CMake full changelog

Support for importing and exporting packages described using the Common Package Specification (CPS) was added.
“cmake-instrumentation(7)” was added to enable collection of timing data, target information, and system diagnostic information during
the configure, generate, build, test, and install steps of a CMake project
“cmake --build” now supports specifying a build directory and preset together. The build preset will be used with the explicit build directory substituted.
The “cmake -E bin2c” command-line tool was added.
CMake archive operations gained support for multithreading, compression levels, and new compression methods.
The “get_property()” and “set_property()” commands now support a “FILE_SET” scope for file set properties of a target.
The “CMAKE_<LANG>_LINK_FLAGS” and “CMAKE_<LANG>_LINK_FLAGS_<CONFIG>” variables were added to support per-language link flags for all target types.
“$<STRING:…>” generator expressions were added for query, generation, and transformation operations on strings.

Support for importing and exporting packages described using the Common Package Specification (CPS) was added.
“cmake-instrumentation(7)” was added to enable collection of timing data, target information, and system diagnostic information during
the configure, generate, build, test, and install steps of a CMake project
“cmake --build” now supports specifying a build directory and preset together. The build preset will be used with the explicit build directory substituted.
The “cmake -E bin2c” command-line tool was added.
CMake archive operations gained support for multithreading, compression levels, and new compression methods.
The “get_property()” and “set_property()” commands now support a “FILE_SET” scope for file set properties of a target.
The “CMAKE_<LANG>_LINK_FLAGS” and “CMAKE_<LANG>_LINK_FLAGS_<CONFIG>” variables were added to support per-language link flags for all target types.
“$<STRING:…>” generator expressions were added for query, generation, and transformation operations on strings.

Support for importing and exporting packages described using the Common Package Specification (CPS) was added.
“cmake-instrumentation(7)” was added to enable collection of timing data, target information, and system diagnostic information during
the configure, generate, build, test, and install steps of a CMake project
“cmake --build” now supports specifying a build directory and preset together. The build preset will be used with the explicit build directory substituted.
The “cmake -E bin2c” command-line tool was added.
CMake archive operations gained support for multithreading, compression levels, and new compression methods.
The “get_property()” and “set_property()” commands now support a “FILE_SET” scope for file set properties of a target.
The “CMAKE_<LANG>_LINK_FLAGS” and “CMAKE_<LANG>_LINK_FLAGS_<CONFIG>” variables were added to support per-language link flags for all target types.
“$<STRING:…>” generator expressions were added for query, generation, and transformation operations on strings.

This version made no changes to documented features or interfaces. Some implementation updates were made to support ecosystem changes and/or fix regressions.

This version made no changes to documented features or interfaces. Some implementation updates were made to support ecosystem changes and/or fix regressions.

This version made no changes to documented features or interfaces. Some implementation updates were made to support ecosystem changes and/or fix regressions.

New Features:
File-Based API:
The cmake-file-api(7) "codemodel" version 2 version field has been updated to 2.9.
The cmake-file-api(7) "codemodel" version 2 "target" and "directory" objects gained a new codemodelVersion field.
The cmake-file-api(7) "codemodel" version 2 now includes imported targets and all interface library targets in its replies. Previously, imported targets were omitted, and only those interface targets that participated in the build system were included. The following changes support these new additions:
The "target" object gained imported, local, and abstract fields.
The "target" object's type field can now also hold the value UNKNOWN_LIBRARY.
The "codemodel" object's configurations entries gained a new abstractTargets array.
Entries in the directories and projects arrays of the "codemodel" object's configurations entries gained a new abstractTargetIndexes array.
The cmake-file-api(7) "codemodel" version 2 "target" object gained new linkLibraries, interfaceLinkLibraries, compileDependencies, interfaceCompileDependencies, objectDependencies, and orderDependencies fields.
Generators:
The Visual Studio 18 2026 generator was added.
The FASTBuild generator was added.
Platforms:
CMake now supports Cross Compiling for Emscripten with simple toolchain files.
Command-Line:
The cmake(1) command-line tool now supports cmake -E copy_if_newer and cmake -E copy_directory_if_newer subcommands to copy files based on timestamp comparison instead of content comparison. These commands copy files only if the source is newer than the destination, providing better performance for build systems compared to copy_if_different which compares file contents.
Commands:
The cmake_language(TRACE) command was added to enable or disable tracing during script execution.
The set(CACHE{<variable>}) and unset(CACHE{<variable>}) commands were added to explicitly

When building for macOS with the Xcode generator, CMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET once again defaults to the host's macOS version if it is older than the macOS SDK version, as it did in CMake versions prior to 4.0.
The execute_process() command once again terminates child processes when its TIMEOUT is reached. This was accidentally regressed by CMake 3.29.

Ninja: escape special characters in custom command comments
cmCTestCurl: Avoid using undocumented type for CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE values
ASM: Restore CMAKE_ASM_COMPILER_ARCHITECTURE_ID persistence
Tests: Extend RunCMake.ParseImplicitLinkInfo for LFortran 0.55.0
Tests: Teach RunCMake to ignore Xcode an IDERunDestination warning
ci: update macOS jobs to use Xcode 26.0
cmFileSet: Constify local generator usage
cmGeneratorExpressionEvaluationFile: Constify some local generator usage
cmGeneratorExpressionNode: Simplify EvaluateDependentExpression signature
GenEx: Rename cmGeneratorExpressionContext to cm::GenEx::Evaluation
GenEx: Factor out a dedicated evaluation Context structure
GenEx: Collect evaluation arguments into local Context structures
GenEx: Construct cmGeneratorExpressionDAGChecker with full evaluation context
GenEx: Consolidate target property evaluation context arguments
Help: Document when policy CMP0189 takes effect
cmGeneratorTarget: Pass genex evaluation context to IsTransitiveProperty
file(GENERATE): Record CMP0189 at each call site
bootstrap: Fix compilation with gcc 16 devirtualization
cmGeneratorTarget: Factor out helper to detect LINK_LIBRARIES evaluation
CMP0189: Restore support for linking $<TARGET_PROPERTY:tgt,LINK_LIBRARIES>
CMake 4.1.2
LFortran: Update flags renamed by version 0.55
GNUInstallDirs: Fix regression on -DCMAKE_INSTALL_= in /usr
cmLocalGenerator: check variables before usage
cmPropertySentinel: update definition
FindPython: Ensure correct handling of Python_FIND_ABI variable
project: Revert changes to VERSION handling

Ben Boeckel (1):
Help/cmake-cxxmodules: note GCC 15 support
Brad King (12):
Help: Add 4.0 release note about file path case sensitivity on Windows Normalize PWD environment variable before using it
CMakeDetermineCompilerABI: Comment implicit link directory exclusion
macOS: Restore RPATH entry for libraries linked from /usr/local/lib
ci: Tell CudaOnly.Architecture test what specific architecture to use
ci: add tags to tie CUDA jobs to runners with hardware supporting them
CUDA/Clang: Prefer NVCC’s default architecture for each CUDA Toolkit version
Tests: Fix RunCMake.CTestCommandLine under ctest -T Coverage
AUTOMOC: Avoid compiler warnings while computing predefines
Help: Fix wording in tutorial workflow description
macOS: Restore support for LLVM/Clang without explicit CMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT
CMake 4.0.2
Craig Scott (2):
Help: VS_DEBUGGER_WORKING_DIRECTORY precedence
Xcode: Use DEBUGGER_WORKING_DIRECTORY as a fallback for scheme work dir
Gregor Jasny (1):
macOS: Reliably apply workaround for system curl 8.{3,4,5} LibreSSL backend
Marc Chevrier (3):
Ninja generator: restore correct encoding for policy CMP0181=OLD
FindPython: fix the definition of SABI artifacts
Help: block() command: enhance the PROPAGATE example
Matthew Woehlke (3):
Help: Fix overlapping text in footnotes
CPS: Fix mangling of relative requirement names
find_package: Fix performance regression in 4.0.0 release
Raul Tambre (1):
Clang: MSVC C++26 support
Robert Maynard (3):
ci: Tell CudaOnly.CompileFlags test what specific architecture to use
CUDA/Clang: Update architectures supported by CUDA 12.8
CUDA: Add CUDA 12.9 new architectures and family syntax