How do I make CMake output into a 'bin' dir?

224

votes

I'm currently constructing a project with a plugin structure. I'm using CMake to compile the project. The plugins are compiled in separate directories. My problem is that CMake compiles and saves the binaries and plugins, dynamic libraries, in the directory structure of the source. How do I make CMake save the files in something like a ./bin directory?

c++pluginscmake

349

votes

As in Oleg's answer, I believe the correct variable to set is CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY. We use the following in our root CMakeLists.txt:

set(CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib)
set(CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib)
set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/bin)

You can also specify the output directories on a per-target basis:

set_target_properties( targets...
    PROPERTIES
    ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib"
    LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib"
    RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/bin"
)

In both cases you can append _[CONFIG] to the variable/property name to make the output directory apply to a specific configuration (the standard values for configuration are DEBUG, RELEASE, MINSIZEREL and RELWITHDEBINFO).

32

votes

Use set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "/some/full/path/to/bin")

8

votes

Use the EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH CMake variable to set the needed path. For details, refer to the online CMake documentation:

CMake 2.8.8 Documentation

6

votes

As to me I am using cmake 3.5, the below(set variable) does not work:

set(
      ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "/home/xy/cmake_practice/lib/"
      LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "/home/xy/cmake_practice/lib/"
      RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "/home/xy/cmake_practice/bin/"
)

but this works(set set_target_properties):

set_target_properties(demo5
    PROPERTIES
    ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "/home/xy/cmake_practice/lib/"
    LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "/home/xy/cmake_practice/lib/"
    RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "/home/xy/cmake_practice/bin/"
)

3

votes

$ cat CMakeLists.txt
project (hello)
set(EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH "bin")
add_executable (hello hello.c)

3

votes

English is not my native language; please excuse typing errors.

use this line config :
set(EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/build/)
place your any CMakeLists.txt project.
this ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR} is your current source directory where project place .
and if wander why is ${EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH}
check this file CMakeCache.txt then search the key word output path,
all the variables define here , it would give a full explanation of the project all setting·

2

votes

To add on to this:

If you're using CMAKE to generate a Visual Studio solution, and you want Visual Studio to output compiled files into /bin, Peter's answer needs to be modified a bit:

# set output directories for all builds (Debug, Release, etc.)
foreach( OUTPUTCONFIG ${CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES} )
    string( TOUPPER ${OUTPUTCONFIG} OUTPUTCONFIG )
    set( CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_${OUTPUTCONFIG} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/lib )
    set( CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_${OUTPUTCONFIG} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/lib )
    set( CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_${OUTPUTCONFIG} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/bin )
endforeach( OUTPUTCONFIG CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES )

1

votes

cat CMakeLists.txt
project (hello)
set(CMAKE_BINARY_DIR "/bin")
set(EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
add_executable (hello hello.c)

0

votes

Regardless of whether I define this in the main CMakeLists.txt or in the individual ones, it still assumes I want all the libs and bins off the main path, which is the least useful assumption of all.

How do I make CMake output into a 'bin' dir?

9 Answers