CMake 4.3.0-rc2 is ready for testing
March 3, 2026
I am proud to announce the second 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:
-
Support for importing and exporting packages described using the
Common Package Specification (CPS) was added. -
“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. -
“$<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
============
Common Package Specification
----------------------------
* Support for importing and exporting packages described using the
Common Package Specification (CPS) was added. This improves build
system interoperability by allowing expressive, feature-rich package
descriptions to be exchanged in a format other than CMake Language.
* The "find_package()" now searches for and can import CPS packages.
* The "install()" and "export()" commands gained a new
"PACKAGE_INFO" sub-command to generate CPS package descriptions.
* The "project()" command gained new "COMPAT_VERSION" and
"SPDX_LICENSE" options. These values may be inherited when
creating a CPS package description. See the
"install(PACKAGE_INFO)" documentation for details.
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.
Presets
-------
* "cmake-presets(7)" files now support schema version "11". The "jobs"
field under test presets now supports an empty string, to match the
behavior of "ctest --parallel" with the value omitted.
* The "jobs" field under both build and test presets no longer accept
negative integer values, regardless of the schema version.
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 "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_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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Changes made since CMake 4.3.0-rc1:
Alex Turbov (1):
pre-commit: version bump `typos` hook + fix found typo
Ben Boeckel (3):
Modules/*Compiler: reword errors about invalid variable settings
cmExportInstallFileGenerator: fix error message construction
c++modules: Revert partial implementation of per-importer BMIs for 4.3
Brad King (11):
FindVulkan: Use ENV{VULKAN_SDK} only if it exists
FindVulkan: Do not search bin directories for libraries
FindVulkan: Drop support for 32-bit SDK on Windows
FindVulkan: Add support for cross-compiling between Windows x64/ARM64
Tests/RunCMake/ParseImplicitData: Fix Windows+CUDA sample naming convention
cmNinjaTargetGenerator: Factor out helper for shell path arguments
c++modules: Fix scanning with spaces in subdirectory name
Experimental: Restore documentation link to CPS
Experimental: Restore `import std` gate
ci: Enable `import std` tests in Fedora GCC jobs
CMake 4.3.0-rc2
Eduard Voronkin (1):
FASTBuild: fix iface targets with private sources
Kyle Edwards (1):
Help: Clarify that bin2c placeholders are like configure_file()
Marc Chevrier (2):
FindPython: enhance ARCHITECTURE detection
FindPython: Ensure sysconfig paths are in CMake format
Martin Duffy (1):
instrumentation: Test shell redirection in instrumented custom commands
Matthew Woehlke (4):
CPS: Fix C features
Help: Update CPS release notes for 4.3
CPS: Fix crash on bad paths in `.cps` file
Help: Tweak CMAKE_INSTALL_EXPORTS_AS_PACKAGE_INFO
Michael Ferrari (1):
c++modules: Fix clang `*.modules.json` path on Windows
Nuno Nobre (1):
Help: Clarify what policies a "policy version" sets to NEW
Peter Kokot (1):
Help: Fix install(SBOM) argument typo
Tyler Yankee (3):
Help: Add 4.3 version tags for string JSON operations
Help: Update presets release notes for 4.3
presets: Correct version-agnostic negative jobs