The output you gave shows that CMake attempting to be helpful to you. If it is too verbose for your taste, perhaps the simplest way to reduce it would be to capture it into a variable, then examine it.
You can save the sample CMake script below as detect_cxx_compiler.cmake, and invoke the script using cmake -P detect_cxx_compiler.cmake. The code is written in a manner intended to be helpful to CMake beginners, not for small size or processing efficiency.
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.5 FATAL_ERROR) cmake_policy(VERSION 2.8.5) # This cmake script (when saved as detect_cxx_compiler.cmake) is invoked by: # # cmake -P detect_cxx_compiler.cmake # # It is written for clarity, not brevity. # First make a new directory, so that we don't mess up the current one. execute_process( COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E make_directory detection_area WORKING_DIRECTORY . ) # Here, we generate a key file that CMake needs. execute_process( COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E touch CMakeLists.txt WORKING_DIRECTORY detection_area ) # Have CMake check the basic configuration. The output is # actually in the form that you posted in your question, but # instead of displaying it onscreen, we save it to a variable # so that we can select only parts of it to print later. execute_process( COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} --check-system-vars OUTPUT_VARIABLE the_output OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE WORKING_DIRECTORY detection_area ) # Eliminate the directory, including all of the files within it that # CMake created. execute_process( COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E remove_directory detection_area WORKING_DIRECTORY . ) # Here, you have the entire message captured as a variable. # Uncomment this next line to convince yourself of this. #message(STATUS "the_output = |${the_output}|.") # Here, we search the message to see if the C++ compiler was found or not, # and print an arbitrary message accordingly. string(FIND "${the_output}" "CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER-NOTFOUND" scan_result) #message(STATUS "scan_result = |${scan_result}|.") if(NOT(-1 EQUAL "${scan_result}")) message(FATAL_ERROR "A C++ compiler was not detected.") endif() message(STATUS "A C++ compiler was detected.")
