[CMake] How to emulate autotools "make check"?

[Marcel Loose]

Hi all,

I've been searching for a way to implement "make check" the GNU
Autotools way. That is: tests are not compiled and linked as part of the
"all" target, but as part of the "check" target.

I followed section 10.5 "Using CTest to Drive Complex Tests" of the book
"Mastering CMake" and I looked at the Tests directory of the CMake
distribution. From that I created my little toy project "Hello".

Now the problem is: it doesn't work. For details, see below.

It appears that ctest is running cmake (again), but it doesn't read the
CMakeLists.txt files (should it?). Hence, I get all kind of warnings,
like "No cmake_minimum_required command is present." And then, ctest
fails, because it cannot find the executable "t_hello", which should
have been built by ctest. At least, it is my understanding that it
should have been built, since that was the purpose of using this complex
add_test() statement.

Could someone explain what I'm doing wrong?
Many thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Marcel Loose.


Details follow:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ cd hello

$ cat CMakeLists.txt
project(Hello)
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.6)
include(CTest)
add_subdirectory(src)
add_subdirectory(test)

$ cat src/CMakeLists.txt
include_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
add_library(hello STATIC hello.cc)
add_executable(main main.cc)
target_link_libraries(main hello)

$ cat test/CMakeLists.txt
include_directories(${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src)
add_test(t_hello ${CMAKE_CTEST_COMMAND}
  --build-and-test
  "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}"
  "${CMAKE_BINARY_SOURCE_DIR}"
  --build-generator ${CMAKE_GENERATOR}
  --build-makeprogram ${CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM}
  --build-project t_hello
  --test-command t_hello)

$ cd build

$ cmake ..
-- The C compiler identification is GNU
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/gcc
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/gcc -- works
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++ -- works
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- CTest cannot determine repository type. Please set UPDATE_TYPE to
'cvs' or 'svn'. CTest update will not work.
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /export/home/loose/work/hello/build

$ ctest -V
UpdateCTestConfiguration
from :/export/home/loose/work/hello/build/DartConfiguration.tcl
Parse Config
file:/export/home/loose/work/hello/build/DartConfiguration.tcl
Start processing tests
UpdateCTestConfiguration
from :/export/home/loose/work/hello/build/DartConfiguration.tcl
Parse Config
file:/export/home/loose/work/hello/build/DartConfiguration.tcl
Test project /export/home/loose/work/hello/build
Constructing a list of tests
Done constructing a list of tests
Changing directory into /export/home/loose/work/hello/build/test
  1/  1 Testing t_hello
Test command: /usr/bin/ctest
--build-and-test /export/home/loose/work/hello/test  --build-generator
Unix\ Makefiles --build-makeprogram /usr/bin/gmake --build-project
t_hello --test-command t_hello
Test timeout computed to be: 1500
Could not find executable t_hello
Looked in the following places:
t_hello
t_hello
Release/t_hello
Release/t_hello
Debug/t_hello
Debug/t_hello
MinSizeRel/t_hello
MinSizeRel/t_hello
RelWithDebInfo/t_hello
RelWithDebInfo/t_hello
Deployment/t_hello
Deployment/t_hello
Development/t_hello
Development/t_hello
Internal cmCTest object used to run test.
Internal cmake changing into
directory: /export/home/loose/work/hello/build/test
======== CMake output     ======
The C compiler identification is GNU
The CXX compiler identification is GNU
Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/gcc
Configuring
Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/gcc -- works
Detecting C compiler ABI info
Configuring
Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++
Configuring
Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++ -- works
Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
Configuring
Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
CMake Warning (dev) in CMakeLists.txt:
  No cmake_minimum_required command is present.  A line of code such as

    cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.6)

  should be added at the top of the file.  The version specified may be
lower
  if you wish to support older CMake versions for this project.  For
more
  information run "cmake --help-policy CMP0000".
This warning is for project developers.  Use -Wno-dev to suppress it.

Configuring
Configuring done
Generating
Generating done
Build files have been written
to: /export/home/loose/work/hello/build/test
======== End CMake output ======
Change Dir: /export/home/loose/work/hello/build/test

Run Clean Command:/usr/bin/gmake "clean"
gmake[1]: *** No rule to make target `clean'.  Stop.
gmake: *** [clean] Error 2

Run Build Command:/usr/bin/gmake
Could not find path to executable, perhaps it was not built: t_hello
tried to find it in these places:

t_hello
t_hello
Release/t_hello
Release/t_hello
Debug/t_hello
Debug/t_hello
MinSizeRel/t_hello
MinSizeRel/t_hello
RelWithDebInfo/t_hello
RelWithDebInfo/t_hello
Deployment/t_hello
Deployment/t_hello
Development/t_hello
Development/t_hello

***Failed

0% tests passed, 1 tests failed out of 1

The following tests FAILED:
          1 - t_hello (Failed)
Errors while running CTest