setting external library /bin folder in cmake in windows - cmake

Question

My question is related to PCL installation and here it goes:
I compiled PCL using MSVC2013 and I updated manually my PCLConfig.cmake to point to all its dependences (3rdParty libs). The problem is that I want also to set its binaries /bin folders in the same cmake file (instead of adding /bin to environment variables). Is there a way to do that ?
What makes this question pertinent is that I'am testing different versions of PCL (1.6, 1.7, 1.8...), so won't adding the /bin folders to path of all these versions will create some kind of confict between them afterwards (in the retreive step) ?
*To be clear, what i succeded to do is that, using cmake, I can choose the PCLConfig of the PCL version I want, but when running my program (succefully compiled), it throws a missing pcl_****.dll missing, which is logic because the PCL/bin folder is not added to the system environement. so, my question is "can I add the PCL/bin floder to the project environment using the CMakeLists of my project? (instead of adding it to system environment)"
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

A temporary fix i found is generating my project with the specified PCL version wanted and then Adding the bin folders manually in MSVC 2013 :
Debugging->Environment << PATH=path_to_lib\lib;%PATH%
Tsyvarev, I'm looking for your proposition and I'll let you know if it worked. Looks like a cleaner way...
Cheers,

Answer 2

That PATH information for debugging is stored in the "user" project file. I've written a CMake function to generate such a file automatically. This worked for VC10. I assume it'll still work, or it may need some modification. The principal is to keep an empty user project file as a template, and CONFIGURE_FILE the contents to set whatever you want. I've set mine up so that you first do: SET(USERFILE_ENVIRONMENT "PATH=${directory}") then call the macro CREATE_USER_FILE with the name of the CMake project.
CreateUserFile.cmake:
get_filename_component(MY_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_FILE} PATH)
SET(USERFILE_TEMPLATE ${MY_DIRECTORY}/msdev.vcxprojuser.template CACHE STRING "" FORCE)
MACRO(CREATE_USER_FILE _projectName)
# Find user and system name
SET(SYSTEM_NAME $ENV{USERDOMAIN} CACHE STRING SystemName)
SET(USER_NAME $ENV{USERNAME} CACHE STRING UserName)
IF (${CMAKE_SIZEOF_VOID_P} MATCHES 4)
SET(USERFILE_ARCH Win32)
ELSE()
SET(USERFILE_ARCH x64)
ENDIF()
SET(USER_FILE ${_projectName}.vcxproj.user)
SET(USERFILE_TEMPLATE ${USERFILE_TEMPLATE})
SET(OUTPUT_PATH ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${USER_FILE})
# Configure the template file
CONFIGURE_FILE(${USERFILE_TEMPLATE} ${USER_FILE} #ONLY)
ENDMACRO(CREATE_USER_FILE)
And here's the template file.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Release|#USERFILE_ARCH#'">
<LocalDebuggerEnvironment>#USERFILE_ENVIRONMENT#</LocalDebuggerEnvironment>
<DebuggerFlavor>WindowsLocalDebugger</DebuggerFlavor>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|#USERFILE_ARCH#'">
<LocalDebuggerEnvironment>#USERFILE_ENVIRONMENT#</LocalDebuggerEnvironment>
<DebuggerFlavor>WindowsLocalDebugger</DebuggerFlavor>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='MinSizeRel|#USERFILE_ARCH#'">
<LocalDebuggerEnvironment>#USERFILE_ENVIRONMENT#</LocalDebuggerEnvironment>
<DebuggerFlavor>WindowsLocalDebugger</DebuggerFlavor>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='RelWithDebInfo|#USERFILE_ARCH#'">
<LocalDebuggerEnvironment>#USERFILE_ENVIRONMENT#</LocalDebuggerEnvironment>
<DebuggerFlavor>WindowsLocalDebugger</DebuggerFlavor>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
ProTip: do something similar to generate a .bat file to launch your program after setting the PATH that CMake computes, so you can run it from outside Visual Studio.