CMake projects in Visual Studio

CMake is a cross-platform, open-source tool for defining build processes that run on multiple platforms. This article assumes you're familiar with CMake. For more information about CMake, see the CMake documentation. The CMake tutorial is a good starting point to learn more.

Note

CMake has become more and more integrated with Visual Studio over the past few releases. To see the documentation for your preferred version of Visual Studio, use the Version selector control. It's found at the top of the table of contents on this page.

Visual Studio's native support for CMake enables you to edit, build, and debug CMake projects on Windows, the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), and remote systems from the same instance of Visual Studio. CMake project files (such as CMakeLists.txt) are consumed directly by Visual Studio for the purposes of IntelliSense and browsing. cmake.exe is invoked directly by Visual Studio for CMake configuration and build.

Installation

C++ CMake tools for Windows is installed as part of the Desktop development with C++ and Linux Development with C++ workloads. Both C++ CMake tools for Windows and Linux Development with C++ are required for cross-platform CMake development.

In the installer, the Desktop development with C plus plus dropdown is selected and C plus plus C Make tools for Windows is selected."

For more information, see Install the C++ Linux workload in Visual Studio.

IDE integration

When you open a folder containing a CMakeLists.txt file, the following things happen.

The dialog offers these options: clone a repository, open a project or solution, open a local folder, or create a new project. Open a local folder is called out in the screenshot.

• Visual Studio adds CMake items to the Project menu, with commands for viewing and editing CMake scripts.

• The Solution Explorer displays the folder structure and files.

• Visual Studio runs CMake and generates the CMake cache file (CMakeCache.txt) for the default configuration. The CMake command line is displayed in the Output Window, along with other output from CMake.

• In the background, Visual Studio starts to index the source files to enable IntelliSense, browsing information, refactoring, and so on. As you work, Visual Studio monitors changes in the editor and also on disk to keep its index in sync with the sources.

Note

Starting in Visual Studio 2022 version 17.1 Preview 2, if your top-level CMakeLists.txt exists in a subfolder and not at the root of the workspace, you'll be prompted whether you'd like to enable CMake integration or not. For more information, see CMake partial activation.

Once CMake cache generation has succeeded, you can also view your projects organized logically by targets. Choose the Select View button on the Solution Explorer toolbar. From the list in Solution Explorer - Views, select CMake Targets View and press Enter to open the targets view:

Choose the Show All Files button at the top of Solution Explorer to see all the CMake-generated output in the out/build/<config> folders.

Use the CMakeLists.txt file in each project folder just as you would in any CMake project. You can specify source files, find libraries, set compiler and linker options, and specify other build system-related information. For more information on CMake language services provided by Visual Studio, see Editing CMakeLists.txt files.

Visual Studio uses a CMake configuration file to drive CMake cache generation and build. For more information, see Configuring CMake projects and Building CMake projects.

To pass arguments to an executable at debug time, you can use another file called launch.vs.json. For more information on debugging cross-platform CMake projects in Visual Studio, see Debugging CMake projects.

Most Visual Studio and C++ language features are supported by CMake projects in Visual Studio. Examples include:

• Edit and Continue for CMake projects
• Incredibuild integration for CMake projects
• AddressSanitizer support for CMake projects
• Clang/LLVM support

Note

For other kinds of Open Folder projects, an additional JSON file CppProperties.json is used. This file is not relevant for CMake projects.

Configuring CMake projects

The CMake configure step generates the project build system. It's equivalent to invoking cmake.exe from the command line. For more information on the CMake configure step, see the CMake documentation.

Visual Studio uses a CMake configuration file to drive CMake generation and build. CMakePresets.json is supported by Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10 or later and is the recommended CMake configuration file. CMakePresets.json is supported directly by CMake and can be used to drive CMake generation and build from Visual Studio, from VS Code, in a Continuous Integration pipeline, and from the command line on Windows, Linux, and Mac. For more information on CMakePresets.json, see Configure and build with CMake Presets. CMakeSettings.json is available for customers using an earlier version of Visual Studio. For more information on CMakeSettings.json, see Customize CMake build settings.

When you make significant changes to your CMake configuration file or a CMakeLists.txt file, Visual Studio will automatically run the CMake configure step. You can invoke the configure step manually: Select Project > Configure Cache from the toolbar. You can also change your configuration preferences in Tools > Options > CMake > General.

The CMake configure settings are called out. Show C Make cache notifications is selected. Under 'When cache is out of date:', the option 'Never run configure step automatically' is selected.

If the configure step finishes without errors, then the information that's available drives C++ IntelliSense and language services. It's also used in build and debug operations.

You can also open an existing CMake cache in Visual Studio. For more information, see Open an existing cache.

Customize configuration feedback and notifications

By default, most configuration messages are suppressed unless there's an error. To see all messages, select Tools > Options > CMake > Enable verbose CMake diagnostic output.

You can also disable all CMake cache notifications (gold bars) by deselecting Show CMake cache notification.

Troubleshooting CMake cache errors

If you need more information about the state of the CMake cache to diagnose a problem, open the Project main menu or the CMakeLists.txt context menu in Solution Explorer to run one of these commands:

• View CMakeCache.txt opens the CMakeCache.txt file from the build directory in the editor. Any edits you make here to CMakeCache.txt are wiped out if you clean the cache. To make changes that persist after you clean the cache, see Customize CMake settings or Configure and build with CMake Presets.

• Delete Cache and Reconfigure deletes the build directory and reconfigures from a clean cache.

• Configure Cache forces the generate step to run even if Visual Studio considers the environment up to date.

Building CMake projects

The CMake build step builds an already generated project binary tree. It's equivalent to invoking cmake --build from the command line. For more information on the CMake build step, see the CMake documentation.

To build a CMake project, you have these choices:

1. In the toolbar, find the Startup Item dropdown. Select the preferred target and press F5, or choose the Run button on the toolbar. The project automatically builds first, just like a Visual Studio solution.

2. Right-click on CMake target with CMake Targets View active in the Solution Explorer and select Build from the context menu.

3. From the main menu, select Build > Build All. Make sure that a CMake target is already selected in the Startup Item dropdown in the toolbar.

As you would expect, build results are shown in the Output Window and Error List.

CMake build warnings about conversions that may result in data loss such as converting from a float to an integer, are visible. :::image-end:::

Edit build settings

Visual Studio uses a CMake configuration file to drive CMake builds. CMake configuration files encapsulate build options like native build tool switches and environment variables. If CMakePresets.json is your active configuration file, see Configure and build with CMake Presets. If CMakeSettings.json is your active configuration file, see Customize CMake build settings. CMakePresets.json is available in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10 or later and is the recommended CMake configuration file.

Debugging CMake projects

All executable CMake targets are shown in the Startup Item dropdown in the toolbar. To start debugging, select one and press the Debug > Start Debugging button in the toolbar. In a CMake project, the "Current document" option is only valid for .cpp files.

The dropdown has these options: Show / Hide debug targets, current document, samples (which is highlighted), box2d_tests, and samples-noGUI.

The Debug or F5 commands first build the project if changes have been made since the previous build. Changes to the CMake configuration file (CMakePresets.json or CMakeSettings.json) or a CMakeLists.txt causes the CMake cache to be regenerated.

You can customize a CMake debugging session by setting properties in the launch.vs.json file. To customize debug settings for a specific target, select the target in the Startup Item dropdown and press Debug > Debug and Launch Settings for <active-target>. For more information on CMake debugging sessions, see Configure CMake debugging sessions.

Just My Code for CMake projects

When you build for Windows using the MSVC compiler, CMake projects have support for Just My Code debugging. To change the Just My Code setting, go to Tools > Options > Debugging > General. For more information on Just My Code debugging, see Debug only user code with Just My Code.

Edit and Continue for CMake projects

When you build for Windows with the MSVC compiler, CMake projects have support for Edit and Continue. Add the following code to your CMakeLists.txt file to enable Edit and Continue. For more information on Edit and Continue, see Configure Edit and Continue (C#, VB, C++).

if(MSVC)
  target_compile_options(<target> PUBLIC "/ZI")
  target_link_options(<target> PUBLIC "/INCREMENTAL")
endif()

Attach to a CMake project running on Linux

Visual Studio allows you to debug a process running on a remote Linux system or WSL and debug it with the GDB debugger. To get started, select Debug > Attach to Process..., set the Connection type to SSH, and select your Connection target from the list of connections in the Connection Manager. Select a process from the list of available processes and press Attach. GDB must be installed on your Linux machine. For more information on SSH connections, see the Connection Manager

The following options are available on the dialog: Connection type (set to SSH), the connection target (set to demo@ 172. 20. 60. 6), and a list of available processes you can attach to."

CMake partial activation

In Visual Studio 2022 version 17.1 and later, CMake functionality won't be enabled automatically if your root folder doesn't contain a CMakeLists.txt file. Instead, a dialog will prompt you on whether you'd like to enable CMake functionality for your project. If you decline, CMake cache generation won't start and CMake configurations (from CMakeSettings.json or CMakePresets.json) won't appear in the configuration dropdown. If you accept, you'll be taken to a workspace-level configuration file, CMakeWorkspaceSettings.json (stored in the .vs directory), to specify the folders you'd like to enable CMake for. (These folders contain your root CMakeLists.txt files).

The accepted properties are:

Property	Description
enableCMake	Enable Visual Studio's integration for this workspace.
sourceDirectory	A string or array of strings specifying the directory or directories with CMakeLists.txt. Macros (such as ${workspaceRoot}) are allowed. Relative paths are based on the workspace root. Directories outside of the current workspace will be ignored.

You can reach CMakeWorkspaceSettings.json through the Project > CMake Workspace Settings menu command at any time, even if CMake functionality is currently disabled.

Open an existing cache

When you open an existing CMake cache file (CMakeCache.txt), Visual Studio doesn't try to manage your cache and build tree for you. Your custom or preferred tools have complete control over how CMake configures your project.

You can add an existing CMake cache to an open project. It's done the same way you'd add a new configuration. For more information, see our blog post on opening an existing cache in Visual Studio.

Note

The default existing cache experience relies on cmake-server, which was removed from CMake in version 3.20. To continue using existing cache functionality in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10 and later, take one of these steps:

• Manually install CMake version 3.19 or lower. Then, set the cmakeExecutable property in your existing cache configuration to use that version of CMake.
• In your existing cache configuration, set the cacheGenerationCommand property to let Visual Studio request the necessary CMake file-based API files. For more information on that property, see CMakeSettings.json reference.
• Use a query file to request the CMake file-based API files when generating your cache before it's opened in Visual Studio. For query file instructions, see the next section, Advanced CMake cache troubleshooting.

Advanced CMake cache troubleshooting

Visual Studio uses the CMake file-based API (in versions 3.14 and later) to populate the editor with information specific to your project structure. For more information, see the C++ team blog post on multi-root workspaces and file-based API.

Before generating the CMake cache, your custom or preferred tools might need to create a query file named .cmake/api/v1/query/client-MicrosoftVS/query.json in your build output folder (the folder that contains CMakeCache.txt). The query file should contain this content:

{"requests":[{"kind":"cache","version":2},{"kind":"cmakeFiles","version":1},{"kind":"codemodel","version":2}]}

When your custom or preferred tools generate your cache, CMake places files under .cmake/api/v1/response that Visual Studio uses to populate the editor with information specific to your project structure.

Editing CMakeLists.txt files

To edit a CMakeLists.txt file, right-click on the file in Solution Explorer and choose Open. If you make changes to the file, a yellow status bar appears and informs you that IntelliSense will update. It gives you a chance to cancel the update operation. For information about CMakeLists.txt, see the CMake documentation.

It contains the lines project (hello-cmake), add_subdirectory (tests), add_executable (hello hello.cpp), and install (TARGETS hello DESTINATION hello/bin). A message at the top of the window says that c plus plus IntelliSense info will refresh after C Make finishes generating the cache.

As soon as you save the file, the configuration step automatically runs again and displays information in the Output window. Errors and warnings are shown in the Error List or Output window. Double-click on an error in the Error List to navigate to the offending line in CMakeLists.txt.

A C Make error message on line 3 of CMakeLists.txt is highlighted. The details are that C Make couldn't find a package configuration file provided by sqlite3. C Make looked for it in CMAKE_MODULE_PATH but couldn't find it. The suggestion is to add the installation prefix 'sqlite3' to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH or set sqlite3_DIR to a directory containing sqlite3Config.cmake and/or sqlitet3-config.cmake.

Language services for CMake

Language services for CMake are available in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.5 or later. It supports code navigation features like Go To Definition, Peek Definition, and Find All References for CMake variables, functions, and targets in CMake script files. For more information, see Code Navigation for CMake Scripts.

Results of where SUPERTUX_SOURCES_CXX are found are shown. For example, in list(SORT SSUPERTUX_SOURCES_CXX), file(GLOB SUPERTUX_SOURCES_CXX) and so on.

CMake project manipulation

CMake project manipulation is available in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.5 or later. Project manipulation enables you to add, remove, and rename source files and targets in your CMake project without manually editing your CMake scripts. When you add or remove files from the Solution Explorer, Visual Studio automatically edits your CMake project. There could be more than one place where it makes sense to add or remove a reference to a CMake script. If so, Visual Studio asks you where you want to make the change and displays a preview of the proposed changes. For step-by-step instructions, see Add, Remove, and Rename Files and Targets in CMake Projects.

A tree view shows CMakeLists.txt, under which are two items: add_executable and set. Set is checked. The preview window shows where changes will be made. The line set (PROJECT_SRC "CmakeProject4.cpp" "CMakeProject4.h" shows "Demo.cpp" highlighted before the closing parenthesis. The apply button accepts the change, or you can press cancel.

IntelliSense for CMake projects

By default, Visual Studio uses the IntelliSense mode that matches the compiler and target architecture specified by the active CMake configuration.

If CMakePresets.json is your active CMake configuration file, then you can specify IntelliSense options using intelliSenseMode and intelliSenseOptions in the Visual Studio Settings vendor map. For more information, see the Visual Studio Settings vendor map reference.

If CMakeSettings.json is your active CMake configuration file, then you can specify IntelliSense options using intelliSenseMode in CMakeSettings.json. For more information, see the CMakeSettings.json reference.

Configure IntelliSense with CMake toolchain files

In Visual Studio 2019 version 16.9 and later, Visual Studio automatically configures IntelliSense in CMake projects based on CMake variables when you use a CMake toolchain file. For more information, see Configure IntelliSense with CMake Toolchain Files.

Vcpkg integration

CMake projects opened in Visual Studio integrate with vcpkg, a cross-platform C/C++ dependency manager. Before using vcpkg with Visual Studio, you must run vcpkg integrate install. For instructions and more information about vcpkg, see:

• Install and use packages with CMake in Visual Studio
• vcpkg in CMake projects

If CMakeSettings.json is your active configuration file, Visual Studio automatically passes the vcpkg toolchain file (vcpkg.cmake) to CMake. This behavior is disabled automatically when you specify any other toolchain in your CMake Settings configuration.

If CMakePresets.json is your active configuration file, you'll need to set the path to vcpkg.cmake in CMakePresets.json. We recommend using the VCPKG_ROOT environment variable instead of an absolute path to keep the file shareable. For more information, see Enable vcpkg integration with CMake Presets. CMakePresets.json is available in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10 or later and is the recommended CMake configuration file.

Run CMake from the command line

If CMakePresets.json is your active CMake configuration file, then you can easily reproduce your local builds outside of Visual Studio. For more information, see Run CMake from the command line or a CI pipeline. CMakePresets.json is supported in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10 or later and is the recommended CMake configuration file.

If CMakeSettings.json is your active CMake configuration file, then you'll need to manually pass the arguments that are encoded in your CMakeSettings.json file to CMake. If you have installed CMake from the Visual Studio Installer, you can run it from the command line by following these steps:

1. Run the appropriate vsdevcmd.bat file (x86/x64). For more information, see Building on the command line .

2. Switch to your output folder.

3. Run CMake to build or configure your app.

See also

Tutorial: Create C++ cross-platform projects in Visual Studio
Configure a Linux CMake project
Connect to your remote Linux computer
Customize CMake build settings
CMakeSettings.json schema reference
Configure CMake debugging sessions
Deploy, run, and debug your Linux project
CMake predefined configuration reference
vcpkg in CMake projects
Install and use packages with CMake in Visual Studio