enable_language

Enable languages (CXX/C/OBJC/OBJCXX/Fortran/etc)

enable_language(<lang>... [OPTIONAL])

Enables support for the named languages in CMake. This is the same as the project() command but does not create any of the extra variables that are created by the project() command.

The supported languages are:

C

CXX

C++

CSharp

Added in version 3.8.

C#

CUDA

Added in version 3.8.

OBJC

Added in version 3.16.

Objective-C

OBJCXX

Added in version 3.16.

Objective-C++

Fortran

HIP

Added in version 3.21.

ISPC

Added in version 3.18.

Swift

Added in version 3.15.

ASM

Assembly language supported by the C compiler.

If enabling ASM, list it last so that CMake can check whether the C or CXX compiler supports assembly.

ASM_NASM

Netwide Assembler

ASM_MARMASM

Added in version 3.26.

Microsoft Assembler (ARM, ARM64)

ASM_MASM

Microsoft Assembler (x86, x64)

ASM_POASM

Added in version 4.4.

Pelles C toolchain assembler.

ASM-ATT

The following restrictions apply to where enable_language() may be called:

• It must be called in file scope, not in a function() call nor inside a block().
• It must not be called before the first call to project(). See policy CMP0165.
• It must be called in the highest directory common to all targets using the named language directly for compiling sources or indirectly through link dependencies. It is simplest to enable all needed languages in the top-level directory of a project.

The OPTIONAL keyword is a placeholder for future implementation and does not currently work. Instead you can use the CheckLanguage module to verify support before enabling.