How to get / install latest cmake version?

The most common situation is when you want to install the latest version of cmake, but your Operating System's repositories are not updated. For example, in my case I have a laptop running Ubuntu 16.04, and when I executed the command sudo apt install cmake the installed version was 3.5.1; instead of 3.19.1 which is the current version at cmake.org.

How can I get the latest version?

Well, we can install it by following one of these methods: Building and Installing or Using binary files.

A. Building and Installing (recommended)

A-1. Uninstall the default version provided by Ubuntu's package manager and configuration by using:

sudo apt remove --purge --auto-remove cmake

or:

sudo apt purge --auto-remove cmake

A-2. Go to the official CMake webpage, then download and extract the latest version. Update the version and build variables in the following command to get the desired version:

version=3.19
build=1
mkdir ~/temp
cd ~/temp
wget https://cmake.org/files/v$version/cmake-$version.$build.tar.gz
tar -xzvf cmake-$version.$build.tar.gz
cd cmake-$version.$build/

A-3. Install the extracted source by running:

./bootstrap
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

A-4. Test your new cmake version.

$ cmake --version

Results of cmake --version:

cmake version 3.19.X

CMake suite maintained and supported by Kitware (kitware.com/cmake).

B. Using binary files (cmake-gui wont work well)

B-1. Uninstall the default version provided by Ubuntu's package manager as in A-1.

B-2. Go to the official CMake webpage, then download and install the latest .sh version in opt/cmake. Update the version and build variables in the following command to get the desired version:

version=3.19
build=1
mkdir ~/temp
cd ~/temp
wget https://cmake.org/files/v$version/cmake-$version.$build-Linux-x86_64.sh 
sudo mkdir /opt/cmake
sudo sh cmake-$version.$build-Linux-x86_64.sh --prefix=/opt/cmake

B-3. Add the installed binary link to /usr/local/bin/cmake by running this:

sudo ln -s /opt/cmake/bin/cmake /usr/local/bin/cmake

B-4. Test your new cmake version as in A-4.

Note

In 3.19.X the X represents the last part of the version that we defined as build. The build may change if cmake is updated. According to the official web page the Latest Release is 3.19.1. If you want the Previous Release 3.18.5 just replace the version and build parameters like this:

version=3.18
build=5