how to generate pdb files for Release build with cmake flags? - visual-studio

Question

I am generating a visual studio solution using cmake. And now I want to generate pdb files for a Release build. (Why? because I want to have the symbols in case that the user found some bug)
I tried by setting the following flags without succeed:
set(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES ${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE} CACHE STRING "Build Types" FORCE)
IF(WIN32)
set( CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_RELEASE "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/Release")
set( CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_RELEASE "/debug /INCREMENTAL")
set( CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_RELEASE "/debug /INCREMENTAL")
set( CMAKE_MODULE_LINKER_FLAGS_RELEASE "/debug /INCREMENTAL")
set( CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE "/MD /Zi /O2 /Ob1 /D NDEBUG")
set( CMAKE_C_FLAGS_RELEASE "/MD /Zi /O2 /Ob1 /D NDEBUG")
ENDIF(WIN32)
It looks like Cmake is ignoring these sets:
thanks in advance for the help!

Answer 1

I used the flags
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE} /Zi")
set(CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_RELEASE "${CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_RELEASE} /DEBUG /OPT:REF /OPT:ICF")
This site explains the details

Answer 2

Another way to do it is to use cmake generator expressions (https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-generator-expressions.7.html), e.g.:
for all targets and all configurations:
add_compile_options("$<$<NOT:$<CONFIG:Debug>>:/Zi>")
add_link_options("$<$<NOT:$<CONFIG:Debug>>:/DEBUG>")
add_link_options("$<$<NOT:$<CONFIG:Debug>>:/OPT:REF>")
add_link_options("$<$<NOT:$<CONFIG:Debug>>:/OPT:ICF>")
for particular target and Release configuration only:
target_compile_options(my_exe PRIVATE "$<$<CONFIG:Release>:/Zi>")
target_link_options(my_exe PRIVATE "$<$<CONFIG:Release>:/DEBUG>")
target_link_options(my_exe PRIVATE "$<$<CONFIG:Release>:/OPT:REF>")
target_link_options(my_exe PRIVATE "$<$<CONFIG:Release>:/OPT:ICF>")

Answer 3

In 'Modern Cmake' you can set this per target, this is the way to go:
if(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID MATCHES "MSVC" AND CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE MATCHES "Release")
target_compile_options(${TARGET_NAME} PRIVATE /Zi)
# Tell linker to include symbol data
set_target_properties(${TARGET_NAME} PROPERTIES
LINK_FLAGS "/INCREMENTAL:NO /DEBUG /OPT:REF /OPT:ICF"
)
# Set file name & location
set_target_properties(${TARGET_NAME} PROPERTIES
COMPILE_PDB_NAME ${TARGET_NAME}
COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}
)
endif()
These flags are MSVC specific not WIN32.