[question] How to generate no configuration suffix when using CMakeDeps?

When consuming targets and CMake variables generated by CMakeDeps, it generates all variables with a suffix based on its configuration:

https://github.com/conan-io/conan/blob/47353ab2e38b7cf5638dfce26d1fd2640eb2775e/conan/tools/cmake/cmakedeps/templates/__init__.py#L78

@property
def suffix(self):
    if not self.conanfile.is_build_context:
        return ""
    return self.cmakedeps.build_context_suffix.get(self.conanfile.ref.name, "")

As result, it regenerates variables like FOO_LIBS_RELEASE and foo_COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_RELEASE.

The question is, how to generate only FOO_LIBS (without build type suffix)?

We could try a workaround, forcing the CMakeDeps configuration, but fails:

def generate(self):
    deps = CMakeDeps(self)
    deps.configuration = ""
    deps.generate()

conan create . foo/0.1@

ERROR: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/uilian/.pyenv/versions/3.10.4/lib/python3.10/site-packages/conans/errors.py", line 34, in conanfile_exception_formatter
    yield
  File "/Users/uilian/.pyenv/versions/3.10.4/lib/python3.10/site-packages/conans/client/generators/__init__.py", line 253, in write_toolchain
    conanfile.generate()
  File "/Users/uilian/.conan/data/foo/0.1/_/_/export/conanfile.py", line 16, in generate
    tc.generate()
  File "/Users/uilian/.pyenv/versions/3.10.4/lib/python3.10/site-packages/conan/tools/cmake/cmakedeps/cmakedeps.py", line 46, in generate
    generator_files = self.content
  File "/Users/uilian/.pyenv/versions/3.10.4/lib/python3.10/site-packages/conan/tools/cmake/cmakedeps/cmakedeps.py", line 88, in content
    self._generate_files(require, dep, ret, find_module_mode=False)
  File "/Users/uilian/.pyenv/versions/3.10.4/lib/python3.10/site-packages/conan/tools/cmake/cmakedeps/cmakedeps.py", line 101, in _generate_files
    ret[data_target.filename] = data_target.render()
  File "/Users/uilian/.pyenv/versions/3.10.4/lib/python3.10/site-packages/conan/tools/cmake/cmakedeps/templates/target_data.py", line 20, in filename
    data_fname += "{}-{}".format(self.file_name, self.configuration.lower())
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'lower'

Some projects use LIBS instead of LIBRARIES and have been working so far, and forcing to patch only because Conan uses target multi feature sounds a bit aggressive.

/cc @ericLemanissier

• I’ve read the CONTRIBUTING guide.

[ericLemanissier]

Thanks for the report. cf https://github.com/conan-io/conan-center-index/pull/13228 for an example of actual failure caused by this issue

[ericLemanissier]

re-ping @jcar87 do you need more information ?