CMake/Help/policy/CMP0102.rst

CMP0102
-------

.. versionadded:: 3.17

The :command:`mark_as_advanced` command no longer creates a cache entry if one
does not already exist.

In CMake 3.16 and below, if a variable was not defined at all or just defined
locally, the :command:`mark_as_advanced` command would create a new cache
entry with an ``UNINITIALIZED`` type and no value. When a :command:`find_path`
(or other similar ``find_`` command) would next run, it would find this
undefined cache entry and set it up with an empty string value. This process
would end up deleting the local variable in the process (due to the way the
cache works), effectively clearing any stored ``find_`` results that were only
available in the local scope.

The ``OLD`` behavior for this policy is to create the empty cache definition.
The ``NEW`` behavior of this policy is to ignore variables which do not
already exist in the cache.

This policy was introduced in CMake version 3.17.  Use the
:command:`cmake_policy` command to set it to ``OLD`` or ``NEW`` explicitly.
Unlike many policies, CMake version |release| does *not* warn
when this policy is not set and simply uses ``OLD`` behavior.  See
documentation of the :variable:`CMAKE_POLICY_WARNING_CMP0102
<CMAKE_POLICY_WARNING_CMP<NNNN>>` variable to control the warning.

.. include:: DEPRECATED.txt