Override CMake-generated compiler flags

Readme.md

Override CMake automatic compiler flags

CMake outputs compiler flag defaults based on project build settings, compiler, operating system, etc. These default compiler flags can be overriden by appending one's own compiler flags later in the command line. To observe this, build this example like:

cmake -Bbuild

cmake --build build -v

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.10)

project(foo LANGUAGES C)

set(CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS ON)

# use add_compile_options() instead of setting CMAKE_C_FLAGS to ensure the user flags come last,
# that is the user flags take precedence
add_compile_options(
"$<$<COMPILE_LANGUAGE:C>:-Ofast;-march=native;-ftree-vectorize>"
)

file(GENERATE OUTPUT main.c CONTENT "int main() { return 0; }")

add_executable(main ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/main.c)