cmake - How do I debug CMakeLists.txt files?

Question

Is there a possibility to debug CMakeLists.txt files (at least listing of variables) except for the message statement?

Answer 1

There is no interactive debugger for CMake, however there are also the flags -Wdev, --debug-output and --trace which might help. Also remember to check the log files CMakeFilesCMakeOutput.log and CMakeFilesCMakeError.log which mainly collect outputs of processes called by CMake (for example while checking for presence of a type or header).

Since version 3.7, CMake now officially supports a "server mode" so integration in IDEs is likely to improve in the near future. Initial support exists both in Qt Creator and Visual Studio 2017 RC