CMake Custom Command copy multiple files

Question

I am attempting to copy multiple files using the ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy format, but I was wondering if there was a way to provide a nu

Answer 1

A relatively simple workaround would be to use ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E tar to bundle the sources, move the tarball and extract it in the destination directory.

This could be more trouble than it's worth if your sources are scattered across many different directories, since extracting would retain the original directory structure (unlike using cp). If all the files are in one directory however, you could achieve the copy in just 2 add_custom_command calls.

Say your sources to be moved are all in ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/source_dir, the destination is ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/destination_dir and your list of filenames (not full paths) are in ${FileList}. You could do:

add_custom_command(
    TARGET MyExe POST_BUILD
    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E tar cfj ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/temp.tar ${FileList}
    WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/source_dir)

add_custom_command(
    TARGET MyExe POST_BUILD
    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E rename ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/temp.tar temp.tar
    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E tar xfj temp.tar ${FileList}
    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E remove temp.tar
    WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/destination_dir)