[Development] Proposal to raise the minimum CMake version needed to build and use Qt 6.9

[Bogdan Vatra]

Hi,

  Just out of curiosity, what are the features added to cmake 3.26 that makes 
it so much better than 3.25 and which Qt really needs?

Cheers,
BogDan.

În ziua de miercuri, 13 noiembrie 2024, la 17:04:15 EET, Alexandru Croitor via 
Development a scris:
> > On 13. Nov 2024, at 16:01, Alexandru Croitor <alexandru.croitor at qt.io> 
wrote:
> >> On 13. Nov 2024, at 15:38, Sune Vuorela <nospam at vuorela.dk> wrote:
> >> 
> >> On 2024-11-13, Alexandru Croitor via Development <development at qt-
project.org> wrote:
> >>> Which debian stable version are you using?
> >> 
> >> Debian stable is debian 12. It ships with 3.25.
> >> 
> >>> Is it unreasonable to ask to install cmake from one of those official
> >>> repos?>> 
> >> Backports are not part of stable, so yes, I would consider that is
> >> unreasonable.> 
> > Do you consider it unreasonable due to backports being 'backports', so not
> > 'stable', thus you are completely against installing any software from
> > there?
> > 
> > Or is it more specific that you think that the backports-provided cmake
> > will not be stable enough for building software?
> > 
> > CMake is generally very good in regards to compatibility and building
> > older and newer projects.
> > 
> > While I can relate to the 'only-use-stable' sentiment, I think it's
> > somewhat too harsh of a requirement in this case.
> > 
> > Enforcing a lower cmake version requirement just for development work,
> > when the specific debian versions will not be used for building /
> > shipping / packaging Qt 6.9 for the larger open source community, seems a
> > bit of an uneven trade-off.
> > 
> > Especially when it's easy to just install a specific standalone
> > kitware-provided cmake binary into a custom location, and use that only
> > for specific projects.
> 
> I will also point out that we likely won't be raising the cmake version in
> the coming years after this.
> 
> At the same time, debian 13 will release sometime mid-2025? with a newer
> cmake version.
> 
> So maybe half a year of using a non-stable easily-acquirable cmake for
> development work isn't too much to ask?