[CMake] How do one manage external projects in a clean way?

[Cedric Doucet]

Hello! 

I would like to manage external libraries called in my code. 
My goal is to let users install these libraries by themselves or let CMake download and install these libraries for them. 

For the moment, I use External_project_add command to download external libraries. 
This works good and I am very happy with it. 

However, I do not understand the meaning of some subdirectories (xxx-build, xxx-stamp, etc.). 
It is a problem for me because I sometimes need to specify my own configuration, building and installation commands for some specific libraries. 
Unfortunately, I never know where to put the result of these steps. 
Thus, my installation directory may be very dirty and I would like to tidy it. 
Could someone help me? 

Furhtermore, I would like to let users provide their own installation for all or some of these external libraries called in my code. 
Could someone explain me how to manage these options? 

Thnak you very much for your help! 

Best regards, 

Cédric Doucet 
INRIA Paris-Rocquencourt 
France 

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