[CMake] exe and dll vs. pdb and idb files (was RE: CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY without the extra'Debug' or 'Release' ?)

[David.Karr at L-3COM.COM]

> From: Brad King [mailto:brad.king at kitware.com]
> 
> David.Karr at L-3COM.COM wrote:
>> One thing you can do with one directory full of .exe and .dll files is
>> to copy it somewhere else—to an arbitrary directory on another computer,
> 
> Perhaps the install() command is better for that.

Not if you mean what I think you mean.

Someone will be sitting at host X and will want to copy some code from host Y.  That is, they want to "pull" code from the machine where the build occurred, while logged onto a machine that basically doesn't have access to the build procedure, just to its output.  If they have to run a procedure on host Y to "push" code from host Y to host X, it introduces extra complexity in their work day.

It occurred to me that the install() command might be an alternative to the use of the CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_* variables.  I see two main objections to this: first, it adds an extra step into the procedure (which would annoy all my coworkers and break my customer's build procedure, when they're already giving me pushback about other things that they say CMake "can't do"); second, just collecting .exes and .dlls in a directory within ${my_project_BINARY_DIR} is hardly a bona fide installation procedure, so it seems I'd be badly abusing the install() command.