[cmake-developers] [CMake 0012877]: Support generator expressions in OUTPUT

[Mantis Bug Tracker]

The following issue has been SUBMITTED. 
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http://public.kitware.com/Bug/view.php?id=12877 
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Reported By:                Petr Kmoch
Assigned To:                
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Project:                    CMake
Issue ID:                   12877
Category:                   CMake
Reproducibility:            N/A
Severity:                   minor
Priority:                   normal
Status:                     new
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Date Submitted:             2012-01-16 09:49 CET
Last Modified:              2012-01-16 09:49 CET
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Summary:                    Support generator expressions in OUTPUT
Description: 
While $<...> generator expressions in the COMMAND portion of
add_custom_command() are useful, I find their use is limited by the fact they
cannot be used in other parts of add_custom_command(), such as OUTPUT. For
example, in my project, I need a custom command to copy some files to the
directory where a target's executable resides. In other words, I need the
following:

add_custom_command(
 OUTPUT "$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:MyTarget>/TheExtraFile"
 COMMAND "${CMAKE_EXECUTABLE}" -E copy Path_To/TheExtraFile
"$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:MyTarget>/TheExtraFile"
 VERBATIM
)

While in the COMMAND part, the generator expression is interpreted correctly, in
OUTPUT it's not, and CMake produces an error: "add_custom_command called with
OUTPUT containing a "<".  This character is not allowed."

I saw http://public.kitware.com/Bug/view.php?id=9974 which would offer a
superset od the above functionality, but the above would offer simpler syntax
for this more specific class of uses.
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Issue History 
Date Modified    Username       Field                    Change               
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2012-01-16 09:49 Petr Kmoch     New Issue                                    
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