The flags function specifies build flags to modify the compiling or linking process.

flags { "flag_list" }

If a project includes multiple calls to flags the lists are concatenated, in the order in which they appear in the script.

Applies To

Solutions, projects, and configurations.

Parameters

flags_list is a list of string flag names; see below for a list of valid flags. The flag values are not case-sensitive. Flags that are not supported by a particular platform or toolset are ignored.

EnableSSE, EnableSSE2

Use the SSE instruction sets for floating point math.

ExtraWarnings

Sets the compiler's maximum warning level.

FatalWarnings

Treat warnings as errors.

FloatFast

Enable floating point optimizations at the expense of accuracy.

FloatStrict

Improve floating point consistency at the expense of performance.

Managed

Enable Managed C++ (.NET).

MFC

Enable support for Microsoft Foundation Classes.

NativeWChar, NoNativeWChar

Enable or disable support for the wchar data type. If no flag is specified, the toolset default will be used.

No64BitChecks

Disable 64-bit portability warnings.

NoEditAndContinue

Disable support for Visual Studio's Edit-and-Continue feature.

NoExceptions

Disable C++ exception support.

NoFramePointer

Disable the generation of stack frame pointers.

NoIncrementalLink

Disable support for Visual Studio's incremental linking feature.

NoImportLib

Prevent the generation of an import library for a Windows DLL.

NoManifest

Prevent the generation of a manifest for Windows executables and shared libraries.

NoMinimalRebuild

Disable Visual Studio's minimal rebuild feature.

NoPCH

Disable precompiled header support. If not specified, the toolset default behavior will be used. Also see pchheader and pchsource.

NoRTTI

Disable C++ runtime type information.

Optimize

Perform a balanced set of optimizations.

OptimizeSize

Optimize for the smallest file size.

OptimizeSpeed

Optimize for the best performance.

SEH

Enable structured exception handling.

StaticRuntime

Perform a static link against the standard runtime libraries.

Symbols

Generate debugging information.

Unicode

Enable Unicode strings. If not specified, the default toolset behavior is used.

Unsafe

Enable the use of unsafe code in .NET applications.

WinMain

Use WinMain() as the program entry point for Windows applications, rather than the default main().

If the existing flags are not sufficient, you can also pass tool-specific arguments directly to the compiler or linker using buildoptions and linkoptions.

Examples

A common configuration: enable debugging symbols in the Debug configuration, and optimize the Release configuration.

configuration "Debug"
  flags { "Symbols" }
 
configuration "Release"
  flags { "Optimize" }

You can specify multiple flags.

flags { "Symbols", "ExtraWarnings", "FatalWarnings" }