zip files using CMake?

It's never late to show real answer:

function(create_zip output_file input_files working_dir)
    add_custom_command(
        COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E tar "cf" "${output_file}" --format=zip -- ${input_files}
        WORKING_DIRECTORY "${working_dir}"
        OUTPUT  "${output_file}"
        DEPENDS ${input_files}
        COMMENT "Zipping to ${output_file}."
    )
endfunction()

Use like

file(GLOB ZIP_FILES "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/zip/*")
create_zip("${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/native_data.zip" "${ZIP_FILES}" "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/zip")

This will pack all files from zip/ subdirectory into native_data.zip (in build directory). Then either include your archive (path will differ in different CMakeLists.txt!) as source file or add it as target:

add_custom_target("project-data" ALL DEPENDS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/native_data.zip")

Install will not differ a lot from usual:

install(FILES "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/native_data.zip" DESTINATION ${DATADIR} RENAME "data000.zip") # Install our zip (as data000.zip)

I assume you already have a zip-tool installed (WinZip or 7z, etc.). You could write a find_zip-tool script which will search for WinZip, or 7Z, etc...

Snippet for WinZip:

FIND_PROGRAM(ZIP_EXECUTABLE wzzip PATHS "$ENV{ProgramFiles}/WinZip")
IF(ZIP_EXECUTABLE)
  SET(ZIP_COMMAND "\"${ZIP_EXECUTABLE}\" -P \"<ARCHIVE>\" @<FILELIST>")
ENDIF(ZIP_EXECUTABLE)

Snippet for 7-zip:

  FIND_PROGRAM(ZIP_EXECUTABLE 7z PATHS "$ENV{ProgramFiles}/7-Zip") 
  IF(ZIP_EXECUTABLE)
    SET(ZIP_COMMAND "\"${ZIP_EXECUTABLE}\" a -tzip \"<ARCHIVE>\" @<FILELIST>")
  ENDIF(ZIP_EXECUTABLE)

Take a look at the file

<cmake-install-dir>\share\cmake-2.8\Modules\CPackZIP.cmake

it shows how CPack searches for a Zip_Executable and prepares some "useful" default flags.

After that, I would suggest to execute_process, similar to sakra's answer

Since version 3.2 CMake has the functionality to generate a zip file built-in. The CMake command-line mode sub-command tar supports both the creation of zip and 7zip archives.

For example, if the current CMake source directory contains the file testfile.txt and the directory testdir, you can use the following CMake commands to create a zip file containing both items:

add_custom_target(create_zip COMMAND
    ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E tar "cfv" "archive.zip" --format=zip
       "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/testfile.txt"
       "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/testdir")

As a work-around for earlier CMake versions, you can use the jar command that is part of a standard Java JRE installation.

find_package(Java)

execute_process(
    COMMAND
        "${Java_JAR_EXECUTABLE}" "cfM" "archive.zip" 
        "-C" "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}" "testfile.txt" 
        "-C" "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}" "testdir"
    RESULT_VARIABLE _result
)

The zip file will be generated in the current CMake binary dir (CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR).