Linking with `wx::core` unexpectedly does _not_ define `wxUSE_GUI=1` (Issue #26285)

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VZ

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Mar 12, 2026, 7:20:11 PM (2 days ago) Mar 12

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vadz created an issue (wxWidgets/wxWidgets#26285)

This is a dual counterpart to #26043: this time I found a problem in my project after switching it to CMake due to the fact that wxUSE_GUI is not defined as 1 any longer, when I assumed it would be.

This is especially problematic for .rc files, as they don't include any wx headers typically and I have

#if wxUSE_GUI
#define wxUSE_RC_MANIFEST 1
#define wxUSE_DPI_AWARE_MANIFEST 2

#include "wx/msw/wx.rc"
#endif

in them because I share the same file between GUI and non-GUI versions of the application.

Workaround is simple enough, of course, once you know about the problem, but shouldn't wx::core provide wxUSE_GUI=1 in its INTERFACE compile definitions? I.e. maybe apply something like this:

diff --git a/build/cmake/functions.cmake b/build/cmake/functions.cmake
index 83b4c2ca6e..55bfd7ac14 100644
--- a/build/cmake/functions.cmake
+++ b/build/cmake/functions.cmake
@@ -362,13 +362,13 @@ function(wx_set_target_properties target_name)
     # Set common compile definitions
     target_compile_definitions(${target_name} PRIVATE WXBUILDING)
     if(wxTARGET_IS_MONO AND wxUSE_GUI)
-        target_compile_definitions(${target_name} PRIVATE wxUSE_GUI=1 wxUSE_BASE=1)
+        target_compile_definitions(${target_name} PUBLIC wxUSE_GUI=1 PRIVATE wxUSE_BASE=1)
     elseif(wxTARGET_IS_PLUGIN)
         target_compile_definitions(${target_name} PRIVATE wxUSE_GUI=0 wxUSE_BASE=0)
     elseif(wxTARGET_IS_BASE OR NOT wxUSE_GUI)
         target_compile_definitions(${target_name} PRIVATE wxUSE_GUI=0 wxUSE_BASE=1)
     else()
-        target_compile_definitions(${target_name} PRIVATE wxUSE_GUI=1 wxUSE_BASE=0)
+        target_compile_definitions(${target_name} PUBLIC wxUSE_GUI=1 PRIVATE wxUSE_BASE=0)
     endif()
 
     if(MSVC)

or would this cause some problems?

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Maarten

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3:02 PM (3 hours ago) 3:02 PM

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MaartenBent left a comment (wxWidgets/wxWidgets#26285)

I think this is fine.
How did this work before CMake, because wx-config also doesn't expose this afaic?

As discussed in #26043 we can't seem to do the same as wx-config, add -DwxUSE_GUI=0 for wx::base, because wx::core and other libraries will inherit it and it will override their -DwxUSE_GUI=1.

Instead we could add a different (interface) library for that:

add_library(wxbase_only INTERFACE)
target_link_libraries(wxbase_only INTERFACE wxbase)
target_compile_definitions(wxbase_only INTERFACE wxUSE_GUI=0)
wx_install(TARGETS wxbase_only EXPORT wxWidgetsTargets)

And then, for example, this could be changed from:
https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidgets/blob/7c3e00ccbd7bd1d24adbc6717902ad8819c85b79/build/cmake/functions.cmake#L974-L980
to

if(APP_CONSOLE)
    wx_exe_link_libraries(${target_name} wxbase_only)
else()
    wx_exe_link_libraries(${target_name} wxcore)
endif()