Passing the argument to CMAKE via command prompt

In the CMakeLists.txt file, create a cache variable, as documented here:

SET(FAB "po" CACHE STRING "Some user-specified option")

Source: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/v2.8.8/cmake.html#command:set

Then, either use the GUI (ccmake or cmake-gui) to set the cache variable, or specify the value of the variable on the cmake command line:

cmake -DFAB:STRING=po

Source: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/v2.8.8/cmake.html#opt:-Dvar:typevalue

Modify your cache variable to a boolean if, in fact, your option is boolean.

CMake 3.13 on Ubuntu 16.04

This approach is more flexible because it doesn't constraint MY_VARIABLE to a type:

$ cat CMakeLists.txt 
message("MY_VARIABLE=${MY_VARIABLE}")
if( MY_VARIABLE ) 
    message("MY_VARIABLE evaluates to True")
endif()

$ mkdir build && cd build

$ cmake ..
MY_VARIABLE=
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /path/to/build

$ cmake .. -DMY_VARIABLE=True
MY_VARIABLE=True
MY_VARIABLE evaluates to True
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /path/to/build

$ cmake .. -DMY_VARIABLE=False
MY_VARIABLE=False
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /path/to/build

$ cmake .. -DMY_VARIABLE=1
MY_VARIABLE=1
MY_VARIABLE evaluates to True
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /path/to/build

$ cmake .. -DMY_VARIABLE=0
MY_VARIABLE=0
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /path/to/build