diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index af9a8c4db6c0983690b7692d63bc16fe90e33ea8..89b8d4b064e087ba3c653bdbdf0e85e69e5b7d0f 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -99,9 +99,8 @@ endif()
 #######################################################
 
 if("${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}" MATCHES "Debug")
+    enable_testing()
     add_subdirectory(test)
-    set_target_properties(caosdb PROPERTIES
-        COMPILE_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} ${COVERAGE_COMPILER_FLAGS}")
 endif()
 
 ####################################################################
diff --git a/test/CMakeLists.txt b/test/CMakeLists.txt
index b92de1350ca495ebb594ed7d8a8b428204720071..80a98f88189a3805175fd4900dbe7b3a43404864 100644
--- a/test/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/test/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -35,10 +35,6 @@ set(_CMAKE_CXX_CLANG_TIDY_TEST_CHECKS
   "${_CMAKE_CXX_CLANG_TIDY_CHECKS},-cert-err58-cpp,-cppcoreguidelines-avoid-non-const-global-variables,-cppcoreguidelines-owning-memory,-modernize-use-trailing-return-type,-google-readability-avoid-underscore-in-googletest-name,-cppcoreguidelines-avoid-magic-numbers,-readability-magic-numbers"
 )
 
-# supress warnings during build of gtest
-cmake_policy(SET CMP0054 NEW)
-enable_testing()
-
 # add special cmake functions for gtest
 include(GoogleTest)
 
@@ -81,6 +77,8 @@ if (LCOV_PATH)
         LCOV_ARGS --rc lcov_branch_coverage=1 --no-external
         GENHTML_ARGS --rc lcov_branch_coverage=1
         )
+    set_target_properties(caosdb PROPERTIES
+        COMPILE_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} ${COVERAGE_COMPILER_FLAGS}")
 else ()
     message(WARNING "Could not generate code coverage report. Please install lcov.")
 endif ()