CMake end of support schedule

February 22, 2025

CMake 4.0 introduced a formal end of support schedule for older CMake versions. This schedule impacts cmake_minimum_required in that a CMake project will not configure if CMAKE_POLICY_VERSION_MINIMUM is older than the minimum version of CMake that is still supported.

Practical observations of CMake projects are that projects too often have CMake minimum versions that aren’t actually usable, or set to CMake versions so old that they are difficult to run on modern computers. A good CI test is to have an old CMake version that matches cmake_minimum_required(VERSION) to see if the project actually works with such an old CMake version.

Find the date of a CMake release under Milestones.