Cmake error: Invalid escape sequence \U

Question

While running my OpenCL code in VC++ 10 by using CMake I am getting the following error:

CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:6 (set): Syntax error in cmake code at
C:/Users/Shreedhar/Desktop/testCL/CMakeLists.txt:6

when parsing string
C:\Users\Shreedhar\Desktop\test_CL\CMakeLists
Invalid escape sequence \U

score 51 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 06 '12 at 10:54

51

Use forward slashes / in your paths

C:/Users/Shreedhar/Desktop/test_CL/CMakeLists

answered Dec 06 '12 at 10:54

Simon

31,675
9
80
92

4

Or escape the backslashes: `C:\\Users\\Shreedhar\\Desktop\\test_CL\\CMakeLists` – Fraser Dec 06 '12 at 18:54
In a lot of cases you could also use quotes. Most of the time I just use slashes instead of backslashes and avoid this. – drescherjm Dec 06 '12 at 19:19
2

Really confused where to change the path.I'm using `camke gui` on `windows ` it just get the path by selecting,not by typing. – Shihe Zhang May 13 '17 at 03:22
2

In Windows, one should be able to give paths to CMake using backslashes. What would fix this is if the project defined a variable properly with type PATH and assigned the path there. If CMake knows it has a path, it can do backslash conversion automatically. – jmalmari May 09 '18 at 13:50

score 18 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 17 '15 at 16:04

18

If you are reading user input like environment variables then you'll need to do this by character replacement feature of string method.

string(REPLACE "\\" "/" outputVar ${_inputVar})

answered Feb 17 '15 at 16:04

Baris Demiray

1,539
24
35

3

Why it no to do cmake automaticaly? – 23W Nov 25 '16 at 15:28
How does one do this when the value is a parameter... for example: `MACRO(foobar input) string(REPLACE "\\" "/" output ${input}) ENDMACRO()` doesn't work. It gives the parse error. I know we can do it at the calling point, but that is often inefficient – John Rocha Oct 24 '19 at 00:06

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 04 '17 at 14:29

For those who receive this error under Windows:

CMake Error at C:/Dev/cmake/share/cmake-3.8/Modules/FindBoost.cmake:903 (list):
Syntax error in cmake code at
C:/Dev/cmake/share/cmake-3.8/Modules/FindBoost.cmake:903
when parsing string
C:\Dev\mongodb\src\boost/lib${_arch_suffix}-msvc-15.0
Invalid character escape '\D'. Call Stack (most recent call first): C:/Dev/cmake/share/cmake-3.8/Modules/FindBoost.cmake:1379 (_Boost_UPDATE_WINDOWS_LIBRARY_SEARCH_DIRS_WITH_PREBUILT_PATHS)
src/bsoncxx/CMakeLists.txt:100 (find_package)

Don't set the BOOST_ROOT environment variable to a backslash-ended value.

I meet the same error,however the solution doesn't fix it. – Shihe Zhang May 13 '17 at 03:15 — Shihe Zhang, May 13 '17 at 03:15

Cmake error: Invalid escape sequence \U

3 Answers3

Linked