How to use file glob in a different directory in CMake

Question

file(GLOB ...) and file(GLOB_RECURSE ...) only seems to work on the current source directory. Is there any way to glob a different directory?

Answer 1

file(GLOB) can be a little confusing at first, i had a similar issue a few months ago.

You have to specify your path directly in the <globbing-expressions> :

file(GLOB <variable>
     [LIST_DIRECTORIES true|false] [RELATIVE <path>]
     [<globbing-expressions>...])

For example :

file(GLOB my_cpp_list "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/directory/*.cpp")
foreach(file_path ${my_cpp_list})
    message(${file_path})
endforeach()

Will print the path of all .cpp files in ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/directory.

Answer 2

I had the same issue where no matter what path I specified, I would get a glob from CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR. The issue was that the path I was providing to GLOB wasn't valid, and it was reverting (gracefully, but annoyingly) to CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR. For example, either of the following will create the symptom you see:

file(GLOB my_cpp_list "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/directory *.cpp")

I forgot the "/" after "directory". This was why I never got valid results, even with valid directory names.

file(GLOB my_cpp_list "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/directoryy/*.cpp")

There is no sub-folder named "directoryy"