set_property

Set a named property in a given scope.

set_property(<GLOBAL                      |
              DIRECTORY [<dir>]           |
              TARGET    [<target1> ...]   |
              SOURCE    [<src1> ...]
                        [DIRECTORY <dirs> ...] |
                        [TARGET_DIRECTORY <targets> ...]
              INSTALL   [<file1> ...]     |
              TEST      [<test1> ...]     |
              CACHE     [<entry1> ...]    >
             [APPEND] [APPEND_STRING]
             PROPERTY <name> [<value1> ...])

Sets one property on zero or more objects of a scope.

The first argument determines the scope in which the property is set. It must be one of the following:

GLOBAL

Scope is unique and does not accept a name.

DIRECTORY

Scope defaults to the current directory but other directories (already processed by CMake) may be named by full or relative path. Each path may reference either a source directory, or since CMake 3.19, a binary directory. Relative paths are treated as relative to the current source directory. See also the set_directory_properties() command.

TARGET

Scope may name zero or more existing targets. See also the set_target_properties() command.

SOURCE

Scope may name zero or more source files. By default, source file properties are only visible to targets added in the same directory (CMakeLists.txt). Visibility can be set in other directory scopes using one or both of the following sub-options:

DIRECTORY <dirs>...

The source file property will be set in each of the <dirs> directories’ scopes. Each path may reference either a source directory, or since CMake 3.19, a binary directory. CMake must already know about each of these directories, either by having added them through a call to add_subdirectory() or it being the top level source directory. Relative paths are treated as relative to the current source directory.

TARGET_DIRECTORY <targets>...

The source file property will be set in each of the directory scopes where any of the specified <targets> were created (the <targets> must therefore already exist).

See also the set_source_files_properties() command.

INSTALL

Scope may name zero or more installed file paths. These are made available to CPack to influence deployment.

Both the property key and value may use generator expressions. Specific properties may apply to installed files and/or directories.

Path components have to be separated by forward slashes, must be normalized and are case sensitive.

To reference the installation prefix itself with a relative path use ..

Currently installed file properties are only defined for the WIX generator where the given paths are relative to the installation prefix.

TEST

Scope may name zero or more existing tests. See also the set_tests_properties() command.

CACHE

Scope must name zero or more cache existing entries.

The required PROPERTY option is immediately followed by the name of the property to set. Remaining arguments are used to compose the property value in the form of a semicolon-separated list.

If the APPEND option is given the list is appended to any existing property value (except that empty values are ignored and not appended). If the APPEND_STRING option is given the string is appended to any existing property value as string, i.e. it results in a longer string and not a list of strings. When using APPEND or APPEND_STRING with a property defined to support INHERITED behavior (see define_property()), no inheriting occurs when finding the initial value to append to. If the property is not already directly set in the nominated scope, the command will behave as though APPEND or APPEND_STRING had not been given.

See the cmake-properties(7) manual for a list of properties in each scope.