Debug vs. Release in CMake: How Do I Configure Build Types and Compiler Flags?

Debug vs Release in CMake

CMake is a cross-platform build system that allows you to compile your code for different platforms, configurations, and targets. One common distinction is between Debug and Release builds. Here's how you can handle these configurations in CMake:

Building for Debug and Release Targets

In CMake, it's recommended to build "out of source." Create your CMakeLists.txt file in the root directory of your project. Then, from the root directory:

• For Release:

  mkdir Release
  cd Release
  cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
  make

• For Debug:

  mkdir Debug
  cd Debug
  cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ..
  make

Setting CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE to Release or Debug automatically adds the appropriate flags for your compiler. Other available build configurations include RelWithDebInfo and MinSizeRel.

Customizing Debug/Release Flags

You can modify or add to the flags by specifying a toolchain file. In the file, you can define CMAKE__FLAGS__INIT variables. For example:

set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG_INIT "-Wall")
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE_INIT "-Wall")

Compiling Main Executable with g and Nested Library with gcc

The provided answer doesn't address this specific question. CMake should automatically detect and use the appropriate compiler for each source file. However, if you encounter any issues with this, you can manually specify the compilers in the CMakeLists.txt file using the target_compile_options() command.

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