If you are ROS developer, then there might a time, you need to write a wrapper for a library but requires a higher version of CMake coming with ROS. In this situation, removing CMake with apt-get remove or apt purge will remove all the packages CMake depends which includes ROS packages.

Instead, you need to install another CMake with preferred version and override the old version. Here are the steps:

  • 1-) Download the required CMake version. (Try to download source file since they include Bootstrap and CMakeLists.txt) 
    $ wget https://github.com/Kitware/CMake/releases/download/v3.25.2/cmake-3.25.2.tar.gz
  • 2-) Since you are already have an existing CMake, we can use system CMake to build the new CMake 
    $ Unzip the downloaded CMake file (name might differ depending on the version)
$ tar -xf cmake-3.25.2.tar.gz 
$ cd cmake-3.25.2/ 
$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$HOME/cmake-install . 
$ make 
$ make install
  • 3-) If you do not have CMake installed your system, you can use Bootstrap. Only follow this step if Step 2 does not work for you!
    • Install bootstrap if it is not installed on your system 
        $ # I will use yarn, but feel free to use any other method you find online
  $ curl -sS https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
  $ echo "deb https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list
  $ apt-get update && apt-get install -y yarn 
  $ yarn add bootstrap
    • Install CMake with bootstrap 
        $ tar -xf cmake-3.25.2.tar.gz 
  $ cd cmake-3.25.2/ \
  $ ./bootstrap --prefix=$HOME/cmake-install 
  $ make 
  $ make install
  • 4-) Now, it is time to update CMake Paths in bashrc so that by default we will use the upgraded CMake. 
    $ echo "PATH=$HOME/cmake-install/bin:$PATH" >> ~/.bashrc
$ echo "CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$HOME/cmake-install:$CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH" >> ~/.bashrc
  • 5-) Congrats you are done. Do not forget to source bashrc before using CMake. 
    $ source ~/.bashrc

NOTE: If you want to use the old CMake, make sure that you removed $HOME/cmake-install from PATH as well as CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH.

I hope this helps someone to save time :)