Copy file from source directory to binary directory using CMake
You may consider using configure_file with the COPYONLY
option:
configure_file(<input> <output> COPYONLY)
Unlike file(COPY ...)
it creates a file-level dependency between input and output, that is:
If the input file is modified the build system will re-run CMake to re-configure the file and generate the build system again.
both option are valid and targeting two different steps of your build:
file(COPY ...
copies the file in configuration step and only in this step. When you rebuild your project without having changed your cmake configuration, this command won't be executed.add_custom_command
is the preferred choice when you want to copy the file around on each build step.
The right version for your task would be:
add_custom_command(
TARGET foo POST_BUILD
COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy
${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/test/input.txt
${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/input.txt)
you can choose between PRE_BUILD
, PRE_LINK
, POST_BUILD
best is you read the documentation of add_custom_command
an example on how to use the first version can be found here: Use CMake add_custom_command to generate source for another target