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visual-studio-2015wixcpack

Using both CMAKE_INSTALL_PATH and CPack WiX generator

I'm trying to generate msi-package using CPack WiX Generator.

In my CMakeLists.txt there is CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX set to "C:/Program Files/My Project". I need to have the full path, because some significant part of project's source code depends on this path. Also, I split the project into some components, one of which is named core.

I successfully generate Visual Studio solution using cmake-gui. But when I try to build the project PACKAGE, I get the following error:

53>EXEC : CPack error : Problem creating temporary directory: D:/Projects/build-Project-MSVC2015/_CPack_Packages/win64/WIX/project-2.3.0-20.AMD64/coreC:/Program Files/My Project

The same error occurs, when I leave CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX empty. In that case this variable is initialized by default to "C:/Program Files/Project_Name" and the rror is:

53>EXEC : CPack error : Problem creating temporary directory: D:/Projects/build-Project-MSVC2015/_CPack_Packages/win64/WIX/project-2.3.0-20.AMD64/coreC:/Program Files/Project_Name

Only when I set CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to just My Project (absent prepending C:/ or /) everything works well. The directory is created as D:/Projects/build-Project-MSVC2015/_CPack_Packages/win64/WIX/project-2.3.0-20.AMD64/coreMy Project and msi-package is created.

It seems, that CPack tries to make DESTDIR="D:/Projects/build-Project-MSVC2015/_CPack_Packages/win64/WIX/project-2.3.0-20.AMD64/core" install as an intermediate step, but as stated at cmake's documentation:

WARNING: DESTDIR may not be used on Windows because installation prefix usually contains a drive letter like in “C:/Program Files” which cannot be prepended with some other prefix.

Do I misunderstand the usage of CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX with CPack WiX Generator? Or is this is specific to Visual Studio? Or is there a workaround for this problem, like forcing DESTDIR to be empty (yes, I know that's dangerous)?

Solution

  • I really was somewhat misunderstanding the usage of CPack. After reading some information on CPack, I managed to create an msi-package the following way.

    For Windows-based package installations I turned off the usage of DESTDIR by setting CPACK_SET_DESTDIR to FALSE.

    As stated in cmake's documentation on CPACK_SET_DESTDIR:

    The most noticeable difference is that without CPACK_SET_DESTDIR, CPack uses CPACK_PACKAGING_INSTALL_PREFIX as a prefix whereas with CPACK_SET_DESTDIR set, CPack will use CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX as a prefix.

    That is, I should set CPACK_PACKAGING_INSTALL_PREFIX variable to appropriate value.

    If I set CPACK_PACKAGING_INSTALL_PREFIX to a non-empty value, e. g. to /My Project (note the leading /), CPack will append this to C:/Program files/${CPACK_PACKAGE_INSTALL_DIRECTORY}. CPACK_PACKAGE_INSTALL_DIRECTORY, in turn, defaults to "${CPACK_PACKAGE_NAME} ${CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION}". The full install path would be C:/Program Files/my-project 1.0.0/My Project, if I set CPACK_PACKAGE_NAME to "my-project" and CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION to 1.0.0.

    So, to build an msi-package that will install the program to C:\Program files\My Project, I use the following lines in CMakeLists.txt:

    SET(CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX "C:/Program Files/My Project" CACHE PATH "Install path" FORCE)
...
SET(CPACK_SET_DESTDIR FALSE)
SET(CPACK_PACKAGE_INSTALL_DIRECTORY "My Project")
SET(CPACK_PACKAGING_INSTALL_PREFIX "")

    For WiX generator CPACK_PACKAGE_INSTALL_DIRECTORY may not contain the full path, so SET(CPACK_PACKAGE_INSTALL_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}) will not work.

    CPACK_PACKAGING_INSTALL_PREFIX seems to be empty by default, so the last line is redundant.