[CMake] Running executables - local targets vs. system binaries

[David Cole]

On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 6:27 PM, Andreas Pakulat <apaku at gmx.de> wrote:
> On 06.03.12 17:56:41, David Cole wrote:
>> If you want add_custom_command to run a certain executable, simply
>> give it the full path to that executable: use "/full/path/to/tool"
>> instead of "tool"
>>
>> If tool is a built thing, you can use
>> "${XYZ_BINARY_DIR}/${CMAKE_CFG_INTDIR}/tool" which will properly
>> expand out to the correct "Release" or "Debug" subdirectory when run
>> with Visual Studio or Xcode.
>
> Thats not what the cmake manual states:
> If COMMAND specifies an executable target (created by ADD_EXECUTABLE) it
> will automat‐ ically be replaced by the location of the executable
> created at build time.
>
> So either the manual is wrong and one needs to manually construct the
> correct paths even for in-project targets or cmake should prefer an
> existing target over an executable reachable via PATH.
>
> Andreas
>
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The manual is correct. But so was my earlier reply.

I am not aware of a general problem where CMake gets confused by a
target named something the same as an executable in your PATH... That
should be ok, and CMake should prefer its own target, and generate
build instructions using the full path name of the built target.

My technique simply specifies, explicitly in the CMake code, which
full path name to use for the custom command. I always find that the
most useful technique for resolving possible name conflicts.

Either should work, assuming "tool" is the name of a CMake target that
you have built.


If there is still a problem, please specify a minimal example that we
can run to reproduce it, and I'm sure somebody here will help figure
out what's going on.


Thx,
David