What is the modern method for setting general compile flags in CMake?

For modern CMake (versions 2.8.12 and up) you should use target_compile_options, which uses target properties internally.

CMAKE_<LANG>_FLAGS is a global variable and the most error-prone to use. It also does not support generator expressions, which can come in very handy.

add_compile_options is based on directory properties, which is fine in some situations, but usually not the most natural way to specify options.

target_compile_options works on a per-target basis (through setting the COMPILE_OPTIONS and INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS target properties), which usually results in the cleanest CMake code, as the compile options for a source file are determined by which project the file belongs to (rather than which directory it is placed in on the hard disk). This has the additional advantage that it automatically takes care of passing options on to dependent targets if requested.

Even though they are little bit more verbose, the per-target commands allow a reasonably fine-grained control over the different build options and (in my personal experience) are the least likely to cause headaches in the long run.

In theory, you could also set the respective properties directly using set_target_properties, but target_compile_options is usually more readable.

For example, to set the compile options of a target foo based on the configuration using generator expressions you could write:

target_compile_options(foo PUBLIC "$<$<CONFIG:DEBUG>:${MY_DEBUG_OPTIONS}>")
target_compile_options(foo PUBLIC "$<$<CONFIG:RELEASE>:${MY_RELEASE_OPTIONS}>")

The PUBLIC, PRIVATE, and INTERFACE keywords define the scope of the options. E.g., if we link foo into bar with target_link_libraries(bar foo):

• PRIVATE options will only be applied to the target itself (foo) and not to other libraries (consumers) linking against it.
• INTERFACE options will only be applied to the consuming target bar
• PUBLIC options will be applied to both, the original target foo and the consuming target bar