Cleaning the install directory

Code
1

What’s the best way to ensure that the install directory is empty prior to building my project.

Ideally I’d like to put this in my top level CMake file, before I do the add_subirectory stuff

The actual command to empty the directory is easy:

COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E rm -rf ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/*

The tricky bit is how to get that issued at the correct stage.

Thanks
David

2

That is a really bad idea!

The default for CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX is /usr/local, and there is normally more than your project installed.

If you want a clean installation use cpack, it creates an archive with only your installation files.

3

That rather depends on what you have set CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to

My builds install to a folder that is only there to hold the build output with all RPATHs adjusted to pick up the .so/.dylibs relative to the executables, and all related other files in an appropriate directory structure.

I then use that directory to create my installers.

So in my case it is not a really bad idea!

David