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Q&A How to do "out-of-source" build properly with cmake?

There are two broad types of build environments - in-source and out-of-source. "In-source" means the compiled files will appear in the same directory as source files. "Out-of-source" means there is...

2 answers  ·  posted 3y ago by anatolyg‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by alex‭

Question cmake
#1: Initial revision by user avatar anatolyg‭ · 2020-12-15T12:43:46Z (over 3 years ago)
How to do "out-of-source" build properly with cmake?
There are two broad types of build environments - in-source and out-of-source. "In-source" means the compiled files will appear in the same directory as source files. "Out-of-source" means there is a dedicated directory for compilation results. It seems the latter one is more suitable for large projects, and it is also recommended by cmake.

Suppose my project contains several libraries, which have their own cmake fiels, `CMakeLists.txt`.

I have two options - store build results for the libraries in the directories where libraries are, or in the directory of the project I am building.

```
project
    possible place to put build results for libA and libB
    project_1.cpp
    project_2.cpp
    libA
        possible place to put build results for libA
        libA_1.cpp
        libA_2.cpp
    libB
        possible place to put build results for libB
        libB_1.cpp
        libB_2.cpp
```

Is there an option which is preferred by cmake?

Are there any obscure considerations which make one or the other option preferable?