[CMake] add_custom_command/get_target_property bug on Windows?

[Steven Wilson]

Consider the following simple C++ file foo.cpp:

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    std::cout << "bar" << std::endl;
    return 0;
}


Now consider the following CMakeLists.txt file for foo.cpp:


cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.6)

project(Bug)

set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/bin)


add_executable(foo foo.cpp)

get_target_property(FOO_LOCATION foo LOCATION)

message("${FOO_LOCATION}")

add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/bar
    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E make_directory bat
    COMMAND chdir bat
    COMMAND ${FOO_LOCATION} > ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/bar
    DEPENDS foo
)


add_custom_target(Bar DEPENDS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/bar)


When you configure this project using the Windows Visual Studio 9 generator,
the generation step correctly displays(ie from the message() command) the
value C:\path\to\build\directory\bin\$(OutDir)\foo.exe for the variable
FOO_LOCATION.
The problem comes in the add_custom_command step.   The generator writes the
following line into the .vcproj file:

bin\$(OutDir)\foo.exe > C:\path\to\build\directory\bar

What I'm pointing out is that the generator puts a path to foo.exe that is
not the full path name and this behavior causes the add_custom_command build
step to fail because the custom command includes a chdir command so the
current working directory has changed and bin\$(OutDir)\foo.exe is not
longer available.

Now, if you instead modify the add_custom_command the line to read:

COMMAND "..\${FOO_LOCATION}|" > ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/bar

the generator instead puts the following in the project files:

..\C:\path\to\build\directory\bin\$(OutDir)\foo.exe

?!?

The correct path now appears, but it is wrong because of the ..\ prepended
to the value.

What is going on?   Why doesn't the value of FOO_LOCATION always and
everywhere stay C:\path\to\build\directory\bin\$(OutDir)\foo.exe?

Thanks in advance,

Steve
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