Why add_custom_command does not work

Question

I am trying to copy one file ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/abc.h to another location {PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/src with the following command:

  add_custom_command(
        TARGET MyTarget
        POST_BUILD
        COMMAND -E copy ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/abc.h
        $<"${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/src":MyTarget>)

However, no matter how I try, it seems that the created VC Studio project will not perform the file copy. Any ideas? Thanks.

Fraser · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-12 23:31:51Z

3

There are a couple of issues.

First, you want to execute cmake -E copy ... inside the custom command. To do this, you can provide the path to the CMake executable via the variable CMAKE_COMMAND.

Next, you don't need generator expressions in this case. You can just copy from "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/abc.h" to "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/src"

So, your final command should be more like:

add_custom_command(
      TARGET MyTarget
      POST_BUILD
      COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/abc.h"
                                       "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/src")

As an aside, if the copied file is forming part of your build, you might be better to use cmake -E copy_if_different ... rather than just copy since this won't update the copied file's timestamp needlessly. (If the file is seen as "updated" all sources that #include it will be recompiled when a rebuild happens).

edited Feb 12, 2014 at 23:31

answered Feb 12, 2014 at 18:46

Fraser

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