How do I add a linker or compile flag in a CMake file?

I am using the arm-linux-androideabi-g++ compiler. When I try to compile a simple "Hello, World!" program it compiles fine. When I test it by adding a simple exception handling in that code it works too (after adding -fexceptions .. I guess it is disabled by default).

This is for an Android device, and I only want to use CMake, not ndk-build.

For example - first.cpp

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
   try
   {
   }
   catch (...)
   {
   }
   return 0;
}

./arm-linux-androideadi-g++ -o first-test first.cpp -fexceptions

It works with no problem...

The problem ... I am trying to compile the file with a CMake file.

I want to add the -fexceptions as a flag. I tried with

set (CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS -fexceptions ) or set (CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "fexceptions" )

and

set ( CMAKE_C_FLAGS "fexceptions")

It still displays an error.

Solution 1:

Note: Given CMake evolution since this was answer was written, most of the suggestions here are now outdated/deprecated and have better alternatives

Suppose you want to add those flags (better to declare them in a constant):

SET(GCC_COVERAGE_COMPILE_FLAGS "-fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage")
SET(GCC_COVERAGE_LINK_FLAGS    "-lgcov")

There are several ways to add them:

1. The easiest one (not clean, but easy and convenient, and works only for compile flags, C & C++ at once):

    add_definitions(${GCC_COVERAGE_COMPILE_FLAGS})
   

2. Appending to corresponding CMake variables:

    SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS  "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} ${GCC_COVERAGE_COMPILE_FLAGS}")
    SET(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS  "${CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS} ${GCC_COVERAGE_LINK_FLAGS}")
   

3. Using target properties, cf. doc CMake compile flag target property and need to know the target name.

    get_target_property(TEMP ${THE_TARGET} COMPILE_FLAGS)
    if(TEMP STREQUAL "TEMP-NOTFOUND")
      SET(TEMP "") # Set to empty string
    else()
      SET(TEMP "${TEMP} ") # A space to cleanly separate from existing content
    endif()
    # Append our values
    SET(TEMP "${TEMP}${GCC_COVERAGE_COMPILE_FLAGS}" )
    set_target_properties(${THE_TARGET} PROPERTIES COMPILE_FLAGS ${TEMP} )
   

Right now I use method 2.

Solution 2:

In newer versions of CMake you can set compiler and linker flags for a single target with target_compile_options and target_link_libraries respectively (yes, the latter sets linker options too):

target_compile_options(first-test PRIVATE -fexceptions)

The advantage of this method is that you can control propagation of options to other targets that depend on this one via PUBLIC and PRIVATE.

As of CMake 3.13 you can also use target_link_options to add linker options which makes the intent more clear.