[CMake] Idea: generic task-driven make-like targets with CMake

[Kevin Wojniak]

Functionality like add_custom_target combined with script mode is close, 
but not quite there. add_custom_target already requires a build 
directory and a generator, so it’s too late. Script mode requires 
setting variables on the command line, so it’s too verbose. For 
example:

if(“${ACTION}” STREQUAL “release”)
     execute_process(…)
endif()

cmake -P myscript.cmake -DACTION=release

I suppose you could have multiple *.cmake files for each task, and those 
could then call the master file with necessary variables set, but then 
you’d need one file per task and that could become excessive.

Kevin


On 8 Dec 2015, at 10:22, Nils Gladitz wrote:

> On 08.12.2015 19:04, Kevin Wojniak wrote:
>>
>> add_task(release
>> COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E make_directory “build_dir”
>> COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E chdir “build_dir” ${CMAKE_COMMAND} 
>> “-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release”, “..”
>> )
>>
>
> There is add_custom_target().
>
> You can e.g. add_custom_target(release ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E echo 
> foobar)
> and with the Makefiles generator run "make release" and with visual 
> studio trigger the build of the "release" project.
>
> For scripting you can use cmake in script mode with -P.
>
> e.g. given a script file release.cmake:
>  message("Hello World")
>
> add_custom_target(release ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -P 
> ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/release.cmake)
>
> Nils