How to Get the Directory That Contains the Executable In Cmake?

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In CMake, you can use the CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR variable to get the directory where the current CMakeLists.txt file is located. If you want to get the directory that contains the executable, you can use the CMAKE_BINARY_DIR variable. This variable represents the top-level directory where the project executable files are built.


You can use this variable in your CMakeLists.txt file to reference the directory containing the executable. For example, if you want to copy a file to the same directory as the executable, you can use a command like file(COPY filename DESTINATION ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}) to achieve this.


By using the CMAKE_BINARY_DIR variable in your CMakeLists.txt file, you can easily access the directory that contains the executable and perform operations such as copying files, creating directories, or setting installation paths.

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How to capture the path of the executable directory in cmake?

To capture the path of the executable directory in CMake, you can use the following command:

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get_target_property(EXECUTABLE_PATH <target> RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY)


Replace <target> with the name of your target executable. This command will store the path of the executable directory in the EXECUTABLE_PATH variable, which you can then use in your CMake scripts.


What is the code snippet for fetching the executable directory using cmake?

To fetch the executable directory using CMake, you can use the CMake variable CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY. Here is a code snippet that demonstrates how to fetch the executable directory using CMake:

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# Set the output directory for executables
set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/bin)

# Print the executable directory
message(STATUS "Executable directory: ${CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY}")


In this code snippet, we are setting the output directory for executables to ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/bin. You can customize the output directory as needed. The message command is then used to print the executable directory.


How to automatically determine the executable directory in cmake?

In CMake, you can use the CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR variable to determine the directory where the executable is built. This variable contains the full path to the directory where the current CMake project's binary files are being generated.


You can use this variable to set the output directory for your executable in your CMakeLists.txt file like so:

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set(EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})


This will set the output directory for the executable to be the same as the current binary directory where CMake is generating files.


You can also use the CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY variable to specify the directory where CMake should place built executables. This variable can be set in your CMakeLists.txt file like this:

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set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})


This will ensure that CMake places the built executables in the same directory as the other binary files for the project.


What is the variable storing the path of the executable directory in cmake?

The variable storing the path of the executable directory in cmake is CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY.


How to navigate to the directory containing the executable in cmake?

To navigate to the directory containing the executable in CMake, you can use the following command in your CMakeLists.txt file:

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get_target_property(EXECUTABLE_DIR YourExecutable RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY)


This command retrieves the runtime output directory for your executable target named "YourExecutable". You can then use this variable in your CMake code to navigate to that directory.


For example, if you want to navigate to the directory containing the executable in a command line script, you can use the following command:

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add_custom_command(TARGET YourExecutable
    POST_BUILD
    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E chdir ${EXECUTABLE_DIR} your_command_here
)


This will change the current working directory to the directory containing the executable before executing your command.


Remember to replace "YourExecutable" with the name of your executable target in the CMakeLists.txt file.

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