja generators, when a compiler is
  found in "/usr/bin" it is now mapped to the corresponding compiler
  inside the Xcode application folder, if any.  This allows such build
  trees to continue to work with their original compiler even when
  "xcode- select" switches to a different Xcode installation.
 
* The Visual Studio generators now write solution and project files
  in UTF-8 instead of Windows-1252.  Windows-1252 supported Latin 1
  languages such as those found in North and South America and Western
  Europe.  With UTF-8, additional languages are now supported.
 
* The "Xcode" generator no longer requires a value for the
  "CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM" variable to be located up front. It now locates
  "xcodebuild" when needed at build time.
 
* When building CMake itself using SolarisStudio 12, the default
  "libCStd" standard library is not sufficient to build CMake.  The
  SolarisStudio distribution supports compiler options to use
  "STLPort4" or "libstdc++". An appropriate option to select the
  standard library is now added automatically when building CMake with
  SolarisStudio compilers.
 

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