Not sure if this question is best attributed to the ‘Code’ or ‘Development’ group…
Because I always separate my projects for libraries and it’s tests. I tend to work around the error:
CMake Error at test/CMakeLists.txt:62 (add_custom_command):
TARGET ‘my-library-target’ was not created in this directory.
I’m not even sure why this has to be an error, especially when the target was declared in a parent project. Is there any way to relax this error? Is there any consideration to reconsider this class of errors?
This workaround is generally okay:
I wrapped it into a more generic function.
set(copy_target_thing_meta_counter 0)
# CopyTargetThing(
# COMMAND_NAME <name>
# SOURCE <TARGET | VARIABLE>
# DESTINATION <TARGET | VARIABLE>
# )
# where TARGET -> PROPERTY INPUT_TARGET
# where VARIABLE -> INPUT_VARIABLE
# PROPERTY can be like TARGET_RUNTIME_DLLS or TARGET_FILE or whatever
# Example usage
CopyTargetThing(
COMMAND_NAME "CopyMyLibraryDependenciesForTests"
SOURCE
TARGET
PROPERTY "TARGET_RUNTIME_DLLS"
INPUT_TARGET my-library::my-library
DESTINATION
VARIABLE
INPUT_VARIABLE MyDesiredDirectory
)
# The auto generated command name is so cryptic to try to avoid Windows path length issues
function(CopyTargetThing)
set(oneValueArgs COMMAND_NAME)
set(multiValueArgs SOURCE DESTINATION)
cmake_parse_arguments(copy_target "" "${oneValueArgs}" "${multiValueArgs}" ${ARGN})
if (NOT copy_target_SOURCE)
message(FATAL_ERROR "CopyTargetThing(SOURCE) must be specified.")
endif()
if (NOT copy_target_DESTINATION)
message(FATAL_ERROR "CopyTargetThing(DESTINATION) must be specified.")
endif()
set(multiValueArgs TARGET VARIABLE)
cmake_parse_arguments(source_args "" "" "${multiValueArgs}" ${copy_target_SOURCE})
cmake_parse_arguments(destination_args "" "" "${multiValueArgs}" ${copy_target_DESTINATION})
if (NOT source_args_TARGET AND NOT source_args_VARIABLE)
message(FATAL_ERROR "CopyTargetThing(SOURCE) must specify either TARGET or VARIABLE.")
endif()
if (NOT destination_args_TARGET AND NOT destination_args_VARIABLE)
message(FATAL_ERROR "CopyTargetThing(DESTINATION) must specify either TARGET or VARIABLE.")
endif()
set(source)
set(destination)
set(meta_command_name "CTT_")
set(oneValueArgs PROPERTY INPUT_TARGET INPUT_VARIABLE)
if (source_args_TARGET)
cmake_parse_arguments(source_args "" "${oneValueArgs}" "" ${source_args_TARGET})
if (NOT source_args_PROPERTY)
message(FATAL_ERROR "CopyTargetThing(SOURCE TARGET) must specify PROPERTY.")
endif()
if (NOT source_args_INPUT_TARGET)
message(FATAL_ERROR "CopyTargetThing(SOURCE TARGET) must specify INPUT_TARGET.")
endif()
set(source "$<${source_args_PROPERTY}:${source_args_INPUT_TARGET}>")
get_target_property(source_output_name ${source_args_INPUT_TARGET} OUTPUT_NAME)
string(APPEND meta_command_name "T_${source_output_name}_")
else()
cmake_parse_arguments(source_args "" "${oneValueArgs}" "" ${source_args_VARIABLE})
if (NOT source_args_INPUT_VARIABLE)
message(FATAL_ERROR "CopyTargetThing(SOURCE VARIABLE) must specify INPUT_VARIABLE.")
endif()
set(source "${source_args_VARIABLE}")
string(APPEND meta_command_name "V_${source_args_VARIABLE}_")
endif()
if (destination_args_TARGET)
cmake_parse_arguments(destination_args "" "${oneValueArgs}" "" ${destination_args_TARGET})
if (NOT destination_args_PROPERTY)
message(FATAL_ERROR "CopyTargetThing(DESTINATION TARGET) must specify PROPERTY.")
endif()
if (NOT destination_args_INPUT_TARGET)
message(FATAL_ERROR "CopyTargetThing(DESTINATION TARGET) must specify INPUT_TARGET.")
endif()
set(destination "$<${destination_args_PROPERTY}:${destination_args_INPUT_TARGET}>")
get_target_property(destination_output_name ${destination_args_INPUT_TARGET} OUTPUT_NAME)
string(APPEND meta_command_name "T_${destination_output_name}")
else()
cmake_parse_arguments(destination_args "" "${oneValueArgs}" "" ${destination_args_VARIABLE})
if (NOT destination_args_INPUT_VARIABLE)
message(FATAL_ERROR "CopyTargetThing(DESTINATION VARIABLE) must specify INPUT_VARIABLE.")
endif()
set(destination "${${destination_args_INPUT_VARIABLE}}")
string(APPEND meta_command_name "V_${destination_args_INPUT_VARIABLE}")
endif()
if (copy_target_COMMAND_NAME)
set(meta_command_name "${copy_target_COMMAND_NAME}")
else() # finish up generating the command name
string(APPEND meta_command_name "_${copy_target_thing_meta_counter}")
math(EXPR copy_target_thing_meta_counter "${copy_target_thing_meta_counter} + 1")
set(copy_target_thing_meta_counter ${copy_target_thing_meta_counter} PARENT_SCOPE)
endif()
message(DEBUG "CopyTargetThing() - source: ${source}")
message(DEBUG "CopyTargetThing() - destination: ${destination}")
message(DEBUG "CopyTargetThing() - meta_command_name: ${meta_command_name}")
add_custom_target(
"${meta_command_name}"
ALL
COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy ${source} ${destination}
)
add_dependencies(
"${meta_command_name}"
${source_args_INPUT_TARGET}
)
endfunction()
But honestly I feel like I’m going about this the wrong way. Is there any better way to go about using target properties from generator expressions in sub-projects? Is this function ridiculous? Obviously it is rough around the edges and just a quick hack, but is the idea of this function ridiculous?
I will say one downside is that it creates targets that I dont need and they get all up in my business in my IDE.
If I had bunch of these CopyTargetThing() calls it would be pretty annoying.