How to enable C++17 in CMake

user_7821462 0
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I'm using VS 15.3, which supports integrated CMake 3.8. How can I target C++17 without writing flags for each specific compilers? My current global settings don't work:

# https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/prop_tgt/CXX_STANDARD.html
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
set(CMAKE_CXX_EXTENSIONS OFF)

# expected behaviour
#set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} /std:c++latest")

I expected CMake to add "/std:c++lastest" or equivalents when generating VS solution files, but no c++17 flags was found, resulted in compiler error:

C1189 #error: class template optional is only available with C++17.
c++17 cmake visual-studio c++
8 Answers

Modern CMake propose an interface for this purpose target_compile_features. Documentation is here: Requiring Language Standards

Use it like this:

target_compile_features(${TARGET_NAME} PRIVATE cxx_std_17)

user_22209790

when using vs2019

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
user_15690580

Based on my test, the following code will enable VS2019 to select /std:c++latest, otherwise for other platforms it will set the C++ version to C++17. I have tested this with emscripten, raspbian, and windows.

if(MSVC)
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} /std:c++latest")
else(MSVC)
target_compile_features(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE cxx_std_17)
endif(MSVC)
user_4524360

You can also use target_compile_options to set /std:c++latest flag for Visual Studio 2019

if (MSVC_VERSION GREATER_EQUAL "1900")
    include(CheckCXXCompilerFlag)
    CHECK_CXX_COMPILER_FLAG("/std:c++latest" _cpp_latest_flag_supported)
    if (_cpp_latest_flag_supported)
        target_compile_options(${TARGET_NAME} PRIVATE "/std:c++latest")
    endif()
endif()

Replace ${TARGET_NAME} with the actual target name.

user_21816920

Bash command line in CMake flags:

-DCMAKE_CXX_STANDARD=17 \
-DCMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED=ON \
-DCMAKE_CXX_EXTENSIONS=OFF \
user_16765240
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