CMake Error: file INSTALL destination is not a directory

Question

I am running the command "sudo make install", the relevant cmake_install.cmake file is at the bottom. The exact error message I receive is:

CMake Error at cmake_install.cmake:36 (file):
  file INSTALL destination:
  ~/Desktop/Geant/geant4.10.04-install/share/Geant4-10.4.0/geant4make is not
  a directory.


Makefile:104: recipe for target 'install' failed
make: *** [install] Error 1

This is perplexing to me as I can navigate to that exact directory, it exists and whats more, it was made during this installation, so the make install is creating this directory and then saying that it doesn't exist...

Also, when I originally did the cmake command, my CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX is "~/Desktop/Geant/geant4.10.04-install", but since the make install command was able to make the geant4.10.04-install directory in the correct place, I don't think that is the problem.

The first 50ish lines of the cmake_install.cmake file (I can post the rest if need be...) :

# Install script for directory: /home/kagnew/Desktop/Geant/geant4.10.04

# Set the install prefix
if(NOT DEFINED CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX)
  set(CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX "~/Desktop/Geant/geant4.10.04-install")
endif()
string(REGEX REPLACE "/$" "" CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX "${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}")

# Set the install configuration name.
if(NOT DEFINED CMAKE_INSTALL_CONFIG_NAME)
  if(BUILD_TYPE)
    string(REGEX REPLACE "^[^A-Za-z0-9_]+" ""
           CMAKE_INSTALL_CONFIG_NAME "${BUILD_TYPE}")
  else()
    set(CMAKE_INSTALL_CONFIG_NAME "Release")
  endif()
  message(STATUS "Install configuration: \"${CMAKE_INSTALL_CONFIG_NAME}\"")
endif()

# Set the component getting installed.
if(NOT CMAKE_INSTALL_COMPONENT)
  if(COMPONENT)
    message(STATUS "Install component: \"${COMPONENT}\"")
    set(CMAKE_INSTALL_COMPONENT "${COMPONENT}")
  else()
    set(CMAKE_INSTALL_COMPONENT)
  endif()
endif()

# Install shared libraries without execute permission?
if(NOT DEFINED CMAKE_INSTALL_SO_NO_EXE)
  set(CMAKE_INSTALL_SO_NO_EXE "1")
endif()

if(NOT CMAKE_INSTALL_COMPONENT OR "${CMAKE_INSTALL_COMPONENT}" STREQUAL "Development")
  file(INSTALL DESTINATION "${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/share/Geant4-10.4.0/geant4make" TYPE FILE MESSAGE_LAZY PERMISSIONS OWNER_READ OWNER_WRITE OWNER_EXECUTE GROUP_READ GROUP_EXECUTE WORLD_READ WORLD_EXECUTE FILES "/home/kagnew/Desktop/Geant/geant4-build/InstallTreeFiles/geant4make.sh")
endif()

UPDATE: As suggested by Tsyvarev, changing the beginning of my prefix path from "~" to "/home/user/" seems to have fixed the problem

Answer 1

Using the environmental variable $ENV{HOME} is preferable to hardcoding /home/<user> because it will use the correct top-level directory (i.e. /Users instead of /home on macOS, if you're doing a cross-platform build), and it will automatically expand to include the name of the user invoking cmake, making it better suited to collaborative environments.

Additionally, using $ENV{HOME} should make the sudo in front of make install unnecessary, though depending on when the variable is expanded, $ENV{HOME} may refer to the user invoking cmake or the user invoking make install (i.e. /root if you use sudo), so your mileage may vary.

EDIT: I found my way to this question because I was getting the same "CMake Error: file INSTALL destination is not a directory" output due to using ~. It would seem that for certain purposes CMake just really doesn't like ~. $ENV{HOME} has exactly the same value as ~, except that CMake doesn't freak out when you try to use it in CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX.