# what is $\<TARGET\_FILE\_DIR\>

**URL:** https://discourse.cmake.org/t/what-is-target-file-dir/9499
**Category:** Usage
**Tags:** os:windows
**Created:** [November 24, 2023, 1:23am UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/what-is-target-file-dir/9499 "2023-11-24T01:23:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Sea\_Sea](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/sea_sea/32/4025_2.png) [@Sea\_Sea](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/Sea_Sea)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2023, 1:23am UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/what-is-target-file-dir/9499/1 "2023-11-24T01:23:59Z")

</div>

> <https://github.com/paullouisageneau/libdatachannel/blob/cafd410f190dd98e4802ce3ec5e864b72ffd7755/examples/copy-paste/CMakeLists.txt#L57C22-L57C22>

```auto
		"$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:datachannel>/datachannel.dll"
		$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:datachannel-copy-paste-offerer>

```

What does it mean?  
where can I find the document?

I try to use message to print the variable , but it can not get my expect result

```auto
message($<TARGET_FILE_DIR:datachannel-copy-paste-offerer>)

```

it just print

```auto
$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:datachannel-copy-paste-offerer>

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![codeling](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/codeling/32/1700_2.png) [@codeling](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/codeling)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2023, 7:53am UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/what-is-target-file-dir/9499/2 "2023-11-24T07:53:43Z")

</div>

Constructs of the form`$<...>` are [Generator Expressions](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-generator-expressions.7.html). They are typically there to access information that is not available at configure time; See for example [this stackoverflow question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51353110/how-do-i-output-the-result-of-a-generator-expression-in-cmake) for ways of determining their value.