[cmake] How to copy directory from source tree to binary tree?

Question

Copying directory from source tree to binary tree. For example: How to copy www to bin folder.

work
├─bin
└─src
    ├─doing
    │  └─www
    ├─include
    └─lib

Thanks.

Answer 1

This macro copies files from one directory to another. If you don't want to substitute variables in the copied files, change the configure_file @ONLY argument.

# Copy files from source directory to destination directory, substituting any
# variables.  Create destination directory if it does not exist.

macro(configure_files srcDir destDir)
    message(STATUS "Configuring directory ${destDir}")
    make_directory(${destDir})

    file(GLOB templateFiles RELATIVE ${srcDir} ${srcDir}/*)
    foreach(templateFile ${templateFiles})
        set(srcTemplatePath ${srcDir}/${templateFile})
        if(NOT IS_DIRECTORY ${srcTemplatePath})
            message(STATUS "Configuring file ${templateFile}")
            configure_file(
                    ${srcTemplatePath}
                    ${destDir}/${templateFile}
                    @ONLY)
        endif(NOT IS_DIRECTORY ${srcTemplatePath})
    endforeach(templateFile)
endmacro(configure_files)

Answer 2

use execute_process and call cmake -E. If you want a deep copy, you can use the copy_directory command. Even better, you could create a symlink (if your platform supports it) with the create_symlink command. The latter can be achieved like this:

execute_process(COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E create_symlink ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/path/to/www
                                                           ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/path/to/www)

From: http://www.cmake.org/pipermail/cmake/2009-March/028299.html

Answer 3

The configure command will only copy files when cmake is run. Another option is to create a new target, and use the custom_command option. Here's one that I use (if you run it more than once, you'll have to modify the add_custom_target line to make it unique for each call).

macro(copy_files GLOBPAT DESTINATION)
  file(GLOB COPY_FILES
    RELATIVE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
    ${GLOBPAT})
  add_custom_target(copy ALL
    COMMENT "Copying files: ${GLOBPAT}")

  foreach(FILENAME ${COPY_FILES})
    set(SRC "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/${FILENAME}")
    set(DST "${DESTINATION}/${FILENAME}")

    add_custom_command(
      TARGET copy
      COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy ${SRC} ${DST}
      )
  endforeach(FILENAME)
endmacro(copy_files)

Answer 4

with cmake-2.8, you now have the command file(COPY yourDir DESTINATION yourDestination)

Answer 5

Thank! That is really helpful advice to use bunch of add_custom_target and add_custom_command. I wrote the following function to use everywhere in my projects. Is also specifies the installation rule. I use it primarily to export interface header files.

#
# export file: copy it to the build tree on every build invocation and add rule for installation
#
function    (cm_export_file FILE DEST)
  if    (NOT TARGET export-files)
    add_custom_target(export-files ALL COMMENT "Exporting files into build tree")
  endif (NOT TARGET export-files)
  get_filename_component(FILENAME "${FILE}" NAME)
  add_custom_command(TARGET export-files COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_if_different "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/${FILE}" "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${DEST}/${FILENAME}")
  install(FILES "${FILE}" DESTINATION "${DEST}")
endfunction (cm_export_file)

Usage looks like this:

cm_export_file("API/someHeader0.hpp" "include/API/")
cm_export_file("API/someHeader1.hpp" "include/API/")