[CMake] how to define current working directory of command line tool

Michael Wild themiwi at gmail.com
Mon Oct 11 05:23:06 EDT 2010


On 11. Oct, 2010, at 11:20 , Jochen Wilhelmy wrote:

> 
>>> Hi!
>>>     
>>>>>>> Is it possible to define the current working directory of a command line
>>>>>>> tool
>>>>>>> that is built with cmake? since the build is usually out-of-source I have
>>>>>>> to set the current working directory in the ide, e.g visual studio or
>>>>>>> xcode. more convenient would be to set it in cmake.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>             
>>>>>> Do you mean in add_custom_command()/add_custom_target() ?
>>>>>> Both have an optional WORKING_DIRECTORY argument.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>           
>>>>> no, i mean add_executable. when I build and start the directory I'd like to set the
>>>>> working directory that the executable is started in.
>>>>> 
>>>>> -Jochen
>>>>> 
>>>>>         
>>>> I think that you have a misconception with respect to the concept of "working directory".
>>>> 
>>>> In a Unix-style environment, the "working directory" is determined by the "shell" command line interpreter. The actual value is determined only at execution-time. It is not something "built-in" to the executable.
>>>> 
>>>>       
>>> No, I mean this very unix-style working directory. Of course this is only a debug setting, i.e. it does not influence the
>>> build result. But if I write a command line tool, e.g. a copy, then I have some test files to copy and need some arguments
>>> for the copy tool to tell it which files to copy. Therefore it is possible to set the working directory and command line
>>> arguments in an ide (visual studio or xcode). For xcode there is even the effect that after cmake runs the current
>>> setting is lost which is not the case for visual studio since these settings are stored in a separate file.
>>> 
>>> -Jochen
>>>     
>> Are you trying to run the executable with ADD_TEST? In that case the working directory is always CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR. If you need to change it, create a wrapper script (you can do so using the CMake language in order to not depend on any other interpreter).
>>   
> no, just add_executable and then starting the target in debug mode inside the ide. but maybe add_test is the solution to my
> problem, i have to look at it. is this for starting an executable with some command line arguments?
> 
> -Jochen
> 

It is for adding a single unit test which can then be run using CTest.

Michael
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