CMake output path for compile pdb files - cmake

I'm trying to specify the output path for program database (pdb) files of static libraries in CMake. I think CMake calls them compile pdbs, as opposed to linker pdbs.
From CMake's documentation I found out that I can specify the pdb output directory by COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY. That works as expected. I can also specify the name of the pdb file by COMPILE_PDB_NAME. That also works as expected. However, I am getting an extraneous configuration string appended between the directory and the name, which does not seem to be controlled by either of the previous two. That is, the final output path is of the form C:\mypdboutputpath\RelWithDebInfo\mypdbname.pdb, where RelWithDebInfo corresponds to the current configuration. However, my outputpath already contains my own configuration specifier (my library output directory is of the form lib\msvc64-relwithdebinfo). I've been trying to set both global and target-specific pdb-names and directories, but they do not affect whether the configuration-string is appended or not.
How to get rid of the appended configuration string in the pdb output path?
Although Visual Studio is multi-configuration, my approach is to use CMake as if it were single-configuration, i.e. the configuration is chosen when running CMake.

What helped me was setting the property COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_${CFG} instead of COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY. For your example, it would probably be COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_RELWITHDEBINFO.
I didn't find anything about that in the CMake docs, but since the same thing works for the LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY property.
The CMake docs specifically mention this behavior for this property, so I thought it was worth it to try it with COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY as well, and it did work. Hopefully it's not some undefined behavior that will change in the future. FWIW I tested it with CMake 3.18.1
Probably too late for the OP, but perhaps it may help some other poor soul like me.

Related

Use CMake find_package with a custom, bugfixed file

I have a library (namely CGAL). It provides a FindMODULE.cmake file for a third-party library not shipped with it CGAL (namely Intel TBB). Unfortunately, this file has a bug that I need to fix. (The bug seems to be related to incompatible directory structures, but that's not the point here.)
So the CMakeLists.txt of my project has a line:
find_package( TBB )
This will invoke FindTBB.cmake which is provided in the directory structure of CGAL.
Now, I need to fix a bug in FindTBB.cmake. I'd like to just copy that file and put the fixed version directly into my project directory.
How can I tell CMake to use FindTBB.cmake in my project directory (instead of the one provided by CGAL) when calling find_package?
Alternative approach:
Copy the file to your module directory and modify it.
Call find_package(TBB) before you do anything related to CGAL.
Use the CMake call used to find / interact with CGAL. If you are lucky, the results of all checks are cached and it work. It still might not work, depending on what is actually done.
The find_package function might be too heavy in this case, you can try just including your relocated .cmake file like this.
include(<local path>/FindTBB.cmake)

CMAKE_SYSROOT in CMakeTestCCompiler

I have a project which builds for PPC, the Toolchain is working correctly, i can build when the sysroot is installed under /opt/poky/1.5. Now i tried to move that Installation to the Project Directory (it is not a part of the Repository there, it is just installed there so it is not reliant on that fix path, so that everyone can check out the project and build it wothout setting up the sysroot under that fixed folder).
To achieve this I set CMAKE_SYSROOT to "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/poky" where the poky will be installed upon execution of a custom build script (the project also needs to build a secure image, so it is way simpler to use a build script instead of anything else, also this is convenient for jenkins).
Since the CMAKE_SYSROOT is build from the PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR which is different for the CMakeTestCCompiler Project, the cmake call fails teloling me that the CCompiler is broken of course. So I want to know, how I am supposed to get the CMakeTestCCompiler Project to compile with the same CMAKE_SYSROOT variable, without altering the CMakeTestCCompiler Project itself (of course).
Somehow I cannot find an answer anywhere, it seems that noone ever had this issue (which frankly i cannot understand, this should be a common setup in my opinion). (Or maybe i am just too much of a noob when it comes to CMAKE, which i will gladly admit)
I am not interested in solutions like: "JUST INSTALL IT IN A FIX PATH" or such... please, I need the setup like this, I have reasons for that.
THX for reading/trying/answering/helping
Have a nice day
EDIT1:
In CMakeLists.txt (top level CMakeFile so it should be used by any build):
`SET(CMAKE_SYSROOT "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/poky/sysroots")`
In ToolchainCMake (the one given to the cmake as CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE):
`SET(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME Linux)`
`SET(CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION 1)`
`SET(CMAKE_SYSROOT "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/poky/sysroots")`
`SET(COMPILER_ROOT ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/poky/sysroots/i686-pokysdk-linux/usr/bin/powerpc-poky-linux-gnuspe)`
`SET(CMAKE_C_COMPILER ${COMPILER_ROOT}/powerpc-poky-linux-gnuspe-gcc)`
`SET(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER ${COMPILER_ROOT}/powerpc-poky-linux-gnuspe-g++)`
`MESSAGE("CMAKE_C_COMPILER: ${CMAKE_C_COMPILER}")`
`MESSAGE("CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER: ${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER}")`
`MESSAGE("COMPILER_ROOT: ${COMPILER_ROOT}")`
`SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH ${SYS_ROOT}/ppce500v2-poky-linux-gnuspe)`
`SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PROGRAM NEVER)`
`SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_LIBRARY ONLY)`
`SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE ONLY)`
EDIT2:
I used the
`set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER_WORKS 1 CACHE INTERNAL "")`
`set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_WORKS 1 CACHE INTERNAL "")`
settings to simulate the CMakeTestCCompiler build succeeding and realized that I am facing some additional problems: It seem that the packages are looked up on the system instead of the CMAKE_SYSROOT folder. Even tried the
`SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH ${CMAKE_SYSROOT})`
to try to force the search in there, but without luck. In the CMakeError.log I can see, that the compiler itself was configured with the prefix option that points to /opt/poky/1.5, the path that i want to "overwrite", now I am not sure if the compiler could even deal with an alternate path.
I felt the need to add these information, they not really add to the problem at hand.
ERRORS:
I also found some errors in the above cmake:
`SET(CMAKE_SYSROOT "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/poky/sysroots")`
must be
`SET(CMAKE_SYSROOT "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/poky/sysroots/ppce500v2-poky-linux-gnuspe")`
instead and therefor the
`SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH ${SYS_ROOT}/ppce500v2-poky-linux-gnuspe)`
changes to
`SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH ${CMAKE_SYSROOT})`
EDIT: Whole answer changed.
My first suspicion was that the problem is that value of ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR} is not known in CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE as it is processed before CMakeLists.txt. But this isn't true.
I had similar problem (CMake 2.8.12.2), everything worked OK, when I passed cross compiler by CC environment variable with --sysroot option, i.e. CMake was invoked as follows:
CC="arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc --sysroot=/path/to/sysroot" cmake /path/to/sources
When I switched to using toolchain file, CMake started to report that C compiler doesn't work.
To workaround this problem, I use CMakeForceCompiler package. Parts toolchain file (along with comments) I think are relevant:
include(CMakeForceCompiler)
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME Linux)
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION 1)
# Force compiler - only option that actually works
cmake_force_c_compiler (${TOOLCHAIN_PATH}/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc GNU)
cmake_force_cxx_compiler(${TOOLCHAIN_PATH}/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi-g++ GNU)
# NOTE: CMAKE_SYSROOT doesn't work as expected
add_definitions("--sysroot=${TOOLCHAIN_SYSROOT}")
set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "${CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS} --sysroot=${TOOLCHAIN_SYSROOT}" CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
Note, that TOOLCHAIN_PATH and TOOLCHAIN_SYSROOT are my local variables set before.

CLion: issue with Cmake configuration types

I understand that by default, Clion creates the binary files for a project loaded in Clion in all the four configurations:
(Debug;Release;MinSizeRel;RelWithDebInfo)
as well as one called: __default__.
I am using a third party cmake module which downloads an external project in a way that add_subdirectory() can be run on it so it would be included in the root project.
add_subdirectory(${downloaded_proj_src_dir} ${downloaded_proj_bin_dir} EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
In this setup, if I decide to place the child project outside the binary directory of the root project, I get:
Error:Binary directories outside of CMake build directory are not supported. Most likely this error is caused by an add_subdirectory command with an explicitly specified binary_dir argument.
which is an understandable restriction by CMake.
now if I instead decide to set the binary directory of the downloaded project in a subdirectory of the binary directory of the parent project, ie:
set(downloaded_proj_bin_dir "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${downloaded_proj}-build")
...
add_subdirectory(${downloaded_proj_src_dir} ${downloaded_proj_bin_dir} EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
I will get the file created in the parent binary directory of all the build configurations because ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR} is different for each configuration. To avoid seeing all these directories listed on the project view sidebar, I have set the CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES to be Debug. But even then, I get:
Error:Configuration Debug
The current CMakeCache.txt directory /path/Debug/downloaded_proj_bin/CMakeCache.txt is different than the directory /path/__default__/downloaded_proj_bin/CMakeCache.txt where CMakeCache.txt was created. This may result in binaries being created in the wrong place. If you are not sure, reedit the CMakeCache.txt
Clearly something is going on with this __default__ configuration which I don't understand. So the question is, what is the significance of this default configuration and why should there be a conflict here?
P.s. Setting the configuration to __default__ does not solve the problem as I will have a __default__0 configuration created instead and get the same error.
Update: some further observations
My enviornment variables set in IDE don't have any effect on the cmake builds.
Cmake "options" however which presumably will be passed as arguments to cmake do seem to work.
-D CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES=Debug.
When I specify the command line option, I get
Warning:Manually-specified variables were not used by the project:
CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES
But it clearly does have the effect of no longer creating the other build configurations. My guess is that this message relates to the __default__ build which is ignoring the argument.
Even in the case of specifying CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES in the IDE, I still get the additional __default__ build which is apparently unaffected by the CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES assignment.
Logging: message("Build type: ${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE} ) does not return any build_type.
Outputting message(and generator: ${CMAKE_GENERATOR} ") returns "Unix-make files" for both, so both are being generated with the same generator.
Taking a diff from the CMakeCache.txt files, I can see that they are identical.
Do you have in DownloadProject.cmake the right setting? for:
set(_DownloadProjectDir "${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}")
I had the same problem trying to set google test(with the help of https://github.com/Crascit/DownloadProject) and my _DownloadProjectDir was setted as "test". Maybe when I moved this cmake file in my project Clion changed that automatically.
So, it turns out that you can sort this out quite easily by adding the following line above line 145 in DownloadProject.cmake:
file(REMOVE "${DL_ARGS_DOWNLOAD_DIR}/CMakeCache.txt")
This seems to be because CLion copies the default across to the other configurations and doesn't clear the cache. This is a problem only because DownloadProject creates a project within the project (I think...). Anyway, deleting this file before configuring the CMakeLists.txt by-passes this issue. I'll submit a pull request to the DownloadProject repository as this doesn't seem to have any adverse effects when not using CLion.

pkg_check_modules cannot find *.pc.cmake

I am using a 3rd party library rbdl, which contains rbdl.pc.cmake, which 'I suppose' is included for using pkg_check_modules in a cmake file.
I update PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point at the rbdl folder
set(ENV{PKG_CONFIG_PATH} "$ENV{PKG_CONFIG_PATH}:${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/externals/rbdl")
pkg_check_modules(RBDL rbdl)
but pkg_check_modules says it cannot find the module.
When I manually duplicate rbdl.pc.cmake, rename the copy into rbdl.pc and run pkg-config --cflags --libs rbdl in terminal, then my cmake also start working!
Interestingly, now even if I delete rbdl.pc, rbdl module if perfectly found by rbdl.pc.cmake!
So my questions are:
What is the difference between *.pc and *.pc.cmake?
How do I correctly setup my cmake to work with original rbdl.pc.cmake?
Why rbdl.pc.cmake starts to be accepted by pkg_check_modules after that tweak with duplicating it, renaming the copy and running pkg-config manually?
You understand it wrong! rbdl.pc.cmake is just a template file. It is not supposed to be used by you! Take a look into CMakeLists.txt line 160 -- configure_file() used to render variables ("quoted" by # in template file) and produce a rbdl.pc (a real pkg-config) file. Latter should be installed (some way) and then will be available to pkg-config hence can be used in your project.
pkg-config is stupid do not interpret or validate compiler/linker flags any way, so your renamed file "works" (yeah, producing invalid command line for compiler/linker).
I wish you to read CMake documentation before trying to code something using it! It'll save your time and give you a necessary knowledge which stops you from doing stupid things like you described in your question ;-)

Add dependency to the CMake-generated build-system itself

In short: I know how to add dependencies to targets, in a CMake-generated build system. But I would like to add dependencies to the generated build-system itself.
Longer question: In the CMake-generated build process of cgal, we would like CMake to automatically re-run the configuration step, when certain files are modified. Unneeded details are hidden below:
As a matter of fact, we generate using CMake the build system for the CGAL libraries/examples/demos, but also at the same time the build system for our Doxygen-generated documentation. The Doxyfile is generated from multiple files.
When the CMake generator is "Makefile", there is a special target in the Makefile, that is named rebuild_cache, but that target (at the Makefile level) is not a CMake-target. And anyway, I look for a solution that is cross-platform, that is: usable with all CMake generators. I have the impression that what I want is not yet doable with CMake. Can you please confirm, so that I can fill a documented feature-request?
Since CMake 3.0, you can add such a file to the directory property CMAKE_CONFIGURE_DEPENDS. This property holds a list of files; if any of them changes, CMake will trigger re-configuration.
Here is a small example. Assuming your Doxyfile is generated from Doxyfile.in.1 and Doxyfile.in.2 in the current source directory, the property could be used like this:
set_property(
DIRECTORY
APPEND
PROPERTY CMAKE_CONFIGURE_DEPENDS
Doxyfile.in.1
Doxyfile.in.2
)
If you're using CMake 2.x, the property CMAKE_CONFIGURE_DEPENDS is not available, but you can use the following trick:
Pass the files through configure_file(), even if you just COPYONLY them someplace and don't use the resulting copies. configure_file() introduces precisely the buildsystem dependency you're looking for.
This works, but it adds the overhead of copying the file.
(Note: This trick was also the original content of this answer, since I was not aware of CMAKE_CONFIGURE_DEPENDS at time of answering).