CMake 4.3.0-rc1 is ready for testing

I am proud to announce the first CMake 4.3 release candidate.
https://cmake.org/download/

Documentation is available at:
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v4.3

Release notes appear below and are also published at
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v4.3/release/4.3.html

Release milestone is available at:
release milestone

Some of the most significant changes in CMake 4.3 are:

• “cmake-instrumentation(7)” was added to enable collection of timing
  data, target information, and system diagnostic information during
  the configure, generate, build, test, and install steps of a CMake
  project

• “cmake –build” now supports specifying a build directory and preset
  together. The build preset will be used with the explicit build
  directory substituted.

• The “cmake -E bin2c” command-line tool was added.

• CMake archive operations gained support for multithreading, compression
  levels, and new compression methods.

• The “get_property()” and “set_property()” commands now support a
  “FILE_SET” scope for file set properties of a target.

• The “CMAKE_<LANG>LINK_FLAGS” and “CMAKE<LANG>LINK_FLAGS<CONFIG>”
  variables were added to support per-language link flags for all
  target types.

• The “CMAKE_CXX_MODULE_STD” variable and corresponding
  “CXX_MODULE_STD” target property were added to control the
  availability of “import std” for C++ targets.

• “$<STRING:…>” generator expressions were added for query,
  generation, and transformation operations on strings.

CMake 4.3 Release Notes
***********************

Changes made since CMake 4.2 include the following.


New Features
============


Instrumentation
---------------

* "cmake-instrumentation(7)" was added to enable collection of timing
  data, target information, and system diagnostic information during
  the configure, generate, build, test, and install steps of a CMake
  project:

  * Instrumentation data are indexed and provided to callbacks for
    custom processing.

  * Instrumentation data are included in submissions to CDash.

  * Optionally, Google Trace Event Format files may be generated to
    visualize instrumentation data.


File-Based API
--------------

* The "cmake-file-api(7)" "codemodel" version 2 version field has been
  updated to 2.10.

* The "cmake-file-api(7)" "codemodel" version 2 "target" object gained
  a new "interfaceSources" array field, and the "sourceGroups" array
  items gained a new "interfaceSourceIndexes" array field.


Platforms
---------

* "HIP" language code may now be compiled for SPIR-V targets, e.g.,
  via chipStar.  See the "CMAKE_HIP_PLATFORM" variable.


Command-Line
------------

* "cmake --version" now supports a "=json-v1" value to print detailed
  version information in a JSON format.

* "cmake --build" now supports specifying a build directory and preset
  together.  The build preset will be used with the explicit build
  directory substituted.

* The "cmake -E" commands "md5sum", "sha1sum", "sha224sum",
  "sha256sum", "sha384sum", and "sha512sum" now support reading from
  standard input by passing "-".

* The "cmake -E bin2c" command-line tool was added.

* The "cmake -E tar" command-line tool:

  * Gained a "--cmake-tar-compression-level" flag to specify the
    compression level.

  * Gained a "--cmake-tar-compression-method" flag to specify the
    compression method.

  * Gained a "--cmake-tar-threads" flag to enable multithreaded
    operations.

  * Now supports specifying compression method and level for "7zip"
    and "zip" formats.

  * Gained a "--format=raw" flag to disable compression.

  * Gained a "--lzma" flag to specify "LZMA" compression.


Commands
--------

* The "cmake_instrumentation()" command was added to make project-
  level instrumentation queries.

* The "file(ARCHIVE_CREATE)" command:

  * Gained a "THREADS" option to enable multithreaded operations.

  * Now supports "COMPRESSION" method "Deflate" as an alias for
    "GZip".

  * Now supports "COMPRESSION" method "LZMA".

  * Now supports "COMPRESSION" method "LZMA2" as an alias for "XZ".

  * Now supports "COMPRESSION" method "PPMd" for format "7zip".

  * Now supports "COMPRESSION" and "COMPRESSION_LEVEL" options for
    formats "7zip" and "zip".

* The "get_property()" and "set_property()" commands now support a
  "FILE_SET" scope for file set properties of a target.

* The "install(PACKAGE_INFO)" and "export(PACKAGE_INFO)" commands now
  support specifying "CXX_MODULES_DIRECTORY" for exporting C++20
  modules.

* The "string(JSON)" command gained new "GET_RAW" and "STRING_ENCODE"
  modes.

* The "source_group()" command now supports "generator expressions".

* The "cmake_host_system_information()" command gained a
  "LOCALE_CHARSET" query for the expected "cmake-language(7)" script
  encoding.


Variables
---------

* The "CMAKE_<LANG>_LINK_FLAGS" and "CMAKE_<LANG>_LINK_FLAGS_<CONFIG>"
  variables were added to support per-language link flags for all
  target types. See policy "CMP0210".

* The "CMAKE_CXX_MODULE_STD" variable and corresponding
  "CXX_MODULE_STD" target property were added to control the
  availability of "import std" for C++ targets.

* The read-only "CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_IMPORT_STD" variable was added to
  list the C++ standard levels for which "import std" is available on
  the current toolchain.

* The "CMAKE_CXX_STDLIB_MODULES_JSON" variable was added to specify an
  "import std" module metadata file instead of relying on automatic
  detection from the C++ compiler.

* The "CMAKE_VERIFY_PRIVATE_HEADER_SETS" variable and corresponding
  "VERIFY_PRIVATE_HEADER_SETS" target property were added to enable
  build rules that verify all headers in private file sets can be used
  on their own.


Properties
----------

* A "<LANG>_PVS_STUDIO" target property and supporting
  "CMAKE_<LANG>_PVS_STUDIO" variable were introduced to tell Makefile
  Generators and Ninja Generators to run "pvs-studio-analyzer" with
  the compiler for "C" and "CXX" languages.

* When "VERIFY_INTERFACE_HEADER_SETS" is set to true on an executable
  target, that target's interface file sets are verified regardless of
  its "ENABLE_EXPORTS" property. See policy "CMP0209".

* The "PRIVATE_HEADER_SETS_TO_VERIFY" target property was added to
  customize which private file sets to verify when the target's
  "VERIFY_PRIVATE_HEADER_SETS" property is true.


Modules
-------

* The "FindCUDAToolkit" module now creates a "CUDA::bin2c" imported
  target for the bin2c utility.

* The "FindLibXml2" module gained a "LibXml2_USE_STATIC_LIBS" hint to
  select static libraries.

* The "FindRuby" module now provides imported targets.

* The "FindSQLite3" module now provides imported targets with the
  "SQLite3::" prefix.

* The "UseJava" module's "add_jar()" command now accepts a new
  "INCLUDE_MODULES" option that adds its arguments to the "--module-
  path" argument to the Java compiler. This allows building JAR files
  that use JPMS modules in their build.


Generator Expressions
---------------------

* String Comparison generator expressions were added.

* "$<STRING:...>" generator expressions were added for query,
  generation, and transformation operations on strings.

* The "$<FILE_SET_EXISTS>" and "$<FILE_SET_PROPERTY>" generator
  expressions were added to query file set existence and properties.

* The "$<SOURCE_EXISTS>" and "$<SOURCE_PROPERTY>" generator
  expressions were added to query source file existence and
  properties.


CTest
-----

* The "CTestCoverageCollectGCOV" module:

  * Now supports "TARBALL_COMPRESSION" method "LZMA".

  * Now supports "TARBALL_COMPRESSION" method "LZMA2" as an alias for
    "XZ".

  * Now supports "FROM_EXT" with file extensions corresponding to
    "LZMA" and "ZSTD" compression.


CPack
-----

* "CPack" gained the "CPACK_COMPRESSION_LEVEL" variable to control the
  compression level used when creating packages.

* The "CPack Archive Generator":

  * Now supports compression method specification for formats "7zip"
    and "zip".

  * Gained a "CPACK_ARCHIVE_COMPRESSION_LEVEL" option to control the
    compression level used when creating archive packages.

  * Gained "CPACK_ARCHIVE_UID" and "CPACK_ARCHIVE_GID" options to
    specify the UID and GID of archive entries, respectively. The
    defaults are UID "0" and GID "0".  See policy "CMP0206".

* The "CPack DEB Generator" gained a new
  "CPACK_DEBIAN_COMPRESSION_LEVEL" variable to control the compression
  level used when creating Debian packages.

* The "CPack WIX Generator" now supports per-user installers by
  setting "CPACK_WIX_INSTALL_SCOPE" to "perUser".


Deprecated and Removed Features
===============================

* The "CMAKE_ENABLE_EXPORTS" variable is deprecated in favor of the
  "CMAKE_EXECUTABLE_ENABLE_EXPORTS" and
  "CMAKE_SHARED_LIBRARY_ENABLE_EXPORTS" variables.

* The "export(EXPORT)" command no longer allows certain arguments to
  be missing or empty.  See policy "CMP0208".


Other Changes
=============

* The "cmake -E tar" command-line tool and the "file(ARCHIVE_EXTRACT)"
  command now reject archive entries whose paths are absolute or
  contain ".." path traversal components.

* The family of "cmake --trace" and related commands now print "end"
  commands for control structures: "endblock()", "endforeach()",
  "endfunction()", "endif()", "endmacro()", and "endwhile()".

* The "file(CREATE_LINK)" command's "COPY_ON_ERROR" option, when used
  with a directory, now copies directory content. See policy
  "CMP0205".

* The "file(GET_RUNTIME_DEPENDENCIES)" and
  "install(RUNTIME_DEPENDENCY_SET)" commands now normalize paths
  before matching filters.  See policy "CMP0207".

* The precompiled Linux "aarch64" binaries provided on cmake.org now
  require GLIBC 2.28 or higher.

* The precompiled macOS binary provided on "cmake.org" for macOS
  10.13+ now requires macOS 12 or newer for the "cmake-gui(1)"
  application. The command-line tools still run on macOS 10.13.

* The precompiled Windows binaries provided on cmake.org now require
  Windows 10 or higher.