[CMake] Configuring external projects with cmake for a nonexistent install directory which is not configure-time writable

[Eric Noulard]

2011/3/14 The Wanderer <wanderer at fastmail.fm>:
> (I apologize for setting the Reply-To header, but I know of no other way
> to prevent my being sent an additional off-list copy of any reply even
> when there is no specific need to draw my attention to that reply.)

> I am running cmake 2.8.2, installed via Debian testing. No more recent
> version appears to be available via Debian.

Yes there is 2.84 in SID:
http://packages.debian.org/sid/cmake

> I am attempting to compile a project which has recently switched to
> cmake after a long time spent on autotools.
>
> The project uses, and includes the source to, at least two other
> projects, which it treats as external projects.
>
> The project explicitly requires (and enforces) an out-of-tree build.
>
> I habitually install each new version of this particular project under
> its own brand-new prefix, to more easily retain previous versions for
> fallback if necessary. As a consequence, the target install prefix does
> not exist at the beginning of the build process.
>
> I configure and compile as an ordinary user, which does not have write
> access to the install location. It has long been my understanding that
> this is ordinarily considered good practice.
>
> I am attempting to configure with the command line
>
> ----
> cmake /path/to/source -DDEBUG=1 -DPREFIX=/path/to/nonexistent/install/dir
> ----
>
> With this command, the configure process fails. The error message is:


We do not have enough information about your CMakeLists.txt.
ExternalProject_Add do have some options like:
PREFIX
TMP_DIR
DOWNLOAD_DIR etc...

which may be different from the install prefix of your project.

So I'm not using ExternalProject_Add myself but I suspect
you are making assumption on when action take place which
may be different from the module designers.

I let ExternalProject_Add users comment that part.


-- 
Erk
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