Copy file from source directory to binary directory using CMake

Question

I m trying to create a simple project on CLion  It uses CMake  I m new here  to generate Makefiles to build project  or some sort of it   All I need to is transfer some non-project file  some sort of resource file  to binary directory each time when I run the my code   That file contains test data and application open it to read them  I tried several ways to do so    Via file COPY      file COPY   CMAKE CURRENT SOURCE DIR  input txt         DESTINATION   CMAKE CURRENT BINARY DIR  input txt   Looking good but it work just once and not recopy file after next run  Via add custom command   OUTPUT version  add custom command          OUTPUT   CMAKE CURRENT BINARY DIR  input txt         COMMAND   CMAKE COMMAND  -E copy                   CMAKE CURRENT SOURCE DIR  input txt                   CMAKE CURRENT BINARY DIR  input txt   TARGET version  add custom target foo  add custom command          TARGET foo         COMMAND   CMAKE COMMAND  copy                   CMAKE CURRENT BINARY DIR  test input txt                   CMAKE SOURCE DIR      But no one of it work    What am I doing wrong

User · Answer

if you want to copy folder from currant directory to binary (build folder) folder

file(COPY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/yourFolder/ DESTINATION ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/yourFolder/)

then the syntexe is :

file(COPY pathSource DESTINATION pathDistination)

User · Answer

I would suggest TARGET FILE DIR if you want the file to be copied to the same folder as your  exe file          Directory of main file   exe   so 1 2   a     add custom command    TARGET   PROJECT NAME  POST BUILD   COMMAND   CMAKE COMMAND  -E copy        CMAKE CURRENT SOURCE DIR  input txt        lt TARGET FILE DIR   PROJECT NAME  gt     In VS  this cmake script will copy input txt to the same file as your final exe  no matter it s debug or release

User · Answer

both option are valid and targeting two different steps of your build    file COPY     copies the file in configuration step and only in this step  When you rebuild your project without having changed your cmake configuration  this command won t be executed  add custom command is the preferred choice when you want to copy the file around on each build step     The right version for your task would be   add custom command          TARGET foo POST BUILD         COMMAND   CMAKE COMMAND  -E copy                   CMAKE SOURCE DIR  test input txt                   CMAKE CURRENT BINARY DIR  input txt    you can choose between PRE BUILD  PRE LINK  POST BUILD best is you read the documentation of add custom command   an example on how to use the first version can be found here  Use CMake add custom command to generate source for another target

User · Answer

This is what I used to copy some resource files  the copy-files is an empty target to ignore errors   add custom target copy-files ALL     COMMAND   CMAKE COMMAND  -E copy directory       CMAKE BINARY DIR  SOURCEDIRECTORY       CMAKE BINARY DIR  DESTINATIONDIRECTORY

User · Answer

The suggested configure file is probably the easiest solution  However  it will not rerun the copy command to if you manually deleted the file from the build directory  To also handle this case  the following works for me   add custom target copy-test-makefile ALL DEPENDS   CMAKE CURRENT BINARY DIR  input txt  add custom command OUTPUT   CMAKE CURRENT BINARY DIR  input txt                    COMMAND   CMAKE COMMAND  -E copy   CMAKE CURRENT SOURCE DIR  input txt                                                       CMAKE CURRENT BINARY DIR  input txt                    DEPENDS   CMAKE CURRENT SOURCE DIR  input txt

User · Answer

The first of option you tried doesn t work for two reasons    First  you forgot to close the parenthesis    Second  the DESTINATION should be a directory  not a file name  Assuming that you closed the parenthesis  the file would end up in a folder called input txt   To make it work  just change it to  file COPY   CMAKE CURRENT SOURCE DIR  input txt      DESTINATION   CMAKE CURRENT BINARY DIR

User · Answer

You may consider using configure file with the COPYONLY option   configure file  lt input gt   lt output gt  COPYONLY    Unlike file COPY      it creates a file-level dependency between input and output  that is      If the input file is modified the build system will re-run CMake to re-configure the file and generate the build system again

User · Answer

If you want to put the content of example into install folder after build  code    src    example    CMakeLists txt  try add the following to your CMakeLists txt  install DIRECTORY example  DESTINATION example

[cmake] Copy file from source directory to binary directory using CMake

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