CMAKE-INSTRUMENTATION(7)

NAME
cmake-instrumentation - CMake Instrumentation

Added in version 4.3.

INTRODUCTION

The CMake Instrumentation API allows for the collection of timing data, target information and system diagnostic information during the configure, generate, build, test and install steps for a CMake project.

All interactions with the CMake instrumentation API must specify both an API version and a Data version. At this time, there is only one version for each of these: see the API v1 and Data Version.

Note:
        This feature is only available for projects using the Makefile Generators <#makefile-generators>, Ninja Generators <#ninja-generators> or FASTBuild <#generator:FASTBuild>.

  Overview

CMake Instrumentation works in 2 major stages: Data Collection, and Indexing.

Data Collection is the process by which CMake writes out instrumentation data into a project build tree. The commands instrumented in this way range from overall builds, to individual compile commands. The full list of commands instrumented is documented under the v1 Snippet File.

Collected data will accumulate until Indexing occurs: the process of collating the generated data. Indexing occurs on events called "hooks", which can be configured as part of the v1 Query Files. A v1 Index File is created and passed to any user-defined Callbacks provided to process the data. Once all Callbacks have run, CMake deletes the files.

Without the need for any custom Callbacks, CMake can submit instrumentation data to CDash, or generate a Google Trace File for visualization.

  Data Collection

Whenever a command is executed with instrumentation enabled, a v1 Snippet File is created in the project build tree with data specific to that command. These files remain until after Indexing occurs.

CMake sets the RULE_LAUNCH_COMPILE <#prop_gbl:RULE_LAUNCH_COMPILE>, RULE_LAUNCH_LINK <#prop_gbl:RULE_LAUNCH_LINK> and RULE_LAUNCH_CUSTOM <#prop_gbl:RULE_LAUNCH_CUSTOM> global properties to wrap each compile, link and custom command invocation in a launcher that performs instrumentation and writes out a v1 Snippet File. If the project has been configured with CTestUseLaunchers <#module:CTestUseLaunchers>, the launcher will collect instrumentation data in addition to performing the communication typically handled by that module.

  Indexing

Indexing is the process of collating generated instrumentation data. The available hooks to trigger indexing include options such as after every build, or every ctest <#manual:ctest(1)> invocation, and are configured as part of the v1 Query Files. Whenever a hook is triggered, an index file is generated containing a list of snippet files newer than the previous indexing. This index file is passed to user-defined Callbacks commands to process the data.

Indexing and can also be performed by manually invoking ctest --collect-instrumentation <#cmdoption-ctest-collect-instrumentation>.

Indexing, and the subsequent callbacks, will not occur concurrently in a single build tree. When multiple hooks trigger indexing at the same time, a file-based lock is used to ensure one indexing completes, executes all of its callbacks, and deletes the instrumentation data before the next indexing can begin.

  Callbacks

As part of the v1 Query Files, users can provide a list of callbacks intended to handle data collected by this feature.

Whenever Indexing occurs, each provided callback is executed, passing the path to the generated v1 Index File as an additional argument.

These callbacks, defined either at the user-level or project-level, should read the instrumentation data and perform any desired handling of it. The index file and its listed snippets are automatically deleted by CMake once all callbacks have completed. Note that a callback should never move or delete these data files manually as they may be needed by other callbacks.

If indexing is triggered again before Callbacks have finished running, the generated index file will contain only instrumentation data generated since the previous indexing.

ENABLING INSTRUMENTATION

Instrumentation can be enabled either for an individual CMake project, or for all CMake projects configured and built by a user. In all cases, a "query" represents a request for instrumentation behavior. See the v1 Query Files for details on configuring this feature.

  Enabling Instrumentation at the Project-Level

Project code can contain instrumentation queries by using the cmake_instrumentation() <#command:cmake_instrumentation> command.

In addition, query files can be placed manually under <build>/.cmake/instrumentation/<version>/query/ at the top of a build tree. This version of CMake supports only one version schema, API v1.

  Enabling Instrumentation at the User-Level

Instrumentation can be configured at the user-level by placing query files in the CMAKE_CONFIG_DIR <#envvar:CMAKE_CONFIG_DIR> under <config_dir>/instrumentation/<version>/query/.

  Enabling Instrumentation for CDash Submissions

You can enable instrumentation when using CTest <#module:CTest> in Dashboard Client <#dashboard-client> mode by setting the CTEST_USE_INSTRUMENTATION <#envvar:CTEST_USE_INSTRUMENTATION> environment variable. Doing so automatically enables the dynamicSystemInformation option.

The following table shows how each type of instrumented command gets mapped to a corresponding type of CTest XML file.
Snippet Role | CTest XML File
configure | Configure.xml
generate | Configure.xml
compile | Build.xml
link | Build.xml
custom | Build.xml
build | unused!
cmakeBuild | Build.xml
cmakeInstall | Build.xml
install | Build.xml
ctest | Build.xml
test | Test.xml

By default the command line reported to CDash is truncated at the first space. You can instead choose to report the full command line (including arguments) by setting CTEST_USE_VERBOSE_INSTRUMENTATION <#envvar:CTEST_USE_VERBOSE_INSTRUMENTATION> to 1.

Alternatively, you can use the v1 Query Files to enable instrumentation for CDash using the cdashSubmit and cdashVerbose options.

In order for the submitted Build.xml file to group the snippet files correctly, all configure and build commands should be executed with CTest in Dashboard Client mode.

API V1

The API version specifies the layout of the instrumentation directory, as well as the general format of the query files and cmake_instrumentation() <#command:cmake_instrumentation> command arguments.

The Instrumentation API v1 is housed in the instrumentation/v1/ directory under either <build>/.cmake/ for output data and project-level queries, or <config_dir>/ for user-level queries. The v1 component of this directory is what signifies the API version. It has the following subdirectories:

    query/
        Holds query files written by users or clients. Any file with the .json file extension will be recognized as a query file. These files are owned by whichever client or user creates them.

    query/generated/
        Holds query files generated by a CMake project with the cmake_instrumentation() <#command:cmake_instrumentation> command or the CTEST_USE_INSTRUMENTATION <#envvar:CTEST_USE_INSTRUMENTATION> variable. These files are owned by CMake and are deleted and regenerated automatically during the CMake configure step.

    data/
        Holds instrumentation data collected on the project. CMake owns all data files, they should never be removed by other processes. Data collected here remains until after Indexing occurs and all Callbacks are executed.

    data/index/
        A subset of the collected data, containing any v1 Index Files.

    data/content/
        A subset of the collected data, containing any v1 CMake Content Files.

    data/trace/
        A subset of the collected data, containing the Google Trace File created from the most recent Indexing. Unlike other data files, the most recent trace file remains even after Indexing occurs and all Callbacks are executed, until the next time Indexing occurs.

    cdash/
        Holds temporary files used internally to generate XML content to be submitted to CDash.

  Data Version

The data version specifies the contents of the output files generated by the API v1 as part of the Data Collection and Indexing processes.

v1 Query Files, or a cmake_instrumentation() <#command:cmake_instrumentation> invocation, should request a specific Data Version, and v1 Data Files of the corresponding version will be generated and sent to the user Callbacks defined in that query.

Currently, the only supported version is 1.0. A new major version number will be created whenever previously included data is removed or reformatted such that scripts written to parse this data may become incompatible with the new format. A new minor version number will be created whenever new data becomes available.

  v1 Query Files

Any file with the .json extension under the instrumentation/v1/query/ directory is recognized as a query for instrumentation data.

These files must contain a JSON object with the following keys. The version key is required, but all other fields are optional.

    version
        The Data Version of snippet files to generate.

        In query files, this may be specified either as an integer major version or as an object with major and minor members. For example, 1 and { "major": 1, "minor": 0 } both request version 1.0. Specifying a minor version is optional. CMake will always generate instrumentation data for the most recent minor version, even if an earlier minor version is requested.

        Currently, the only supported version is 1.0. Query files with an unknown data version will be ignored.

    callbacks
        A list of command-line strings for Callbacks to handle collected instrumentation data. Whenever these callbacks are executed, the full path to a v1 Index File is appended to the arguments included in the string.

    hooks
        A list of strings specifying when Indexing should occur automatically. These are the intervals when instrumentation data should be collated and user Callbacks should be invoked to handle the data. Elements in this list should be one of the following:

        •   postGenerate

        •   preBuild (called when ninja or make is invoked)

        •   postBuild (called when ninja or make completes)

        •   preCMakeBuild (called when cmake --build <#cmdoption-cmake-build> is invoked)

        •   postCMakeBuild (called when cmake --build <#cmdoption-cmake-build> completes)

        •   postCMakeInstall

        •   postCMakeWorkflow

        •   postCTest

    preBuild and postBuild are not supported when using the MSYS Makefiles <#generator:MSYS Makefiles> or FASTBuild <#generator:FASTBuild> generators. Additionally, they will not be triggered when the build tool is invoked by cmake --build <#cmdoption-cmake-build>.

    options
        A list of strings used to enable certain optional behavior, including the collection of certain additional data. Elements in this list should be one of the following:

                staticSystemInformation
                    Enables collection of the static information about the host machine CMake is being run from. This data is collected during Indexing and is included in the generated v1 Index File.

                dynamicSystemInformation
                    Enables collection of the dynamic information about the host machine CMake is being run from. Data is collected for every v1 Snippet File generated by CMake, and includes information from immediately before and after the command is executed.

                cdashSubmit
                    Enables including instrumentation data in CDash. This is equivalent to having the CTEST_USE_INSTRUMENTATION <#envvar:CTEST_USE_INSTRUMENTATION> environment variable enabled.

                cdashVerbose
                    Enables including the full untruncated commands in data submitted to CDash. Equivalent to having the CTEST_USE_VERBOSE_INSTRUMENTATION <#envvar:CTEST_USE_VERBOSE_INSTRUMENTATION> and CTEST_USE_INSTRUMENTATION <#envvar:CTEST_USE_INSTRUMENTATION> environment variables enabled.

                trace
                    Enables generation of a Google Trace File during Indexing to visualize data from the v1 Snippet Files collected.

The callbacks listed will be invoked during the specified hooks at a minimum. When there are multiple query files, the callbacks, hooks and options between them will be merged. Therefore, if any query file includes any hooks, every callback across all query files will be executed at every hook across all query files. Additionally, if any query file requests optional data using the options field, any related data will be present in all snippet files. User written callbacks should be able to handle the presence of this optional data, since it may be requested by an unrelated query.

The JSON format is described in machine-readable form by this JSON schema.

Example:

            {
              "version": 1,
              "callbacks": [
                "/usr/bin/python callback.py",
                "/usr/bin/cmake -P callback.cmake arg",
              ],
              "hooks": [
                "postCMakeBuild",
                "postCMakeInstall"
              ],
              "options": [
                "staticSystemInformation",
                "dynamicSystemInformation",
                "cdashSubmit",
                "trace"
              ]
            }

In this example, after every cmake --build <#cmdoption-cmake-build> or cmake --install <#cmdoption-cmake-install> invocation, an index file index-<timestamp>.json will be generated in <build>/.cmake/instrumentation/v1/data/index containing a list of data snippet files created since the previous indexing. The commands /usr/bin/python callback.py index-<timestamp>.json and /usr/bin/cmake -P callback.cmake arg index-<timestamp>.json will be executed in that order. The index file will contain the staticSystemInformation data and each snippet file listed in the index will contain the dynamicSystemInformation data. Additionally, the index file will contain the path to the generated Google Trace File. Once both callbacks have completed, the index file and data files listed by it (including snippet files, but not the trace file) will be deleted from the project build tree. The instrumentation data will be present in the XML files submitted to CDash, but with truncated command strings because cdashVerbose was not enabled.

  v1 Data Files

There are four types of data files generated as part of API v1: the v1 Snippet File, v1 Index File, v1 CMake Content File, and the Google Trace File. These files live in <build>/.cmake/instrumentation/v1/data/ under the project build tree.

Note that the v1 delineation of these files refers to the API v1. The Data Version of these files is specified with a version field as part of the file contents.

  v1 Snippet File

Snippet files are generated for every compile, link and custom command invoked as part of the CMake build or install step and contain instrumentation data about the command executed. Additionally, snippet files are created for the following:

    •   The CMake configure step

    •   The CMake generate step

    •   Entire build step (executed with cmake --build <#cmdoption-cmake-build>)

    •   Entire install step (executed with cmake --install <#cmdoption-cmake-install>)

    •   Each time ctest <#manual:ctest(1)> is invoked to run tests <#run-tests> (even if no tests are found)

    •   Each individual test executed by ctest <#manual:ctest(1)>

These files remain in the build tree until after Indexing occurs and any user-specified Callbacks are executed.

Note:
        Configure and generate snippet files are not written by CMake until the generate step is complete. When using cmake-gui(1) <#manual:cmake-gui(1)> or ccmake(1) <#manual:ccmake(1)>, triggering only configure step(s) without generating the project files will not generate any configure snippets. Once the generate step is run, there will be one configure snippet for each time the configure step was run.

Snippet files have a filename with the syntax <role>-<hash>-<timestamp>.json and contain the following data:

            version
                The Data Version of the snippet file. Currently the version is always { "major": 1, "minor": 0 }.

            command
                The full command executed. Excluded when role is build.

            workingDir
                The working directory in which the command was executed.

            result
                The exit code of the command, an integer. This will be null when role is build.

            role
                The type of command executed, which will be one of the following values:

                •   configure: the CMake configure step

                •   generate: the CMake generate step

                •   compile: an individual compile step invoked during the build

                •   link: an individual link step invoked during the build

                •   custom: an individual custom command invoked during the build

                •   build: a complete make or ninja invocation (not through cmake --build <#cmdoption-cmake-build>).

                •   cmakeBuild: a complete cmake --build <#cmdoption-cmake-build> invocation

                •   cmakeInstall: a complete cmake --install <#cmdoption-cmake-install> invocation

                •   install: an individual cmake -P cmake_install.cmake invocation

                •   ctest: a complete ctest <#manual:ctest(1)> command invocation

                •   test: a single test executed by ctest <#manual:ctest(1)>

            target
                The CMake target associated with the command. Only included when role is compile or link, or when role is custom and the custom command is attached to a target with add_custom_command(TARGET) <#target>. In conjunction with cmakeContent, this can be used to look up the target TYPE <#prop_tgt:TYPE> and LABELS <#prop_tgt:LABELS>.

            timeStart
                Time at which the command started, expressed as the number of milliseconds since the system epoch.

            duration
                The duration that the command ran for, expressed in milliseconds.

            outputs
                The command's output file(s), an array. Only included when role is one of: compile, link, custom.

            outputSizes
                The size(s) in bytes of the outputs, an array. For files which do not exist, the size is 0. Included under the same conditions as the outputs field.

            source
                The source file being compiled. Only included when role is compile.

            language
                The language of the source file being compiled. Only included when role is compile or link.

            testName
                The name of the test being executed. Only included when role is test.

            config
                The Build Configuration <#build-configurations>, such as Release or Debug. Only included when role is one of: compile, link, custom, install, test.

            dynamicSystemInformation
                Specifies the dynamic information collected about the host machine CMake is being run from. Data is collected for every snippet file generated by CMake, with data immediately before and after the command is executed. Only included when enabled by the v1 Query Files.

                beforeHostMemoryUsed
                    The Host Memory Used in KiB at timeStart.

                afterHostMemoryUsed
                    The Host Memory Used in KiB at timeStart + duration.

                beforeCPULoadAverage
                    The Average CPU Load at timeStart, or null if it cannot be determined.

                afterCPULoadAverage
                    The Average CPU Load at timeStart + duration, or null if it cannot be determined.

            cmakeContent
                The path to a v1 CMake Content File located under data, which contains information about the CMake configure and generate steps responsible for generating the command in this snippet. When using cmake-gui(1) <#manual:cmake-gui(1)> or ccmake(1) <#manual:ccmake(1)>, this field may be null for all configure steps up to the most recent one before the generate step.

            showOnly
                A boolean representing whether the --show-only <#cmdoption-ctest-N> option was passed to ctest <#manual:ctest(1)>. Only included when role is ctest.

Example:

            {
              "version": {
                "major": 1,
                "minor": 0
              },
              "command" : "\"/usr/bin/c++\" \"-MD\" \"-MT\" \"CMakeFiles/main.dir/main.cxx.o\" \"-MF\" \"CMakeFiles/main.dir/main.cxx.o.d\" \"-o\" \"CMakeFiles/main.dir/main.cxx.o\" \"-c\" \"<src>/main.cxx\"",
              "role" : "compile",
              "result" : 1,
              "target": "main",
              "language" : "C++",
              "outputs" : [ "CMakeFiles/main.dir/main.cxx.o" ],
              "outputSizes" : [ 0 ],
              "source" : "<src>/main.cxx",
              "config" : "Debug",
              "dynamicSystemInformation" :
              {
                "afterCPULoadAverage" : 2.3500000000000001,
                "afterHostMemoryUsed" : 6635680.0
                "beforeCPULoadAverage" : 2.3500000000000001,
                "beforeHostMemoryUsed" : 6635832.0
              },
              "timeStart" : 1737053448177,
              "duration" : 31,
              "cmakeContent" : "content/cmake-2025-07-11T12-46-32-0572.json"
            }

  v1 Index File

Index files contain a list of v1 Snippet Files. It serves as an entry point for navigating the instrumentation data. They are generated whenever Indexing occurs and deleted after any user-specified Callbacks are executed.

    version
        The Data Version of the index file. Currently this is always written as: { "major": 1, "minor": 0 }.

    buildDir
        The build directory of the CMake project.

    dataDir
        The full path to the <build>/.cmake/instrumentation/v1/data/ directory.

    hook
        The name of the hook responsible for generating the index file. In addition to the hooks that can be specified by one of the v1 Query Files, this value may be set to manual if indexing is performed by invoking ctest --collect-instrumentation <#cmdoption-ctest-collect-instrumentation>.

        Note that the hook is not directly tied to what data may be available. A postBuild hook, for example, may include test or install snippets, if these steps were run since the previous indexing.

    snippets
        Contains a list of v1 Snippet Files. This includes all snippet files generated since the previous index file was created. The file paths are relative to dataDir.

        This list may be empty if indexing was run twice in succession, such as when building multiple times with both the preBuild and postBuild hooks enabled.

    trace
        Contains the path to the Google Trace File. This includes data from all corresponding snippets in the index file. The file path is relative to dataDir. Only included when enabled by the v1 Query Files.

    staticSystemInformation
        Specifies the static information collected about the host machine CMake is being run from. If CMake is unable to determine the value of any given field, it will be null. See cmake_host_system_information() <#command:cmake_host_system_information> for a description of each of the following fields.

        Only included when enabled by the v1 Query Files.

        •   OSName

        •   OSPlatform

        •   OSRelease

        •   OSVersion

        •   familyId

        •   hostname

        •   is64Bits

        •   modelId

        •   modelName

        •   numberOfLogicalCPU

        •   numberOfPhysicalCPU

        •   processorAPICID

        •   processorCacheSize

        •   processorClockFrequency

        •   processorName

        •   totalPhysicalMemory

        •   totalVirtualMemory

        •   vendorID

        •   vendorString

Example:

            {
              "version": {
                "major": 1,
                "minor": 0
              },
              "hook": "manual",
              "buildDir": "<build>",
              "dataDir": "<build>/.cmake/instrumentation/v1/data",
              "snippets": [
                "configure-<hash>-<timestamp>.json",
                "generate-<hash>-<timestamp>.json",
                "compile-<hash>-<timestamp>.json",
                "compile-<hash>-<timestamp>.json",
                "link-<hash>-<timestamp>.json",
                "install-<hash>-<timestamp>.json",
                "ctest-<hash>-<timestamp>.json",
                "test-<hash>-<timestamp>.json",
                "test-<hash>-<timestamp>.json",
              ],
              "trace": "trace/trace-<timestamp>.json"
            }

  v1 CMake Content File

CMake content files contain information about the CMake configure and generate steps. Each v1 Snippet File provides the path to one of these files corresponding to the CMake invocation responsible for generating its command.

Each CMake content file contains the following:

            version
                The Data Version of the content file. Currently the version is always { "major": 1, "minor": 0 }.

            project
                The value of CMAKE_PROJECT_NAME <#variable:CMAKE_PROJECT_NAME>.

            custom
                An object containing arbitrary JSON data specified by the user with the Custom CMake Content <#cmake-instrumentation-custom-content> functionality of the cmake_instrumentation() <#command:cmake_instrumentation> command.

            targets
                An object containing CMake targets, indexed by name, that have corresponding instrumentation data. Each target contains the following:

                type
                    The TYPE <#prop_tgt:TYPE> property of the target. Only EXECUTABLE, STATIC_LIBRARY, SHARED_LIBRARY, MODULE_LIBRARY and OBJECT_LIBRARY targets are included.

                labels
                    The LABELS <#prop_tgt:LABELS> property of the target.

  Google Trace File

CMake can generate a file in the Google Trace Event Format <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CvAClvFfyA5R-PhYUmn5OOQtYMH4h6I0nSsKchNAySU/preview> to help visualize collected instrumentation data. Enabling the trace option in the v1 Query Files causes such a file to be generated under <build>/.cmake/instrumentation/v1/data/trace whenever Indexing occurs.

Generated trace files include data from all v1 Snippet Files listed in the current index file.

When instrumentation data is deleted by CMake after Indexing, the most recent trace file remains so that it can be manually inspected without the need for any custom Callbacks.

Trace files are stored in the JSON Array Format, where each v1 Snippet File corresponds to a single trace event object. Each trace event contains the following data:

    name
        A descriptive name generated by CMake based on the given snippet data.

    cat The role from the v1 Snippet File.

    ph  Currently, always "X" to represent "Complete Events".

    ts  The timeStart from the v1 Snippet File, converted from milliseconds to microseconds.

    dur The duration from the v1 Snippet File, converted from milliseconds to microseconds.

    pid Unused (always zero).

    tid An integer ranging from zero to the number of concurrent jobs with which the processes being indexed ran. This is a synthetic ID calculated by CMake based on the ts and dur of all snippet files being indexed in order to produce a more useful visualization of the process concurrency.

    args
        Contains all data from the v1 Snippet File corresponding to this trace event.

Copyright
2000-2026 Kitware, Inc. and Contributors