[CMake] Source package without CMake dependency?

[Martin Sustrik]

Hi Eric,

Ugh! You are right. Sorry for bogus question and thanks for extensive 
answer.

Martin

On 04/02/13 07:33, Eric Noulard wrote:
> 2013/2/4 Martin Sustrik<sustrik at 250bpm.com>:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Is it possible to create a source package that wouldn't require to install
>> cmake on the destination machine?
>
> Short answer NO.
> Long answer : keep reading.
>
>> With autotools, all the build scripts are generated when building the
>> package and included into the package. So, on the destination box you can do
>> the following:
>>
>>      tar -xzf mypackage.tar.gz
>>      cd mypackage
>>      make
>>      sudo make install
>
> I doubt you can do that [and make it work all the time] with autoscripts.
> Usually you have to:
>
>     tar -xzf mypackage.tar.gz
>     cd mypackage
>     ./configure
>     make
>     sudo make install
>
> Then not only you depend on "make" but also on a "shell" for the configure part
> (plus the set of tools ./configure may be discovering).
> The "no dependency" myth of autotools comes from the fact one assume
> one have those 2 tools (shell and script) preinstalled everywhere.
> Most of the time this is wrong on the windows platform, may be wrong on
> some other platform too.
>
>> There's no need to install autotools itself. Is something similar possible
>> with CMake/CPack? Will simply creating the build directory inside of the
>> source tree help?
>
> Nope.
>
> CMake is a requirement just as 'shell' and 'make' are for autotools.
> CMake is calling itself for dependency computing
> CMake sometimes really needs absolute path so that you can not
> export a build tree (see cmake --help-variable CMAKE_USE_RELATIVE_PATHS)
> ....
>
> CMake notion of "no dependency" can be summarized as
> "CMake only requires CMake"
>
> If you dig into the mailing list archive you may found more extensive arguments
> explaining why requiring to generate "CMake independent build system" may
> not be "easy as it seems" and "a reasonable goal anyway".
>