How to upgrade cmake on Ubuntu (Linux)?

In bioinformatics, cmake is used to install multiple software including GROMACS, jdock, and so on. Here is a short tutorial on how to upgrade cmake on Ubuntu and get rid of the previous version.

Update and upgrade your system first.

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get upgrade

Now check what version you have

$ cmake --version

Currently, I have 3.16. We will remove this version and then install the latest one.

Now remove this version using the following command:

$ sudo apt remove cmake -y

Let’s install the latest version.

$ pip3 install cmake --upgrade

Now check

$ cmake --version

It should display the latest version.

However, if you still see the previous version or get any error such as “could not find cmake_root !!!” like this:

CMake Error: Could not find CMAKE_ROOT !!!
CMake has most likely not been installed correctly.
Modules directory not found in
/home/user/.local/share/cmake-3.16
cmake version 3.16.3

In this case, clear the cache.

$ hash -r

Now check the version again, it should work.

$ cmake --version