Copy DLL files to the binary directory on Mac and Linux.

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According to the CMake documentation, we can use the following command to copy DLL files to the binary directory under the Windows operating system:

if(WIN32)
    
	add_custom_command(TARGET ${EXECUTABLE_NAME} POST_BUILD
		COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_if_different
		$<TARGET_RUNTIME_DLLS:${EXECUTABLE_NAME}>
		$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:${EXECUTABLE_NAME}>
		COMMAND_EXPAND_LISTS
		COMMENT "Copying DLLs to target directory")
endif()

However, for MacOS and Linux operating systems, the process isn’t as straightforward. I was wondering if there is something similar in nature for them as well?

2

MacOS and Linux have RPATH so you don’t need to copy SHARED libraries into the same directory as your executable. Windows lacks RPATH functionality.

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3

Great, so I don’t need to copy anything. But, do I need to include any special command to instruct the system to take advantage of RPATH or are they just self aware?

4

IIRC by default RPATH will be used in the build tree when it’s available.

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