[SOLVED] CMAKE how to pass arguments to msbuild.exe

Issue

I have a cmake project and I'm using the msvc 2019 generator on windows 10.

I can successfully build with the following:

cmake -S . -B build
cd build
cmake --build . -- /m

I'm interested in passing the /m switch to msbuild.exe within the CMakeLists.txt itself.

I've tried the following without success as arguments get passed to cl.exe:

if(MSVC)
    set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} /m")
    message(STATUS "NOTICE: Setting parallel build for msbuild.exe")
    add_definitions(/M)
endif()

Also bonus question: How does -- work in the last cmake command above? I'm struggling finding documentation on it.

Solution

The answer as @Johnny_xy pointed out is you can't. You need to use ninja as the cmake generator.

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja Multi-Config
cd build
cmake --build .

link to ninja releases: https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja/releases

ninja build time: 17.51s cmake default build time: 44.54s

Answered By - David

Answer Checked By - Robin (WPSolving Admin)