# CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE

Specifies the build type on single-configuration generators.

This statically specifies what build type (configuration) will be built in this build tree. Possible values are empty, `Debug`, `Release`, `RelWithDebInfo`, `MinSizeRel`, ... This variable is only meaningful to single-configuration generators (such as Makefile Generators and `Ninja`) i.e. those which choose a single configuration when CMake runs to generate a build tree as opposed to multi-configuration generators which offer selection of the build configuration within the generated build environment. There are many per-config properties and variables (usually following clean `SOME_VAR_<CONFIG>` order conventions), such as `CMAKE_C_FLAGS_<CONFIG>`, specified as uppercase: `CMAKE_C_FLAGS_[DEBUG|RELEASE|RELWITHDEBINFO|MINSIZEREL|...]`. For example, in a build tree configured to build type `Debug`, CMake will see to having `CMAKE_C_FLAGS_DEBUG` settings get added to the `CMAKE_C_FLAGS` settings. See also `CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES`.