CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME

The name of the operating system for which CMake is to build. See the CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION variable for the OS version.

Note that CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME is not set to anything by default when running in script mode, since it's not building anything.

System Name for Host Builds

CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME is by default set to the same value as the CMAKE_HOST_SYSTEM_NAME variable so that the build targets the host system.

System Name for Cross Compiling

CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME may be set explicitly when first configuring a new build tree in order to enable cross compiling. In this case the CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION variable must also be set explicitly.

System Names Known to CMake

The following is a list of possible values, each associated with corresponding operating systems or environments.

Value	Name
ADSP	Analog Devices Audio Digital Signal Processing
AIX	IBM Unix operating system
Android	Android operating system
ARTOS	Operating system for microcontrollers
BeOS	Operating system for personal computers (discontinued)
BlueGeneL	Blue Gene/L static environment
BlueGeneP-dynamic	Blue Gene/P dynamic environment
BlueGeneP-static	Blue Gene/P static environment
BlueGeneQ-dynamic	Blue Gene/Q dynamic environment
BlueGeneQ-static	Blue Gene/Q static environment
BSDOS	BSD operating system (discontinued)
Catamount	Operating system for Cray XT series
CrayLinuxEnvironment	Cray Linux Environment
CYGWIN	Cygwin environment for Windows
Darwin	Apple stationary operating systems (macOS, OS X, etc.)
DOS	MS-DOS or compatible
DragonFly	BSD-derived operating system
eCos	Real-time embedded operating system
Emscripten	Compiler toolchain to WebAssembly
Euros	Real-time operating system for embedded devices
FreeBSD	FreeBSD operating system
Fuchsia	Operating system by Google based on the Zircon kernel
Generic-ADSP	Generic ADSP (Audio DSP) environment
Generic-ELF	Generic ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) environment
Generic	Some platforms, e.g. bare metal embedded devices
GHS-MULTI	Green Hills Software MULTI environment
GNU	GNU/Hurd-based operating system
Haiku	Unix operating system inspired by BeOS
HP-UX	Hewlett Packard Unix
iOS	Apple mobile phone operating system
kFreeBSD	FreeBSD kernel with a GNU userland
Linux	All Linux-based distributions
Midipix	POSIX-compatible layer for Windows
MirBSD	MirOS BSD operating system
MP-RAS	MP-RAS UNIX operating system
MSYS	MSYS environment (MSYSTEM=MSYS)
NetBSD	NetBSD operating systems
OpenBSD	OpenBSD operating systems
OpenVMS	OpenVMS operating system by HP
OS2	OS/2 operating system
OSF1	Compaq Tru64 UNIX (formerly DEC OSF/1, Digital Unix) (discontinued)
QNX	Unix-like operating system by BlackBerry
RISCos	RISC OS operating system
SCO_SV	SCO OpenServer 5
SerenityOS	Unix-like operating system
SINIX	SINIX operating system
SunOS	Oracle Solaris and all illumos operating systems
syllable	Syllable operating system
Tru64	Compaq Tru64 UNIX (formerly DEC OSF/1) operating system
tvOS	Apple TV operating system
ULTRIX	Unix operating system (discontinued)
UNIX_SV	SCO UnixWare (pre release 7)
UnixWare	SCO UnixWare 7
visionOS	Apple mixed reality operating system
watchOS	Apple watch operating system
Windows	Windows stationary operating systems
WindowsCE	Windows Embedded Compact
WindowsPhone	Windows mobile phone operating system
WindowsStore	Universal Windows Platform applications
Xenix	SCO Xenix Unix operating system (discontinued)

Platform-specific notes:

• MSYS2's msys/cmake package (/usr/bin/cmake) works only under MSYSTEM=MSYS environments, with system name MSYS. Under other environments like MSYSTEM=MINGW64, use another package such as mingw64/mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake (/mingw64/bin/cmake), which targets MSYSTEM=MINGW64 with system name Windows.

• Cygwin's cmake package (/usr/bin/cmake) uses system name CYGWIN. A non-cygwin CMake on Windows (e.g. $PROGRAMFILES/CMake/bin/cmake) uses system name Windows even when it runs under a Cygwin environment.