Does CMake always generate configurations for all possible project configurations?

Question

I have specific configuration for debug and release options (diferent for MSVC and for GCC). Say we generate default project via cmake ... Does CMake always gen

Answer 1

As @cplusplusrat has commented, this depends on the generator/build environment:

• For multi-configuration environments like MSVC or XCode, yes.
• For single-configuration environments like GCC, no.

And the default for single-configuration environments is neither Debug nor Release (see here or here).

So I have always defined one CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE for single-configuration environments as a default. You could also do this e.g. in build scripts calling CMake:

mingw_build.cmd

@ECHO off
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
:: usage:
::          mingw_build.cmd <target> <config>
::                  <target> - target to be built (default: all)
::                  <config> - configuration to be used for build (default: Debug)

if NOT "%1" == "" (set CMAKE_TARGET=%1) else (set CMAKE_TARGET=all)
if NOT "%2" == "" (set CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=%2) else (set CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug)
SET CMAKE_BINARY_DIR=%CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE%

IF NOT EXIST "%CMAKE_BINARY_DIR%\Makefile" (
    cmake -H"." -B"%CMAKE_BINARY_DIR%" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=%CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE% -G"MinGW Makefiles"
)
cmake --build %CMAKE_BINARY_DIR% --target %CMAKE_TARGET%

ENDLOCAL 

vs_x64_build.cmd

@ECHO off
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
:: usage:
::          vs_x64_build.cmd <target> <config>
::                  <target> - target to be built (default: ALL_BUILD)
::                  <config> - configuration to be used for build (default: Debug)

if NOT "%1" == "" (SET CMAKE_TARGET=%1) else (SET CMAKE_TARGET=ALL_BUILD)
if NOT "%2" == "" (set CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=%2) else (set CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug)
SET CMAKE_BINARY_DIR=x64

IF NOT EXIST "%CMAKE_BINARY_DIR%\*.sln" (
    cmake -H"." -B"%CMAKE_BINARY_DIR%" -G"Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64"
)
cmake --build "%CMAKE_BINARY_DIR%" --target "%CMAKE_TARGET%" --config "%CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE%"

ENDLOCAL