GenerateExportHeader — CMake 3.23.1 Documentation

# GenerateExportHeader

Function for generation of export macros for libraries

This module provides the function `GENERATE_EXPORT_HEADER()`.

New in version 3.12: Added support for C projects. Previous versions supported C++ project only.

The `GENERATE_EXPORT_HEADER` function can be used to generate a file suitable for preprocessor inclusion which contains EXPORT macros to be used in library classes:

    GENERATE_EXPORT_HEADER( LIBRARY_TARGET
              [BASE_NAME <base_name>]
              [EXPORT_MACRO_NAME <export_macro_name>]
              [EXPORT_FILE_NAME <export_file_name>]
              [DEPRECATED_MACRO_NAME <deprecated_macro_name>]
              [NO_EXPORT_MACRO_NAME <no_export_macro_name>]
              [INCLUDE_GUARD_NAME <include_guard_name>]
              [STATIC_DEFINE <static_define>]
              [NO_DEPRECATED_MACRO_NAME <no_deprecated_macro_name>]
              [DEFINE_NO_DEPRECATED]
              [PREFIX_NAME <prefix_name>]
              [CUSTOM_CONTENT_FROM_VARIABLE <variable>]
    )

The target properties `CXX_VISIBILITY_PRESET` and `VISIBILITY_INLINES_HIDDEN` can be used to add the appropriate compile flags for targets. See the documentation of those target properties, and the convenience variables `CMAKE_CXX_VISIBILITY_PRESET` and `CMAKE_VISIBILITY_INLINES_HIDDEN`.

By default `GENERATE_EXPORT_HEADER()` generates macro names in a file name determined by the name of the library. This means that in the simplest case, users of `GenerateExportHeader` will be equivalent to:

    set(CMAKE_CXX_VISIBILITY_PRESET hidden)
    set(CMAKE_VISIBILITY_INLINES_HIDDEN 1)
    add_library(somelib someclass.cpp)
    generate_export_header(somelib)
    install(TARGETS somelib DESTINATION ${LIBRARY_INSTALL_DIR})
    install(FILES
     someclass.h
     ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/somelib_export.h DESTINATION ${INCLUDE_INSTALL_DIR}
    )

And in the ABI header files:

    #include "somelib_export.h"
    class SOMELIB_EXPORT SomeClass {
      ...
    };

The CMake fragment will generate a file in the `${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}` called `somelib_export.h` containing the macros `SOMELIB_EXPORT`, `SOMELIB_NO_EXPORT`, `SOMELIB_DEPRECATED`, `SOMELIB_DEPRECATED_EXPORT` and `SOMELIB_DEPRECATED_NO_EXPORT`. They will be followed by content taken from the variable specified by the `CUSTOM_CONTENT_FROM_VARIABLE` option, if any. The resulting file should be installed with other headers in the library.

The `BASE_NAME` argument can be used to override the file name and the names used for the macros:

    add_library(somelib someclass.cpp)
    generate_export_header(somelib
      BASE_NAME other_name
    )

Generates a file called `other_name_export.h` containing the macros `OTHER_NAME_EXPORT`, `OTHER_NAME_NO_EXPORT` and `OTHER_NAME_DEPRECATED` etc.

The `BASE_NAME` may be overridden by specifying other options in the function. For example:

    add_library(somelib someclass.cpp)
    generate_export_header(somelib
      EXPORT_MACRO_NAME OTHER_NAME_EXPORT
    )

creates the macro `OTHER_NAME_EXPORT` instead of `SOMELIB_EXPORT`, but other macros and the generated file name is as default:

    add_library(somelib someclass.cpp)
    generate_export_header(somelib
      DEPRECATED_MACRO_NAME KDE_DEPRECATED
    )

creates the macro `KDE_DEPRECATED` instead of `SOMELIB_DEPRECATED`.

If `LIBRARY_TARGET` is a static library, macros are defined without values.

If the same sources are used to create both a shared and a static library, the uppercased symbol `${BASE_NAME}_STATIC_DEFINE` should be used when building the static library:

    add_library(shared_variant SHARED ${lib_SRCS})
    add_library(static_variant ${lib_SRCS})
    generate_export_header(shared_variant BASE_NAME libshared_and_static)
    set_target_properties(static_variant PROPERTIES
      COMPILE_FLAGS -DLIBSHARED_AND_STATIC_STATIC_DEFINE)

This will cause the export macros to expand to nothing when building the static library.

If `DEFINE_NO_DEPRECATED` is specified, then a macro `${BASE_NAME}_NO_DEPRECATED` will be defined This macro can be used to remove deprecated code from preprocessor output:

    option(EXCLUDE_DEPRECATED "Exclude deprecated parts of the library" FALSE)
    if (EXCLUDE_DEPRECATED)
      set(NO_BUILD_DEPRECATED DEFINE_NO_DEPRECATED)
    endif()
    generate_export_header(somelib ${NO_BUILD_DEPRECATED})

And then in somelib:

    class SOMELIB_EXPORT SomeClass
    {
    public:
    #ifndef SOMELIB_NO_DEPRECATED
      SOMELIB_DEPRECATED void oldMethod();
    #endif
    };

    #ifndef SOMELIB_NO_DEPRECATED
    void SomeClass::oldMethod() {  }
    #endif

If `PREFIX_NAME` is specified, the argument will be used as a prefix to all generated macros.

For example:

    generate_export_header(somelib PREFIX_NAME VTK_)

Generates the macros `VTK_SOMELIB_EXPORT` etc.

New in version 3.1: Library target can be an `OBJECT` library.

New in version 3.7: Added the `CUSTOM_CONTENT_FROM_VARIABLE` option.

New in version 3.11: Added the `INCLUDE_GUARD_NAME` option.

    ADD_COMPILER_EXPORT_FLAGS( [<output_variable>] )

Deprecated since version 3.0: Set the target properties `CXX_VISIBILITY_PRESET` and `VISIBILITY_INLINES_HIDDEN` instead.

The `ADD_COMPILER_EXPORT_FLAGS` function adds `-fvisibility=hidden` to `CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS` if supported, and is a no-op on Windows which does not need extra compiler flags for exporting support. You may optionally pass a single argument to `ADD_COMPILER_EXPORT_FLAGS` that will be populated with the `CXX_FLAGS` required to enable visibility support for the compiler/architecture in use.