CMake can print to “stderr” pipe cleanly like:

message(NOTICE "this message is on stderr pipe")

However, printing cleanly without “–” leading message requires a workaround:

execute_process(COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E echo "this message is on stdout pipe")

NOTE: Another technique that does NOT work in general for stdout is to print the invisible carriage return character. This only works visibly on the Terminal but if piping CMake stdout to another shell command does NOT work in general.

# don't do this, only works for printed shell, doesn't work for stdout pipe

string(ASCII 13 cr)
message(STATUS "${cr}  ${cr}No dashes visible, but stdout pipe is messed up")