Exploring the frequently used commands

CMake offers many scripting commands that allow you to work with variables and the environment. Some of them have been extensively covered in the Appendix: for example, list(), string(), and file(). Others, such as find_file(), find_package(), and find_path(), fit better in chapters that talk about their respective subjects. In this section, we will provide a brief overview of the common commands that are useful in most situations:

• message()
• include()
• include_guard()
• file()
• execute_process()

Let’s get to it.

The message() command

We already know and love our trusty message() command, which prints text to standard output. However, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. By providing a MODE argument, you can customize the behavior of the command like so: message(<MODE> "text to print").

The recognized modes are as follows:

• FATAL_ERROR: This stops...