Question

In CMake, I can’t seem to output my library in ../out/library, only library. When I do the ../out/library path, it tells me it can’t find the library, as if it wants to link to it.

add_library(../out/JE3D ../source/CDeviceLayerSDL.cpp)

There’s more files, I’m just saving space. When I do that, I get this error.

Linking CXX static library lib../out/JE3D.a
/usr/bin/ar: lib../out/JE3D.a: No such file or directory
make[2]: * [lib../out/JE3D.a] Error 1
make[1]: * [CMakeFiles/../out/JE3D.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [all] Error 2

Answer 1

The LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY target property specifies the directory where library target files will be built.

set_target_properties(JE3D PROPERTIES
         LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/out/library)

If all the libraries are in one directory, I find it more convenient to set the CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY variable, which is used to initialize the LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY property when creating a target.

set(CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/out/library)

Edit: Check comments if your target is a static library