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I have a project with the following file structure (transitioning to CMake), with source and header files in the same directories:

root +- module1 +- a.hpp +- a.cpp +- b.hpp +- b.cpp + module1a +- a.hpp +- b.cpp +- module2 +- a.hpp +- a.cpp

Header files are included in each other as #include<projectname/module1/a.hpp>. How can I instruct CMake to install all headers into the build directory as this structure, prior to building the .cpp files? I was briefly looking at install(DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/module1" DESTINATION "projectname/module1" FILES_MATCHING PATTERN "*.hpp") (from CMake install header files and maintain directory heirarchy) but it does install those headers into the build directory (nothing happens).

The headers are needed only at compile-time, not at runtime.

Can I get some hint how to achieve this?

EDIT: The directory layout is different in the source three than how #include directives include it. For example, consider #include<projectname/module1a/a.hpp>. include_directories will not work for this header. The same for #include<projectname/module1/a.hpp as root!=projectname. Headers must be copied/symlinked from the old layout to the new layout first.

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  • You have to use include_directories(/path/to/the/headers) to provide the headers for build. Commented Nov 18, 2019 at 12:28
  • The first component is unfortunately not the same, otherwise I would just use root/.. as include path (root vs. projectname). Commented Nov 18, 2019 at 12:35
  • Don't get it. Possible I do not understand your project structure. But you can add as much include_directories as you want. Commented Nov 18, 2019 at 12:45
  • Headers are included as #include<projectname/module/header.hpp>. So I need to create the projectname directory somewhere and then copy/symlink all headers into it (or symlink module subdirectories). There is no directory I can put to include_directories which will work. Commented Nov 18, 2019 at 13:08
  • "* it does not seem to do what I need*"... Why is this not what you need? What are you trying to achieve, if not this? Why not just use include_directories() for including headers into your project? Why does include_directories() not work? Commented Nov 18, 2019 at 13:11

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This is the solution (perhaps not perfect, but working) which will create symlinks at configure-time:

macro(create_symlink target linkname) execute_process( COMMAND ln -sf "${target}" "${linkname}" RESULT_VARIABLE HEADER_LINK_STATUS ERROR_VARIABLE HEADER_LINK_ERROR ) if(NOT "${HEADER_LINK_STATUS}" EQUAL 0) message(FATAL_ERROR "Symlinking headers failed:\n${HEADER_LINK_ERROR}") endif() endmacro() MESSAGE(STATUS "Symlinking headers …") FILE(MAKE_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/projectname") create_symlink("${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/module1" "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/projectname/module1") create_symlink("${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/module1/module1a" "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/projectname/module1a") create_symlink("${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/module2" "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/projectname/module2")
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