path: root/Help/command/install.rst

install
-------

Specify rules to run at install time.

This command generates installation rules for a project.  Rules
specified by calls to this command within a source directory are
executed in order during installation.  The order across directories
is not defined.

There are multiple signatures for this command.  Some of them define
installation properties for files and targets.  Properties common to
multiple signatures are covered here but they are valid only for
signatures that specify them.

DESTINATION arguments specify the directory on disk to which a file
will be installed.  If a full path (with a leading slash or drive
letter) is given it is used directly.  If a relative path is given it
is interpreted relative to the value of CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX.  The
prefix can be relocated at install time using DESTDIR mechanism
explained in the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX variable documentation.

PERMISSIONS arguments specify permissions for installed files.  Valid
permissions are OWNER_READ, OWNER_WRITE, OWNER_EXECUTE, GROUP_READ,
GROUP_WRITE, GROUP_EXECUTE, WORLD_READ, WORLD_WRITE, WORLD_EXECUTE,
SETUID, and SETGID.  Permissions that do not make sense on certain
platforms are ignored on those platforms.

The CONFIGURATIONS argument specifies a list of build configurations
for which the install rule applies (Debug, Release, etc.).

The COMPONENT argument specifies an installation component name with
which the install rule is associated, such as "runtime" or
"development".  During component-specific installation only install
rules associated with the given component name will be executed.
During a full installation all components are installed.  If COMPONENT
is not provided a default component "Unspecified" is created.  The
default component name may be controlled with the
CMAKE_INSTALL_DEFAULT_COMPONENT_NAME variable.

The RENAME argument specifies a name for an installed file that may be
different from the original file.  Renaming is allowed only when a
single file is installed by the command.

The OPTIONAL argument specifies that it is not an error if the file to
be installed does not exist.

The TARGETS signature:

::

  install(TARGETS targets... [EXPORT <export-name>]
          [[ARCHIVE|LIBRARY|RUNTIME|FRAMEWORK|BUNDLE|
            PRIVATE_HEADER|PUBLIC_HEADER|RESOURCE]
           [DESTINATION <dir>]
           [INCLUDES DESTINATION [<dir> ...]]
           [PERMISSIONS permissions...]
           [CONFIGURATIONS [Debug|Release|...]]
           [COMPONENT <component>]
           [OPTIONAL] [NAMELINK_ONLY|NAMELINK_SKIP]
          ] [...])

The TARGETS form specifies rules for installing targets from a
project.  There are five kinds of target files that may be installed:
ARCHIVE, LIBRARY, RUNTIME, FRAMEWORK, and BUNDLE.  Executables are
treated as RUNTIME targets, except that those marked with the
MACOSX_BUNDLE property are treated as BUNDLE targets on OS X.  Static
libraries are always treated as ARCHIVE targets.  Module libraries are
always treated as LIBRARY targets.  For non-DLL platforms shared
libraries are treated as LIBRARY targets, except that those marked
with the FRAMEWORK property are treated as FRAMEWORK targets on OS X.
For DLL platforms the DLL part of a shared library is treated as a
RUNTIME target and the corresponding import library is treated as an
ARCHIVE target.  All Windows-based systems including Cygwin are DLL
platforms.  The ARCHIVE, LIBRARY, RUNTIME, and FRAMEWORK arguments
change the type of target to which the subsequent properties apply.
If none is given the installation properties apply to all target
types.  If only one is given then only targets of that type will be
installed (which can be used to install just a DLL or just an import
library).The INCLUDES DESTINATION specifies a list of directories
which will be added to the INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES of the
<targets> when exported by install(EXPORT).  If a relative path is
specified, it is treated as relative to the $<INSTALL_PREFIX>.

The PRIVATE_HEADER, PUBLIC_HEADER, and RESOURCE arguments cause
subsequent properties to be applied to installing a FRAMEWORK shared
library target's associated files on non-Apple platforms.  Rules
defined by these arguments are ignored on Apple platforms because the
associated files are installed into the appropriate locations inside
the framework folder.  See documentation of the PRIVATE_HEADER,
PUBLIC_HEADER, and RESOURCE target properties for details.

Either NAMELINK_ONLY or NAMELINK_SKIP may be specified as a LIBRARY
option.  On some platforms a versioned shared library has a symbolic
link such as

::

  lib<name>.so -> lib<name>.so.1

where "lib<name>.so.1" is the soname of the library and "lib<name>.so"
is a "namelink" allowing linkers to find the library when given
"-l<name>".  The NAMELINK_ONLY option causes installation of only the
namelink when a library target is installed.  The NAMELINK_SKIP option
causes installation of library files other than the namelink when a
library target is installed.  When neither option is given both
portions are installed.  On platforms where versioned shared libraries
do not have namelinks or when a library is not versioned the
NAMELINK_SKIP option installs the library and the NAMELINK_ONLY option
installs nothing.  See the VERSION and SOVERSION target properties for
details on creating versioned shared libraries.

One or more groups of properties may be specified in a single call to
the TARGETS form of this command.  A target may be installed more than
once to different locations.  Consider hypothetical targets "myExe",
"mySharedLib", and "myStaticLib".  The code

::

    install(TARGETS myExe mySharedLib myStaticLib
            RUNTIME DESTINATION bin
            LIBRARY DESTINATION lib
            ARCHIVE DESTINATION lib/static)
    install(TARGETS mySharedLib DESTINATION /some/full/path)

will install myExe to <prefix>/bin and myStaticLib to
<prefix>/lib/static.  On non-DLL platforms mySharedLib will be
installed to <prefix>/lib and /some/full/path.  On DLL platforms the
mySharedLib DLL will be installed to <prefix>/bin and /some/full/path
and its import library will be installed to <prefix>/lib/static and
/some/full/path.

The EXPORT option associates the installed target files with an export
called <export-name>.  It must appear before any RUNTIME, LIBRARY, or
ARCHIVE options.  To actually install the export file itself, call
install(EXPORT).  See documentation of the install(EXPORT ...)
signature below for details.

Installing a target with EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL set to true has undefined
behavior.

The FILES signature:

::

  install(FILES files... DESTINATION <dir>
          [PERMISSIONS permissions...]
          [CONFIGURATIONS [Debug|Release|...]]
          [COMPONENT <component>]
          [RENAME <name>] [OPTIONAL])

The FILES form specifies rules for installing files for a project.
File names given as relative paths are interpreted with respect to the
current source directory.  Files installed by this form are by default
given permissions OWNER_WRITE, OWNER_READ, GROUP_READ, and WORLD_READ
if no PERMISSIONS argument is given.

The PROGRAMS signature:

::

  install(PROGRAMS files... DESTINATION <dir>
          [PERMISSIONS permissions...]
          [CONFIGURATIONS [Debug|Release|...]]
          [COMPONENT <component>]
          [RENAME <name>] [OPTIONAL])

The PROGRAMS form is identical to the FILES form except that the
default permissions for the installed file also include OWNER_EXECUTE,
GROUP_EXECUTE, and WORLD_EXECUTE.  This form is intended to install
programs that are not targets, such as shell scripts.  Use the TARGETS
form to install targets built within the project.

The DIRECTORY signature:

::

  install(DIRECTORY dirs... DESTINATION <dir>
          [FILE_PERMISSIONS permissions...]
          [DIRECTORY_PERMISSIONS permissions...]
          [USE_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS] [OPTIONAL]
          [CONFIGURATIONS [Debug|Release|...]]
          [COMPONENT <component>] [FILES_MATCHING]
          [[PATTERN <pattern> | REGEX <regex>]
           [EXCLUDE] [PERMISSIONS permissions...]] [...])

The DIRECTORY form installs contents of one or more directories to a
given destination.  The directory structure is copied verbatim to the
destination.  The last component of each directory name is appended to
the destination directory but a trailing slash may be used to avoid
this because it leaves the last component empty.  Directory names
given as relative paths are interpreted with respect to the current
source directory.  If no input directory names are given the
destination directory will be created but nothing will be installed
into it.  The FILE_PERMISSIONS and DIRECTORY_PERMISSIONS options
specify permissions given to files and directories in the destination.
If USE_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS is specified and FILE_PERMISSIONS is not,
file permissions will be copied from the source directory structure.
If no permissions are specified files will be given the default
permissions specified in the FILES form of the command, and the
directories will be given the default permissions specified in the
PROGRAMS form of the command.

Installation of directories may be controlled with fine granularity
using the PATTERN or REGEX options.  These "match" options specify a
globbing pattern or regular expression to match directories or files
encountered within input directories.  They may be used to apply
certain options (see below) to a subset of the files and directories
encountered.  The full path to each input file or directory (with
forward slashes) is matched against the expression.  A PATTERN will
match only complete file names: the portion of the full path matching
the pattern must occur at the end of the file name and be preceded by
a slash.  A REGEX will match any portion of the full path but it may
use '/' and '$' to simulate the PATTERN behavior.  By default all
files and directories are installed whether or not they are matched.
The FILES_MATCHING option may be given before the first match option
to disable installation of files (but not directories) not matched by
any expression.  For example, the code

::

  install(DIRECTORY src/ DESTINATION include/myproj
          FILES_MATCHING PATTERN "*.h")

will extract and install header files from a source tree.

Some options may follow a PATTERN or REGEX expression and are applied
only to files or directories matching them.  The EXCLUDE option will
skip the matched file or directory.  The PERMISSIONS option overrides
the permissions setting for the matched file or directory.  For
example the code

::

  install(DIRECTORY icons scripts/ DESTINATION share/myproj
          PATTERN "CVS" EXCLUDE
          PATTERN "scripts/*"
          PERMISSIONS OWNER_EXECUTE OWNER_WRITE OWNER_READ
                      GROUP_EXECUTE GROUP_READ)

will install the icons directory to share/myproj/icons and the scripts
directory to share/myproj.  The icons will get default file
permissions, the scripts will be given specific permissions, and any
CVS directories will be excluded.

The SCRIPT and CODE signature:

::

  install([[SCRIPT <file>] [CODE <code>]] [...])

The SCRIPT form will invoke the given CMake script files during
installation.  If the script file name is a relative path it will be
interpreted with respect to the current source directory.  The CODE
form will invoke the given CMake code during installation.  Code is
specified as a single argument inside a double-quoted string.  For
example, the code

::

  install(CODE "MESSAGE(\"Sample install message.\")")

will print a message during installation.

The EXPORT signature:

::

  install(EXPORT <export-name> DESTINATION <dir>
          [NAMESPACE <namespace>] [FILE <name>.cmake]
          [PERMISSIONS permissions...]
          [CONFIGURATIONS [Debug|Release|...]]
          [EXPORT_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES]
          [COMPONENT <component>])

The EXPORT form generates and installs a CMake file containing code to
import targets from the installation tree into another project.
Target installations are associated with the export <export-name>
using the EXPORT option of the install(TARGETS ...) signature
documented above.  The NAMESPACE option will prepend <namespace> to
the target names as they are written to the import file.  By default
the generated file will be called <export-name>.cmake but the FILE
option may be used to specify a different name.  The value given to
the FILE option must be a file name with the ".cmake" extension.  If a
CONFIGURATIONS option is given then the file will only be installed
when one of the named configurations is installed.  Additionally, the
generated import file will reference only the matching target
configurations.  The EXPORT_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES keyword, if
present, causes the contents of the properties matching
(IMPORTED_)?LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES(_<CONFIG>)? to be exported, when
policy CMP0022 is NEW.  If a COMPONENT option is specified that does
not match that given to the targets associated with <export-name> the
behavior is undefined.  If a library target is included in the export
but a target to which it links is not included the behavior is
unspecified.

The EXPORT form is useful to help outside projects use targets built
and installed by the current project.  For example, the code

::

  install(TARGETS myexe EXPORT myproj DESTINATION bin)
  install(EXPORT myproj NAMESPACE mp_ DESTINATION lib/myproj)

will install the executable myexe to <prefix>/bin and code to import
it in the file "<prefix>/lib/myproj/myproj.cmake".  An outside project
may load this file with the include command and reference the myexe
executable from the installation tree using the imported target name
mp_myexe as if the target were built in its own tree.

NOTE: This command supercedes the INSTALL_TARGETS command and the
target properties PRE_INSTALL_SCRIPT and POST_INSTALL_SCRIPT.  It also
replaces the FILES forms of the INSTALL_FILES and INSTALL_PROGRAMS
commands.  The processing order of these install rules relative to
those generated by INSTALL_TARGETS, INSTALL_FILES, and
INSTALL_PROGRAMS commands is not defined.