How to use c++20 modules with CMake?

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CMake currently does not support C++20 modules.

See also the relevant issue in the CMake issue tracker. Note that supporting modules requires far more support from the build system than inserting a new compiler option. It fundamentally changes how dependencies between source files have to be handled during the build: In a pre-modules world all cpp source files can be built independently in any order. With modules that is no longer true, which has implications not only for CMake itself, but also for the downstream build system.

Take a look at the CMake Fortran modules paper for the gory details. From a build system’s point of view, Fortran’s modules behave very similar to the C++20 modules.

Update: CMake 3.20 introduces experimental support for Modules with the Ninja Generator (and only for Ninja). Details can be found in the respective pull request. At this stage, this feature is still highly experimental and not intended for production use. If you intend to play around with this anyway, you really should be reading both the Fortran modules paper and the dependency format paper to understand what you’re getting into.

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