How do I tell CMake to use Clang on Windows?

Solution 1:

You also need - in addition to the Clang compilers itself - an build/link environment for Windows.

The latest CMake 3.6 builds do have several integrated supported Clang build environments on Windows (e.g. Visual Studio, Cygwin; see Release Notes).

I've just run a successful test with

• LLVM-3.9.0-r273898-win32.exe from http://llvm.org/builds/
• cmake-3.6.0-rc4-win64-x64.msi from https://cmake.org/download/
• Microsoft VS2015 Community Edition Version 14.0.23107.0

All installed to their standard paths with their bin directories in the global PATH environment.

The part you need to know is setting the right toolset with the CMake -T"LLVM-vs2014" command line option. During the configuration process CMake will let you know which compiler it has found/taken.

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.6)

project(HelloWorld)

file(
    WRITE main.cpp 
        "#include <iostream>\n"
        "int main() { std::cout << \"Hello World!\" << std::endl; return 0; }"
)
add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} main.cpp)

Windows Console

...> mkdir VS2015
...> cd VS2015
...\VS2015> cmake -G"Visual Studio 14 2015" -T"LLVM-vs2014" ..
-- The C compiler identification is Clang 3.9.0
-- The CXX compiler identification is Clang 3.9.0
-- Check for working C compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/LLVM/msbuild-bin/cl.exe
-- Check for working C compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/LLVM/msbuild-bin/cl.exe -- works
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/LLVM/msbuild-bin/cl.exe
-- Check for working CXX compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/LLVM/msbuild-bin/cl.exe -- works
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: .../VS2015
...\VS2015> cmake --build . 
Microsoft (R)-Buildmodul, Version 14.0.23107.0
[...]
...\VS2015> Debug\HelloWorld.exe
Hello World!

Installation Hints

Please note that I have added LLVM to my search paths during setup:

And you can crosscheck the available "Platform Toolsets" in any VS project's property page:

References

• What is the -D define to tell Cmake where to find nmake?
• Linker for Clang?
• Switching between GCC and Clang/LLVM using CMake

Solution 2:

As an update for Visual Studio 2019, you can install the clang-cl toolchain via the Visual Studio Installer and use this to generate a .sln file:

> mkdir build && cd build
> cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -T ClangCL -A x64

Of course you can also just open the folder containing the CMakeLists.txt file now, and VS will provide decent support, allowing you to select the compiler toolchain, however it won't let you use the graphics debugger which might be important to you.