Search code examples
cmakeassertndebug

How to enable assert in CMake Release mode?

CMake is being used to compile some C++ files. There are assert calls in the code. These calls are disabled in Release mode of CMake. It defines NDEBUG in Release mode, I guess.

If I'm interested in having assert in Release mode of CMake, how do I enable it?

Solution

  • 1

    If you interested in assert functionality only in your own code then the simple one solution is to provide custom assert. For instance:

    #if (MY_DEBUG)
# define MY_ASSERT(A) ... checks here ...
#else
# define MY_ASSERT(A) ... ignore A ...
#endif

    Use option to enable/disable assert:

    # CMakeLists.txt
option(ENABLE_MY_ASSERT "Turn on MY_ASSERT checks" OFF)
if(ENABLE_MY_ASSERT)
  add_definitions(-DMY_DEBUG=1)
else()
  add_definitions(-DMY_DEBUG=0)
endif()

    In this case you have full control over your checks, you can verify one component and ignore others:

    ... FOO_DEBUG=0 BOO_DEBUG=1 BAR_DEBUG=0 ...

    2

    Add custom CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE (also see CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES):

    cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.12)
project(foo)

set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_MYREL "-O3")

add_library(foo foo.cpp)

    output:

    # Debug
# ... -g ...

# Release
# ... -O3 -DNDEBUG ...

# RelWithDebInfo
# ... -O2 -g -DNDEBUG ...

# MyRel
# ... -O3 ...