[CMake] About CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX

pellegrini pellegrini at ill.fr
Tue Jan 24 03:35:31 EST 2012


Hello everbody,

I would like to understand a bit more one feature related to 
CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX initialization.

When reading the documentation, it is specified that this variable 
contains the directory that will be pre-pended to all install 
directories and that it should be defaulted to C:/Program Files on 
Windows. However, in my current build the variable is not defaulted to 
C:/Program Files but to C:/Program Files/libcrysfml where "crysfml " is 
the name of my base project.

This unexpected feature (at least to my understanding !) leads me to my 
second question.

I would like to get rid of the "crysfml " subdirectory in the value of 
CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX. I could obvioulsy
use:
    get_filename_component(MY_CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX 
${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX} PATH)
but this would fail if CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX is set on the cmake command 
line by the user because, in such case, the installation will not be 
done in the directory that he provided but in its parent directory. 
Rather counter-intuitive.

What I would need is a mechanism to detect whether the 
CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX has been set or not by the user on the 
command-line. If so, I take directly the values he provided, and if not 
so, I take the parent directory of the default value.

Is that possible ?

thanks a lot

Eric



-- 
Eric Pellegrini
Calcul Scientifique
Institut Laue-Langevin
Grenoble, France



More information about the CMake mailing list