How it works

At configure time, CMake performs a series of platform tests to determine which compilers are available and if they are suitable for the project at hand. A suitable compiler is not only determined by the platform we are working on, but also by the generator we want to use. The first test CMake performs is based on the name of the compiler for the project language. For example, if cc is a working C compiler, then that is what will be used as the default compiler for a C project. On GNU/Linux, using Unix Makefiles or Ninja, the compilers in the GCC family will be most likely chosen by default for C++, C, and Fortran. On Microsoft Windows, the C++ and C compilers in Visual Studio will be selected, provided Visual Studio is the generator. MinGW compilers are the default if MinGW or MSYS Makefiles were chosen as generators.