CMake multi config generator on multi platform

I am working on a project that uses CMake to generate an multi-platform based C++ projects that need to be compiled in both Windows and Linux platforms. In the Windows based projects, I am interested in generating MSVC based solutions that have these four profiles configurations: (Debug, Release, RelWithDebInfo and MinSizeRel).

Please notice that I set some variables (FLAGS_COMPILE_DEBUG, DEFS_COMPILE_DEBUG, LINKER_OPTIONS_DEBUG, FLAGS_COMPILE_RELEASE, DEFS_COMPILE_RELEASE and LINKER_OPTIONS_RELEASE) containing all the specific flags for each Debug and Release based solutions configurations profiles.

set(FLAGS_COMPILE_DEBUG "/MTd /Od /Zi /RTC1 /Zc:wchar_t /GS /WX")
set(DEFS_COMPILE_DEBUG "-D_DEBUG")
set(LINKER_OPTIONS_DEBUG "/WX")

set(FLAGS_COMPILE_RELEASE "/Ox /Ob2 /Oi /Ot /GF /Zc:wchar_t /MT /WX")
set(DEFS_COMPILE_RELEASE "-D_NDEBUG")
set(LINKER_OPTIONS_RELEASE "/WX")

# Each one VS profile configurations
add_compile_options($<$<CONFIG:Debug>:${FLAGS_COMPILE_DEBUG}>)
add_definitions($<$<CONFIG:Debug>:${DEFS_COMPILE_DEBUG}>)
add_link_options($<$<CONFIG:Debug>:${LINKER_OPTIONS_DEBUG}>)

add_compile_options($<$<CONFIG:Release>:${FLAGS_COMPILE_RELEASE}>)
remove_definitions($<$<CONFIG:Release>:${DEFS_COMPILE_DEBUG}>)
add_definitions($<$<CONFIG:Release>:${DEFS_COMPILE_RELEASE}>)
add_link_options($<$<CONFIG:Release>:${LINKER_OPTIONS_RELEASE}>)

add_compile_options($<$<CONFIG:RelWithDebInfo>:${FLAGS_COMPILE_RELEASE}>)
add_definitions($<$<CONFIG:RelWithDebInfo>:${DEFS_COMPILE_DEBUG}>)
add_link_options($<$<CONFIG:RelWithDebInfo>:${LINKER_OPTIONS_DEBUG}>)

add_compile_options($<$<CONFIG:MinSizeRel>:${FLAGS_COMPILE_RELEASE}>)
remove_definitions($<$<CONFIG:MinSizeRel>:${DEFS_COMPILE_DEBUG}>)
add_definitions($<$<CONFIG:MinSizeRel>:${DEFS_COMPILE_RELEASE}>)
add_link_options($<$<CONFIG:MinSizeRel>:${LINKER_OPTIONS_RELEASE}>)

However, I noticed that I am not getting the desired effect for each Debug and Release based solutions configurations profiles. What is the correct way to use the CMake generator expressions in my case?

Solution

add_definitions() and remove_definitions() don't support generator expressions. You want add_compile_definitions().

set(FLAGS_COMPILE_DEBUG /MTd /Od /Zi /RTC1 /Zc:wchar_t /GS /WX)
set(DEFS_COMPILE_DEBUG -D_DEBUG)
set(LINKER_OPTIONS_DEBUG /WX)

set(FLAGS_COMPILE_RELEASE /Ox /Ob2 /Oi /Ot /GF /Zc:wchar_t /MT /WX)
set(DEFS_COMPILE_RELEASE -D_NDEBUG)
set(LINKER_OPTIONS_RELEASE /WX)

add_compile_options(
    "$<$<CONFIG:Debug>:${FLAGS_COMPILE_DEBUG}>"
    "$<$<CONFIG:Release>:${FLAGS_COMPILE_RELEASE}>"
    "$<$<CONFIG:RelWithDebInfo>:${FLAGS_COMPILE_RELEASE}>"
    "$<$<CONFIG:MinSizeRel>:${FLAGS_COMPILE_RELEASE}>"
)
add_compile_definitions(
    "$<$<CONFIG:Debug>:${DEFS_COMPILE_DEBUG}>"
    "$<$<CONFIG:Release>:${DEFS_COMPILE_RELEASE}>"
    "$<$<CONFIG:RelWithDebInfo>:${DEFS_COMPILE_DEBUG}>"
    "$<$<CONFIG:MinSizeRel>:${DEFS_COMPILE_RELEASE}>"
)
add_link_options(
    "$<$<CONFIG:Debug>:${LINKER_OPTIONS_DEBUG}>"
    "$<$<CONFIG:Release>:${LINKER_OPTIONS_RELEASE}>"
    "$<$<CONFIG:RelWithDebInfo>:${LINKER_OPTIONS_DEBUG}>"
    "$<$<CONFIG:MinSizeRel>:${LINKER_OPTIONS_RELEASE}>"
)