diff --git a/Source/cmGeneratorExpressionEvaluator.cxx b/Source/cmGeneratorExpressionEvaluator.cxx
index acc844a39..9f84ed279 100644
--- a/Source/cmGeneratorExpressionEvaluator.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmGeneratorExpressionEvaluator.cxx
@@ -299,7 +299,7 @@ struct TargetFilesystemArtifact : public cmGeneratorExpressionNode
     std::string name = *parameters.begin();
 
     cmsys::RegularExpression targetValidator;
-    targetValidator.compile("^[A-Za-z0-9_]+$");
+    targetValidator.compile("^[A-Za-z0-9_.-]+$");
     if (!targetValidator.find(name.c_str()))
       {
       ::reportError(context, content->GetOriginalExpression(),
diff --git a/Source/cmGeneratorExpressionParser.cxx b/Source/cmGeneratorExpressionParser.cxx
index 2a5cc7aae..d3c4aa38b 100644
--- a/Source/cmGeneratorExpressionParser.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmGeneratorExpressionParser.cxx
@@ -127,6 +127,11 @@ void cmGeneratorExpressionParser::ParseGeneratorExpression(
         parameters.resize(parameters.size() + 1);
         ++this->it;
         }
+      if (this->it->TokenType == cmGeneratorExpressionToken::ColonSeparator)
+        {
+        extendText(*(parameters.end() - 1), this->it);
+        ++this->it;
+        }
       if (this->it == this->Tokens.end())
         {
         break;