CPack

Configure generators for binary installers and source packages.

Introduction

The CPack module generates the configuration files CPackConfig.cmake and CPackSourceConfig.cmake. They are intended for use in a subsequent run of the cpack program where they steer the generation of installers or/and source packages.

Depending on the CMake generator, the CPack module may also add two new build targets, package and package_source. See the packaging targets section below for details.

The generated binary installers will contain all files that have been installed via CMake's install() command (and the deprecated commands install_files(), install_programs(), and install_targets()). Note that the DESTINATION option of the install() command must be a relative path; otherwise installed files are ignored by CPack.

Certain kinds of binary installers can be configured such that users can select individual application components to install. See the CPackComponent module for further details.

Source packages (configured through CPackSourceConfig.cmake and generated by the CPack Archive Generator) will contain all source files in the project directory except those specified in CPACK_SOURCE_IGNORE_FILES.

CPack Generators

The CPACK_GENERATOR variable has different meanings in different contexts. In a CMakeLists.txt file, CPACK_GENERATOR is a list of generators: and when cpack is run with no other arguments, it will iterate over that list and produce one package for each generator. In a CPACK_PROJECT_CONFIG_FILE, CPACK_GENERATOR is a string naming a single generator. If you need per-cpack-generator logic to control other cpack settings, then you need a CPACK_PROJECT_CONFIG_FILE. If set, the CPACK_PROJECT_CONFIG_FILE is included automatically on a per-generator basis. It only need contain overrides.

Here's how it works:

  • cpack runs

  • it includes CPackConfig.cmake

  • it iterates over the generators given by the -G command line option, or if no such option was specified, over the list of generators given by the CPACK_GENERATOR variable set in the CPackConfig.cmake input file.

  • foreach generator, it then

This is the key: For each generator listed in CPACK_GENERATOR in CPackConfig.cmake, cpack will reset CPACK_GENERATOR internally to the one currently being used and then include the CPACK_PROJECT_CONFIG_FILE.

For a list of available generators, see cpack-generators(7).

Targets package and package_source

If CMake is run with the Makefile, Ninja, or Xcode generator, then include(CPack) generates a target package. This makes it possible to build a binary installer from CMake, Make, or Ninja: Instead of cpack, one may call cmake --build . --target package or make package or ninja package. The VS generator creates an uppercase target PACKAGE.

If CMake is run with the Makefile or Ninja generator, then include(CPack) also generates a target package_source. To build a source package, instead of cpack -G TGZ --config CPackSourceConfig.cmake one may call cmake --build . --target package_source, make package_source, or ninja package_source.

Variables common to all CPack Generators

Before including this CPack module in your CMakeLists.txt file, there are a variety of variables that can be set to customize the resulting installers. The most commonly-used variables are:

CPACK_PACKAGE_NAME

The name of the package (or application). If not specified, it defaults to the project name.

CPACK_PACKAGE_VENDOR

The name of the package vendor. (e.g., "Kitware"). The default is "Humanity".

CPACK_PACKAGE_DIRECTORY

The directory in which CPack is doing its packaging. If it is not set then this will default (internally) to the build dir. This variable may be defined in a CPack config file or from the cpack command line option -B. If set, the command line option overrides the value found in the config file.

CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_MAJOR

Package major version. This variable will always be set, but its default value depends on whether or not version details were given to the project() command in the top level CMakeLists.txt file. If version details were given, the default value will be CMAKE_PROJECT_VERSION_MAJOR. If no version details were given, a default version of 0.1.1 will be assumed, leading to CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_MAJOR having a default value of 0.

CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_MINOR

Package minor version. The default value is determined based on whether or not version details were given to the project() command in the top level CMakeLists.txt file. If version details were given, the default value will be CMAKE_PROJECT_VERSION_MINOR, but if no minor version component was specified then CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_MINOR will be left unset. If no project version was given at all, a default version of 0.1.1 will be assumed, leading to CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_MINOR having a default value of 1.

CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_PATCH

Package patch version. The default value is determined based on whether or not version details were given to the project() command in the top level CMakeLists.txt file. If version details were given, the default value will be CMAKE_PROJECT_VERSION_PATCH, but if no patch version component was specified then CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_PATCH will be left unset. If no project version was given at all, a default version of 0.1.1 will be assumed, leading to CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_PATCH having a default value of 1.

CPACK_PACKAGE_DESCRIPTION

A description of the project, used in places such as the introduction screen of CPack-generated Windows installers. If not set, the value of this variable is populated from the file named by CPACK_PACKAGE_DESCRIPTION_FILE.

CPACK_PACKAGE_DESCRIPTION_FILE

A text file used to describe the project when CPACK_PACKAGE_DESCRIPTION is not explicitly set. The default value for CPACK_PACKAGE_DESCRIPTION_FILE points to a built-in template file Templates/CPack.GenericDescription.txt.

CPACK_PACKAGE_DESCRIPTION_SUMMARY

Short description of the project (only a few words). If the CMAKE_PROJECT_DESCRIPTION variable is set, it is used as the default value, otherwise the default will be a string generated by CMake based on CMAKE_PROJECT_NAME.

CPACK_PACKAGE_HOMEPAGE_URL

Project homepage URL. The default value is taken from the CMAKE_PROJECT_HOMEPAGE_URL variable, which is set by the top level project() command, or else the default will be empty if no URL was provided to project().

CPACK_PACKAGE_FILE_NAME

The name of the package file to generate, not including the extension. For example, cmake-2.6.1-Linux-i686. The default value is:

${CPACK_PACKAGE_NAME}-${CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION}-${CPACK_SYSTEM_NAME}
CPACK_PACKAGE_INSTALL_DIRECTORY

Installation directory on the target system. This may be used by some CPack generators like NSIS to create an installation directory e.g., "CMake 2.5" below the installation prefix. All installed elements will be put inside this directory.

CPACK_PACKAGE_ICON

A branding image that will be displayed inside the installer (used by GUI installers).

CPACK_PACKAGE_CHECKSUM

Added in version 3.7.

An algorithm that will be used to generate an additional file with the checksum of the package. The output file name will be:

${CPACK_PACKAGE_FILE_NAME}.${CPACK_PACKAGE_CHECKSUM}

Supported algorithms are those listed by the string(<HASH>) command.

CPACK_PROJECT_CONFIG_FILE

CPack-time project CPack configuration file. This file is included at cpack time, once per generator after CPack has set CPACK_GENERATOR to the actual generator being used. It allows per-generator setting of CPACK_* variables at cpack time.

CPACK_RESOURCE_FILE_LICENSE

License to be embedded in the installer. It will typically be displayed to the user by the produced installer (often with an explicit "Accept" button, for graphical installers) prior to installation. This license file is NOT added to the installed files but is used by some CPack generators like NSIS. If you want to use UTF-8 characters, the file needs to be encoded in UTF-8 BOM. If you want to install a license file (may be the same as this one) along with your project, you must add an appropriate CMake install() command in your CMakeLists.txt.

CPACK_RESOURCE_FILE_README

ReadMe file to be embedded in the installer. It typically describes in some detail the purpose of the project during the installation. Not all CPack generators use this file.

CPACK_RESOURCE_FILE_WELCOME

Welcome file to be embedded in the installer. It welcomes users to this installer. Typically used in the graphical installers on Windows and Mac OS X.

CPACK_MONOLITHIC_INSTALL

Disables the component-based installation mechanism. When set, the component specification is ignored and all installed items are put in a single "MONOLITHIC" package. Some CPack generators do monolithic packaging by default and may be asked to do component packaging by setting CPACK_<GENNAME>_COMPONENT_INSTALL to TRUE.

CPACK_GENERATOR

List of CPack generators to use. If not specified, CPack will create a set of options following the naming pattern CPACK_BINARY_<GENNAME> (e.g. CPACK_BINARY_NSIS) allowing the user to enable/disable individual generators. If the -G option is given on the cpack command line, it will override this variable and any CPACK_BINARY_<GENNAME> options.

CPACK_OUTPUT_CONFIG_FILE

The name of the CPack binary configuration file. This file is the CPack configuration generated by the CPack module for binary installers. Defaults to CPackConfig.cmake.

CPACK_PACKAGE_EXECUTABLES

Lists each of the executables and associated text label to be used to create Start Menu shortcuts. For example, setting this to the list ccmake;CMake will create a shortcut named "CMake" that will execute the installed executable ccmake. Not all CPack generators use it (at least NSIS, Inno Setup and WIX do).

CPACK_STRIP_FILES

List of files to be stripped. Starting with CMake 2.6.0, CPACK_STRIP_FILES will be a boolean variable which enables stripping of all files (a list of files evaluates to TRUE in CMake, so this change is compatible).

CPACK_VERBATIM_VARIABLES

Added in version 3.4.

If set to TRUE, values of variables prefixed with CPACK_ will be escaped before being written to the configuration files, so that the cpack program receives them exactly as they were specified. If not, characters like quotes and backslashes can cause parsing errors or alter the value received by the cpack program. Defaults to FALSE for backwards compatibility.

CPACK_THREADS

Added in version 3.20.

Number of threads to use when performing parallelized operations, such as compressing the installer package.

Some compression methods used by CPack generators such as Debian or Archive may take advantage of multiple CPU cores to speed up compression. CPACK_THREADS can be set to specify how many threads will be used for compression.

A positive integer can be used to specify an exact desired thread count.

When given a negative integer CPack will use the absolute value as the upper limit but may choose a lower value based on the available hardware concurrency.

Given 0 CPack will try to use all available CPU cores.

By default CPACK_THREADS is set to 1.

The following compression methods may take advantage of multiple cores:

xz

Supported if CMake is built with a liblzma that supports parallel compression.

Added in version 3.21: Official CMake binaries available on cmake.org now ship with a liblzma that supports parallel compression. Older versions did not.

zstd

Added in version 3.24.

Supported if CMake is built with libarchive 3.6 or higher. Official CMake binaries available on cmake.org support it.

Other compression methods ignore this value and use only one thread.

Variables for Source Package Generators

The following CPack variables are specific to source packages, and will not affect binary packages:

CPACK_SOURCE_PACKAGE_FILE_NAME

The name of the source package. For example cmake-2.6.1.

CPACK_SOURCE_STRIP_FILES

List of files in the source tree that will be stripped. Starting with CMake 2.6.0, CPACK_SOURCE_STRIP_FILES will be a boolean variable which enables stripping of all files (a list of files evaluates to TRUE in CMake, so this change is compatible).

CPACK_SOURCE_GENERATOR

List of generators used for the source packages. As with CPACK_GENERATOR, if this is not specified then CPack will create a set of options (e.g. CPACK_SOURCE_ZIP) allowing users to select which packages will be generated.

CPACK_SOURCE_OUTPUT_CONFIG_FILE

The name of the CPack source configuration file. This file is the CPack configuration generated by the CPack module for source installers. Defaults to CPackSourceConfig.cmake.

CPACK_SOURCE_IGNORE_FILES

Pattern of files in the source tree that won't be packaged when building a source package. This is a list of regular expression patterns (that must be properly escaped), e.g., /CVS/;/\\.svn/;\\.swp$;\\.#;/#;.*~;cscope.*

Variables for Advanced Use

The following variables are for advanced uses of CPack:

CPACK_CMAKE_GENERATOR

What CMake generator should be used if the project is a CMake project. Defaults to the value of CMAKE_GENERATOR. Few users will want to change this setting.

CPACK_INSTALL_CMAKE_PROJECTS

List of four values that specify what project to install. The four values are: Build directory, Project Name, Project Component, Directory. If omitted, CPack will build an installer that installs everything.

CPACK_SYSTEM_NAME

System name, defaults to the value of CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME, except on Windows where it will be win32 or win64.

CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION

Package full version, used internally. By default, this is built from CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_MAJOR, CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_MINOR, and CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION_PATCH.

CPACK_TOPLEVEL_TAG

Directory for the installed files.

CPACK_INSTALL_COMMANDS

Extra commands to install components. The environment variable CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX is set to the temporary install directory during execution.

CPACK_INSTALL_SCRIPTS

Added in version 3.16.

Extra CMake scripts executed by CPack during its local staging installation. They are executed before installing the files to be packaged. The scripts are not called by a standalone install (e.g.: make install). For every script, the following variables will be set: CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR, CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR and CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX (which is set to the staging install directory). The singular form CMAKE_INSTALL_SCRIPT is supported as an alternative variable for historical reasons, but its value is ignored if CMAKE_INSTALL_SCRIPTS is set and a warning will be issued.

See also CPACK_PRE_BUILD_SCRIPTS and CPACK_POST_BUILD_SCRIPTS which can be used to specify scripts to be executed later in the packaging process.

CPACK_PRE_BUILD_SCRIPTS

Added in version 3.19.

List of CMake scripts to execute after CPack has installed the files to be packaged into a staging directory and before producing the package(s) from those files. See also CPACK_INSTALL_SCRIPTS and CPACK_POST_BUILD_SCRIPTS.

CPACK_POST_BUILD_SCRIPTS

Added in version 3.19.

List of CMake scripts to execute after CPack has produced the resultant packages and before copying them back to the build directory. See also CPACK_INSTALL_SCRIPTS, CPACK_PRE_BUILD_SCRIPTS and CPACK_PACKAGE_FILES.

CPACK_PACKAGE_FILES

Added in version 3.19.

List of package files created in the staging directory, with each file provided as a full absolute path. This variable is populated by CPack just before invoking the post-build scripts listed in CPACK_POST_BUILD_SCRIPTS. It is the preferred way for the post-build scripts to know the set of package files to operate on. Projects should not try to set this variable themselves.

CPACK_INSTALLED_DIRECTORIES

Extra directories to install.

CPACK_PACKAGE_INSTALL_REGISTRY_KEY

Registry key used when installing this project. This is only used by installers for Windows. The default value is based on the installation directory.

List of desktop links to create. Each desktop link requires a corresponding start menu shortcut as created by CPACK_PACKAGE_EXECUTABLES.

CPACK_BINARY_<GENNAME>

CPack generated options for binary generators. The CPack.cmake module generates (when CPACK_GENERATOR is not set) a set of CMake options (see CMake option() command) which may then be used to select the CPack generator(s) to be used when building the package target or when running cpack without the -G option.

CPACK_READELF_EXECUTABLE

Added in version 3.25.

Specify the readelf executable path used by CPack. The default value will be taken from the CMAKE_READELF variable, if set, which may be populated by an internal CMake module. If CMAKE_READELF is not set, CPack will use find_program() to determine the readelf path when needed.

CPACK_OBJCOPY_EXECUTABLE

Added in version 3.25.

Specify the objcopy executable path used by CPack. The default value will be taken from the CMAKE_OBJCOPY variable, if set, which may be populated by an internal CMake module. If CMAKE_OBJCOPY is not set, CPack will use find_program() to determine the objcopy path when needed.

CPACK_OBJDUMP_EXECUTABLE

Added in version 3.25.

Specify the objdump executable path used by CPack. The default value will be taken from the CMAKE_OBJDUMP variable, if set, which may be populated by an internal CMake module. If CMAKE_OBJDUMP is not set, CPack will use find_program() to determine the objdump path when needed.