Does CMake offer a method to set the working directory for a given build system to use when running/debugging the project?

Question

I have a project with the following structure:

project_name/CMakeLists.txt project_name/src project_name/resources ... project_name-build/configuration_name/project_name.exe 

I want my application to be run in the root project directory project_name so it can directly access resources.

Does CMake provide a method to specify this property, or will I have to manually set it in each build environment I use?

I've looked around in the documentation and haven't found anything other than the possibility of setting up a post-build event to run my project from the desired directory which is less than desirable. I also found that the working directory setting for Visual Studio is saved in a per-user file (.vcxproj.user) which I don't believe CMake generates (which points to the answer being probably no).

Answer 1

Since CMake 3.8, there is the VS_DEBUGGER_WORKING_DIRECTORY target property, which allows you to set the debugger working directory for a target in Visual Studio.

Usage example:

set_property(TARGET MyTarget PROPERTY VS_DEBUGGER_WORKING_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/bin") 

Answer 2

As drescherjm pointed out (in his comment on the question) CMake doesn't provide a method to directly set a working directory. However, CMake does provide indirect methods of doing so.

The path I think I'll take is to use the configure_file command to fill in a template .user file.