[FR] CMake: make output directory configurable

[IvanPysmenni]

It would be nice to have a possibility to configure build output folder. Especially when srt added as subdirectory to CMake build and root CMake configure some specific folder for build output.

Something like this:

if(NOT CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY)
    set(CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
endif()
if(NOT CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY)
    set(CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
endif()
if(NOT CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
    set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
endif()

Or create separate options for it like: SRT_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY

[ethouris]

Not sure what you want to achieve. The build directory is a temporary working place where intermediate files are stored. They are of no use to anything except making a target. To get all the compile targets where you wish them to be you should use the installation directory that you configure through CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX.

[IvanPysmenni]

I may not want to use make install command. I just want to build and pack everything in debian package. Or for example after build but before installation I want execute unit test to check that everything is OK. I set up output dirtectory to every subproject to make sure that all dll's will be near execution file(unit test execution file).

[ethouris]

All final artifacts are being built in the main build directory. You select this directory yourself when you are making a build; this can be either the in-source build or a shadow build, in which case it's a directory of your choice. The UT application is also run there.

Projects that use debian packaging either do installation to a preselected directory according to the standards, or there's a dedicated debian build definition file. Note that the binary package is comprised of public headers and library files, and which are these, it's defined in the build definition file.

[IvanPysmenni]

Artifacts are being built to a directory that are specified by this variables: CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, CMAKE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-buildsystem.7.html#output-artifacts

In srt this variables hardcoded to CMAKE_BINARY_DIR with no way to change it
https://github.com/Haivision/srt/blob/master/CMakeLists.txt#L248

[IvanPysmenni]

For example if I want to build my project with srt and jsoncpp subprojects without specifying build output folder I will end up in complete mess in build folder. Because srt will save build artifacts to CMAKE_BINARY_DIR and jsoncpp will save to CMAKE_BINARY_DIR/bin and CMAKE_BINARY_DIR/lib. In this case where I should save UT?
https://github.com/open-source-parsers/jsoncpp/blob/master/CMakeLists.txt#L100

In case of jsoncpp I have a possibility to change build output folder but not in srt case

[ethouris]

Ah, ok. So the request is to just not overwrite these directories if they are set to any values prior to call the cmake?

[IvanPysmenni]

Yes