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  <section id="define-property">
<span id="command:define_property"></span><h1>define_property<a class="headerlink" href="#define-property" title="Permalink to this heading">¶</a></h1>
<p>Define and document custom properties.</p>
<div class="highlight-cmake notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nf">define_property(</span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="no">GLOBAL</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">|</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">DIRECTORY</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">|</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">TARGET</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">|</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">SOURCE</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">|</span>
<span class="w">                 </span><span class="no">TEST</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">|</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">VARIABLE</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">|</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">CACHED_VARIABLE</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
<span class="w">                 </span><span class="no">PROPERTY</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nv">&lt;name&gt;</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="no">INHERITED</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="w">                 </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="no">BRIEF_DOCS</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nv">&lt;brief-doc&gt;</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="nb">docs...</span><span class="p">]]</span>
<span class="w">                 </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="no">FULL_DOCS</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nv">&lt;full-doc&gt;</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="nb">docs...</span><span class="p">]]</span>
<span class="w">                 </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="no">INITIALIZE_FROM_VARIABLE</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nv">&lt;variable&gt;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="nf">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Defines one property in a scope for use with the <span class="target" id="index-0-command:set_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="set_property.html#command:set_property" title="set_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_property()</span></code></a> and
<span class="target" id="index-0-command:get_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="get_property.html#command:get_property" title="get_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">get_property()</span></code></a> commands. It is mainly useful for defining the way
a property is initialized or inherited. Historically, the command also
associated documentation with a property, but that is no longer considered a
primary use case.</p>
<p>The first argument determines the kind of scope in which the property should
be used.  It must be one of the following:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>GLOBAL    = associated with the global namespace
DIRECTORY = associated with one directory
TARGET    = associated with one target
SOURCE    = associated with one source file
TEST      = associated with a test named with add_test
VARIABLE  = documents a CMake language variable
CACHED_VARIABLE = documents a CMake cache variable
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Note that unlike <span class="target" id="index-1-command:set_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="set_property.html#command:set_property" title="set_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_property()</span></code></a> and <span class="target" id="index-1-command:get_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="get_property.html#command:get_property" title="get_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">get_property()</span></code></a> no
actual scope needs to be given; only the kind of scope is important.</p>
<p>The required <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">PROPERTY</span></code> option is immediately followed by the name of
the property being defined.</p>
<p>If the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">INHERITED</span></code> option is given, then the <span class="target" id="index-2-command:get_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="get_property.html#command:get_property" title="get_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">get_property()</span></code></a> command
will chain up to the next higher scope when the requested property is not set
in the scope given to the command.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DIRECTORY</span></code> scope chains to its parent directory's scope, continuing the
walk up parent directories until a directory has the property set or there
are no more parents.  If still not found at the top level directory, it
chains to the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">GLOBAL</span></code> scope.</p></li>
<li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">TARGET</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">SOURCE</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">TEST</span></code> properties chain to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DIRECTORY</span></code> scope,
including further chaining up the directories, etc. as needed.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Note that this scope chaining behavior only applies to calls to
<span class="target" id="index-3-command:get_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="get_property.html#command:get_property" title="get_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">get_property()</span></code></a>, <span class="target" id="index-0-command:get_directory_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="get_directory_property.html#command:get_directory_property" title="get_directory_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">get_directory_property()</span></code></a>,
<span class="target" id="index-0-command:get_target_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="get_target_property.html#command:get_target_property" title="get_target_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">get_target_property()</span></code></a>, <span class="target" id="index-0-command:get_source_file_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="get_source_file_property.html#command:get_source_file_property" title="get_source_file_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">get_source_file_property()</span></code></a> and
<span class="target" id="index-0-command:get_test_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="get_test_property.html#command:get_test_property" title="get_test_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">get_test_property()</span></code></a>.  There is no inheriting behavior when <em>setting</em>
properties, so using <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">APPEND</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">APPEND_STRING</span></code> with the
<span class="target" id="index-2-command:set_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="set_property.html#command:set_property" title="set_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_property()</span></code></a> command will not consider inherited values when working
out the contents to append to.</p>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">BRIEF_DOCS</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">FULL_DOCS</span></code> options are followed by strings to be
associated with the property as its brief and full documentation.
CMake does not use this documentation other than making it available to the
project via corresponding options to the <span class="target" id="index-4-command:get_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="get_property.html#command:get_property" title="get_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">get_property()</span></code></a> command.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.23: </span>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">BRIEF_DOCS</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">FULL_DOCS</span></code> options are optional.</p>
</div>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified added">New in version 3.23: </span>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">INITIALIZE_FROM_VARIABLE</span></code> option specifies a variable from which the
property should be initialized. It can only be used with target properties.
The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">&lt;variable&gt;</span></code> name must end with the property name and must not begin
with <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">CMAKE_</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">_CMAKE_</span></code>. The property name must contain at least one
underscore. It is recommended that the property name have a prefix specific
to the project.</p>
</div>
<section id="see-also">
<h2>See Also<a class="headerlink" href="#see-also" title="Permalink to this heading">¶</a></h2>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p><span class="target" id="index-5-command:get_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="get_property.html#command:get_property" title="get_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">get_property()</span></code></a></p></li>
<li><p><span class="target" id="index-3-command:set_property"></span><a class="reference internal" href="set_property.html#command:set_property" title="set_property"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_property()</span></code></a></p></li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>


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