I'm trying to add a make target in cmake so that when I build with make debug then all the parts of my code wrapped in #ifdef DEBUG will run otherwise just running make then those parts won't run. Currently I have this in my cmakelists.txt but it either always has debug enabled or never has debug enabled

add_custom_target( debug COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} --build . )

target_compile_options(my_target PRIVATE $<$CONFIG:Debug:-g -DDEBUG> $<$CONFIG:Release:-O2> )

I have tried this an a couple other ways to tackle the problem. Ideally I would just like to add the custom debug target that sets -DDEBUG in the build.

I'm trying to add a make target in cmake so that when I build with make debug then all the parts of my code wrapped in #ifdef DEBUG will run otherwise just running make then those parts won't run. Currently I have this in my cmakelists.txt but it either always has debug enabled or never has debug enabled

add_custom_target( debug COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} --build . )

target_compile_options(my_target PRIVATE $<$CONFIG:Debug:-g -DDEBUG> $<$CONFIG:Release:-O2> )

I have tried this an a couple other ways to tackle the problem. Ideally I would just like to add the custom debug target that sets -DDEBUG in the build.

• c++
• cmake
• makefile

• What isn't working for you? Getting any errors? If yes, please post the complete error message. – kiner_shah Commented Apr 1 at 6:58

1 Answer 1

You cannot do this with the Makefile generator, it decides on compile flags at generation time.

Consider using the "Ninja Multi-Config" generator instead, which allows you to choose:

cmake --build build --config Debug

or

ninja -f build/build-Debug.cmake

There is also a Release and a RelWithDebInfo config, by default.