CPack Archive Generator

CPack generator for packaging files into an archive, which can have any of the following formats:

  • 7Z - 7zip - (.7z)

    Added in version 3.1.

  • TAR (.tar)

    Added in version 4.0.

  • TBZ2 (.tar.bz2)

  • TGZ (.tar.gz)

  • TXZ (.tar.xz)

    Added in version 3.1.

  • TZ (.tar.Z)

  • TZST (.tar.zst)

    Added in version 3.16.

  • ZIP (.zip)

When this generator is called from CPackSourceConfig.cmake (or through the package_source target), then the generated archive will contain all files in the project directory, except those specified in CPACK_SOURCE_IGNORE_FILES. The following is one example of packaging all source files of a project:

set(CPACK_SOURCE_GENERATOR "TGZ")
set(CPACK_SOURCE_IGNORE_FILES
  \\.git/
  build/
  ".*~$"
)
set(CPACK_VERBATIM_VARIABLES YES)
include(CPack)

When this generator is called from CPackConfig.cmake (or through the package target), then the generated archive will contain all files that have been installed via CMake's install() command (and the deprecated commands install_files(), install_programs(), and install_targets()).

Variables specific to CPack Archive generator

CPACK_ARCHIVE_FILE_NAME

Added in version 3.9.

Archive name for component-based packages, without extension.

Default:

CPACK_PACKAGE_FILE_NAME

The extension is appended automatically.

If CPACK_COMPONENTS_GROUPING is set to ALL_COMPONENTS_IN_ONE, this will be the name of the one output archive.

Changed in version 4.0: This variable also works for non-component packages.

CPACK_ARCHIVE_<component>_FILE_NAME

Added in version 3.9.

Component archive name without extension.

Default:

<CPACK_ARCHIVE_FILE_NAME>-<component>, with spaces replaced by '-'.

The extension is appended automatically. Note that <component> is all uppercase in the variable name.

CPACK_ARCHIVE_FILE_EXTENSION

Added in version 3.25.

Archive file extension.

Default:

Default values are given in the list above.

CPACK_ARCHIVE_COMPONENT_INSTALL

Enable component packaging.

Default:

OFF

If enabled (ON) multiple packages are generated. By default a single package containing files of all components is generated.

Variables used by CPack Archive generator

These variables are used by the Archive generator, but are also available to CPack generators which are essentially archives at their core. These include:

CPACK_ARCHIVE_THREADS

Added in version 3.18.

The number of threads to use when performing the compression.

Default:

value of CPACK_THREADS

If set to 0, the number of available cores on the machine will be used instead. Note that not all compression modes support threading in all environments.

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.