Select MSVC build tools version with Visual Studio's CMake / CMakeSettings.json

Question

Hi,

I'm using Visual Studio's C++ CMake functionality, i.e. "File -> Open -> CMakeLists.txt". I'm on the latest VS 2022 17.9.5. I'd like to specify an exact MSVC build tools version to use, for example MSVC 14.29, 14.30 or 14.39 (installed via the Visual Studio Installer).

If you use CMake outside of VS, there's the cmake-gui -T option where you can at least specify "v142" or "v143" (but also not an exact version). But Visual Studio's CMake, CMakeSettings.json, and the graphical CMakeSettings.json editor don't seem to support even that, yet alone specify an exact version.

The only piece of vaguely relevant docs I could find is https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/customize-cmake-settings?view=msvc-170#toolset, but the section on "Toolset"/inheritedEnvironments is very unhelpful. Further searching for inheritedEnvironments/inheritEnvironments also leads me to think that you can only specify the target platform with that setting, e.g "x64_x64", but not an actual build tools version.

So how do I specify an exact Build Tools version?

Is the way to do it to manually extract the path to cl.exe (e.g. "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.39.33519\bin\Hostx64\x64\cl.exe") and then pass that as CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi, @Patrik Huber

In CMakePresets.json file

Add "toolset" node.

       "condition": {
         "type": "equals",
         "lhs": "${hostSystemName}",
         "rhs": "Windows"
       }
     },
     {
       "name": "x64-debug",
       "displayName": "x64 Debug",
       "inherits": "windows-base",
       "architecture": {
         "value": "x64",
         "strategy": "external"
       },
       "cacheVariables": {
         "CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE": "Debug"
       },
       "toolset": {
         "value": "host=x64,version=14.39"
       }
     },

Best regards,

Minxin Yu

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