[SOLVED] CMake does not accept MinGW compilers

Issue

I just started using CMake so I tried to build a simple hello-world project and got an error.

There is a main.cpp file, which contains this:

int main()
{
    return 0;
}

And a CMakeLists.txt, which contains this:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION "3.18.0")

project("test")

add_executable("${PROJECT_NAME}" "main.cpp")

install(TARGETS "${PROJECT_NAME}" DESTINATION bin)
install(FILES "main.cpp" DESTINATION src)

There also is a Build directory. I build the project from this directory with the following command:

cmake ..

What I eventually get is:

-- The C compiler identification is GNU 9.2.0
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 9.2.0
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - failed
-- Check for working C compiler: C:/MinGW/bin/gcc.exe
-- Check for working C compiler: C:/MinGW/bin/gcc.exe - broken
CMake Error at C:/CMake/share/cmake-3.18/Modules/CMakeTestCCompiler.cmake:66 (message):
  The C compiler

    "C:/MinGW/bin/gcc.exe"

  is not able to compile a simple test program.

  It fails with the following output:

    Change Dir: C:/Projects/trash/checking_out_cmake/Build/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp

    Run Build Command(s):C:/PROGRA~2/GnuWin32/bin/make.exe cmTC_a48fd/fast && C:/PROGRA~2/GnuWin32/bin/make.exe  -f CMakeFiles/cmTC_a48fd.dir/build.make CMakeFiles/cmTC_a48fd.dir/build
    make.exe[1]: Entering directory `C:/Projects/trash/checking_out_cmake/Build/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp'
    The system cannot find the path specified.
    make.exe[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/cmTC_a48fd.dir/testCCompiler.c.obj] Error 1
    make.exe[1]: Leaving directory `C:/Projects/trash/checking_out_cmake/Build/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp'
    make.exe: *** [cmTC_a48fd/fast] Error 2

• I have got CLion and it works just fine, so I presume this is MinGW compilers what causes the problem.
• I have also tried to reinstall the compilers but the error remains.

Solution

Be sure not to use non-Latin characters in the absolute path to your working directory. In my case it was Cyrillic "C" as the name of folder.

Answered By - Vlad Tkach