How to get CMake to pass either std=c++14/c++1y or c++17/c++1z based on GCC version?

Question

GCC 4.x doesn't accept the --std=c++14 switch for C++14 code - it takes --std=c++1y instead. Later versions take --std=c++1z but (probably) not --std=c++17 which has not been set yet (writing this in 2016). Perhaps there are similar issues with C++11.

Does CMake have some facility (perhaps as a module) to pass the correct switch according to the GCC version?

Answer 1

When wanting to specify a particular C++ version, the recommended way to do this with CMake 3.1 and later is to use the CXX_STANDARD, CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED and CXX_EXTENSIONS target properties, or their variable equivalents to specify target defaults. Full details can be found here, but the short version goes something like this:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.1)
project(Example)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 14)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
set(CMAKE_CXX_EXTENSIONS OFF)
# ... Define targets, etc. as usual

CMake should then select the appropriate compiler flag for the requested C++ standard based on what the compiler supports, or error out if it doesn't support the requested standard.

It should also be noted that CMake may upgrade the target to use a later language standard than the one specified by its CXX_STANDARD target property. The use of compile feature requirements (as mentioned in @FlorianWolters answer) can raise the language standard requirement. In fact, CMake will always pick the stronger language requirement specified by either the CXX_STANDARD target property or the compile feature requirements set on the target. Note also that the CMake documentation as of 3.10.1 does not accurately reflect the way CXX_EXTENSIONS interacts with compile features, as CXX_EXTENSIONS only takes effect if CXX_STANDARD is also specified for most common compilers (since they are specified together with the one compiler flag).