CMake: unescape whitespace when echoing to a file - cmake

Question

As part of our build process we automatically run unit tests through valgrind during the actual build (ie: it's not a separate target such as make test)
We create a sentinel file when the tests pass, so that subsequent build won't rerun the tests if not necessary.
We also save the command line and test output to a file.
Here I have built the valgrind command line:
set(VALGRIND_BIN "valgrind")
set(VALGRIND_OPTS "--leak-check=full --track-origins=yes")
set(VALGRIND_CMD "${VALGRIND_BIN} ${VALGRIND_OPTS}")
separate_arguments(VALGRIND_CMD)
These are the "passed" sentinal file, and the test output file.
set(OUTPUT_FILE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${ARG_NAME}.output)
set(PASSED_FILE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${ARG_NAME}.passed)
Here I add a custom_command which works in the following way:
It echos the command line and saves it to the output file
It runs the test through valgrind, saving all output to the output file
If the test doesn't pass it will cat the output file and the command fails
If the test passes it will touch the passed sentinel file.
Here is the cmake source:
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT
${PASSED_FILE}
COMMAND
echo "\"${VALGRIND_BIN} ${VALGRIND_OPTS} $<TARGET_FILE:${TEST_NAME}>\"" > ${OUTPUT_FILE}
COMMAND
${VALGRIND_CMD} $<TARGET_FILE:${TEST_NAME}> >> ${OUTPUT_FILE} 2>&1 || (cat ${OUTPUT_FILE} && false)
COMMAND
${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E touch ${PASSED_FILE}
COMMENT
"Running ${ARG_NAME} tests"
DEPENDS
${TEST_NAME}
USES_TERMINAL
)
Unfortunately cmake is escaping all the whitespace in my echo of the test command line, so that the first line in the output file looks like this:
valgrind\ --leak-check=full\ --track-origins=yes\ /home/steve/src/test\
I have proven to myself the escapes aren't in the variables, as if I output a message they aren't in there.
message(STATUS "\"${VALGRIND_BIN} ${VALGRIND_OPTS} $<TARGET_FILE:${TEST_NAME}>\"")
The resulting output:
-- "valgrind --leak-check=full --track-origins=yes $<TARGET_FILE:test>"
Question:
How can I unescape the whitespace when echoing to a file?
That is, how can I have the line not be this:
valgrind\ --leak-check=full\ --track-origins=yes\ /home/steve/src/test\
but instead be this:
valgrind --leak-check=full --track-origins=yes /home/steve/src/test

Answer 1

You can put everything into a list, which will be expanded and the spaces will not be escaped.
Because CMake will be escaping spaces if it believes the string to be a single argument. Giving it as a list will take every element as a separate argument:
list(APPEND VALGRIND_CMD "$<TARGET_FILE:${TEST_NAME}>")
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT
${PASSED_FILE}
COMMAND
${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E echo \"${VALGRIND_CMD}\" > ${OUTPUT_FILE}
COMMAND
${VALGRIND_CMD} >> ${OUTPUT_FILE} 2>&1 || (cat ${OUTPUT_FILE} && false)
COMMAND
${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E touch ${PASSED_FILE}
COMMENT
"Running ${ARG_NAME} tests"
USES_TERMINAL
)
References
cmake: How to include literal double-quote in custom command?
cmake: when to quote variables?

Answer 2

As pointed by #MuertoExcobito, option VERBATIM cares about properly escaping parameters, no needs in additional double quotes escaped manually:
COMMAND
echo "${VALGRIND_BIN} ${VALGRIND_OPTS} $<TARGET_FILE:${TEST_NAME}>" > ${OUTPUT_FILE}
VERBATIM
(Outer double quotes are needed for CMake do not separate echo parameters).