How to add dependency in cmake targets

Question

I have defined a custom target in cmake. I now want to ensure that this target is only build when the cmake target test was executed. How can I achieve this.

Lets say that I have a target make coverage which should depend on the target make test to be called before, or call make test before executing.

How can I define this behavior in cmake?

Here my code that did not work as expected. I want to achive that make coverage depend that make test has to be called before.

    ADD_CUSTOM_TARGET(
        coverage COMMAND /bin/bash ${LIBPIPE_BINARY_DIR}/cmake/scripts/coverage.sh
        DEPENDS test
    )  

Answer 1

You cannot add a "DEPENDS test" clause. The pre-defined/built-in targets in CMake (all, install, package, test, clean) are not available as actual targets in a CMakeLists.txt file. So you cannot express a dependency on a built-in target.

There is an outstanding feature request in the CMake bug tracker for this feature, but it is not yet implemented. See http://public.kitware.com/Bug/view.php?id=8438

However, you could change your command for your custom target, though, such that it calls "make test" first, and then runs your coverage command.

Answer 2

The CMake FAQ states that the add_custom_command/add_custom_target commands, which define custom targets, have a DEPENDS parameter.

Edit

This will not work for built-in target test because of following feature request.

But you always can create custom target check or whatever as suggested in CMake FAQ