cmake 3.x policy CMP0002 forbids same target name to be defined several times. But the 30 po/*/CMakeList.txt files do it, so allow it or patch each. Error message was: dules/FindGettext.cmake:232 (ADD_CUSTOM_TARGET): add_custom_target cannot create target "pofiles" because another target with the same name already exists. The existing target is a custom target created in source directory "/builddir/kdevelop-4.7.3/po/fi". See documentation for policy CMP0002 for more details. Call Stack (most recent call first): po/gl/CMakeLists.txt:2 (GETTEXT_PROCESS_PO_FILES) --- CMakeLists.txt.orig 2016-01-22 19:20:15.000000000 +0100 +++ CMakeLists.txt 2016-04-15 10:41:04.185750138 +0200 @@ -91,4 +91,6 @@ configure_file(${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/CTestCustom.cmake ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/CTestCustom.cmake) include(MacroOptionalAddSubdirectory) +set_property(GLOBAL + PROPERTY ALLOW_DUPLICATE_CUSTOM_TARGETS 1) macro_optional_add_subdirectory( po )