Set CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS options using CMake

The easiest solution working fine for me is this:

export CFLAGS=-ggdb
export CXXFLAGS=-ggdb

CMake will append them to all configurations' flags. Just make sure to clear CMake cache.

You need to set the flags after the project command in your CMakeLists.txt.

Also, if you're calling include(${QT_USE_FILE}) or add_definitions(${QT_DEFINITIONS}), you should include these set commands after the Qt ones since these would append further flags. If that is the case, you maybe just want to append your flags to the Qt ones, so change to e.g.

set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -O0 -ggdb")

You must change the cmake C/CXX default FLAGS .

According to CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE={DEBUG/MINSIZEREL/RELWITHDEBINFO/RELEASE} put in the main CMakeLists.txt one of :

For C

set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_DEBUG "put your flags")
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_MINSIZEREL "put your flags")
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_RELWITHDEBINFO "put your flags")
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_RELEASE "put your flags")

For C++

set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "put your flags")
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_MINSIZEREL "put your flags")
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELWITHDEBINFO "put your flags")
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE "put your flags")

This will override the values defined in CMakeCache.txt