In CMake if you don’t specify a build type explicitly, the build will use neither Debug nor Release compilation flags. I was writing my own Makefile for a simple program and realized there is no reason to generate a binary with no flags – I either want the debug build for development or release build for deployment. I don’t see a use-case for anything else.

Is this design decision in CMake motivated by an actual practice in software development of creating builds that are neither Debug nor Release or is it a mistake to not specify a default build type in a CMake project in CMakeLists.txt?