[cmake-developers] [CMake] Windows rpath emulation

[Nils Gladitz]

On 09/23/2014 03:11 PM, David Cole wrote:
> What is the problem that this feature is trying to solve?

Being able to run binaries with DLL dependencies within the build tree.
Basically the same thing that the build time RPATH feature does on e.g. 
linux.

If you are e.g. linking to Qt5 (shared) and don't have the Qt5 bin 
directory in your PATH the binary will not run since it can not locate 
the DLL on its own.

As workarounds people often copy the DLLs into their build directories,
output all runtime files into a single directory and/or set up custom 
wrappers that set up PATH.

> But if you do pursue something like this, it seems to me that
> install(TARGETS ...) should install all files including the wrapper.

CMake replaces build time RPATHs with installation RPATHs when deploying.

I think the same should apply to these wrappers. They are only useful 
for a build tree.

> Is this only for executable files, or would something like this also
> be possible/necessary for shared libraries, too?

I have been pondering DLLs as well but would restrict it to executables 
for now. For DLLs this probably only makes sense in a context where the 
DLL is build by CMake and used as-is without deployment in a context 
outside of CMake's control.

Also I am guessing this might not be as simple to set up as it is for 
executables.

Thanks for the feedback!

Nils