I'm trying to build an object file using CMake, but I can't seem to get CMake to build something other than a complete executable. I'm basically looking for the result of the following compilation (the result will be loaded on a VxWorks target and linked then):
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(INC_DIRS) -c src/object.c
I've tried changing the OUTPUT_NAME property of the target, but that doesn't seem to help, either.
I think I could work around this by using a custom command, but that seems like I'm also working around the nice things that CMake provides.
Thanks for your help!
This answer was given to me in the CMake mailing list and it worked like a charm:
Look at the following ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cpo
script:
#!/bin/sh
d=$1; shift
while [ "$1" != "--" ]; do
cp $1 $d/$(basename $1); shift
done
Now, look at the following CMakeLists.txt:
CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED(VERSION 2.8 FATAL_ERROR)
PROJECT(CPO C)
FILE(WRITE ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/f.c "void f(void){}\n")
ADD_LIBRARY(f SHARED f.c)
SET_TARGET_PROPERTIES(f PROPERTIES RULE_LAUNCH_LINK
"${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cpo ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR} <OBJECTS> --"
)
The launch script "cpo" makes the target "f" produce object files in
the directory passed in as the first parameter instead of a library;
everything else should be business as usual. The key is the script's
access to the <OBJECTS>
placeholder, so it can operate on the object
files while the actual link command after the "--" is ignored. That
way, you can use all of CMake's capabilities for the compilation and
intercept right before linking takes place. IMO, that's a quite clean
solution which should be easily adaptable to your needs; the downside
is that the use of RULE_LAUNCH_LINK
is limited to Makefile
generators.
I would go the custom command path. Remember you can still use those object files for compilation with CMake latter if you set the GENERATED and EXTERNAL_OBJECT source file properties.