cmake: Selecting a generator within CMakeLists.txt (SO https://stackoverflow.com/q/11269833)

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.31.0)
project(build_with_ninja CXX)

set(CMAKE_GENERATOR "Ninja" CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
message("generator is set to ${CMAKE_GENERATOR}")

steps.sh

mkdir source
mv CMakeLists.txt source/
mkdir build
cmake -S source -B build
ls build/Makefile build/build.ninja

Following is what I did:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.31)

set(CMAKE_GENERATOR "Ninja")
message("generator is set to ${CMAKE_GENERATOR}")

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 20)

project(<PROJ NAME>)

Command line:

cd <PROJ FOLDER>
rm -rf build
cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build

Interestingly I still get a Makefile in this case @J-Siu ...

So to confirm, if you do not set the generator, you get a Makefile (system default) and when you run the code above you get a ninja file?

I'm running on Arch Linux with cmake

cmake version 3.31.0

CMake suite maintained and supported by Kitware (kitware.com/cmake).

I am on MacOS. I ran into this as VSCode seems to work better with ninja(as I don't know how to configure vscode task yet). I used the above to force a switch from makefile to ninja.

ok, interesting. So I cannot confirm, but glad that it works for you :)