Question

Just as make clean deletes all the files that a makefile has produced, I would like to do the same with CMake. All too often I find myself manually going through directories removing files like cmake_install.cmake and CMakeCache.txt, and the CMakeFiles folders.

Is there a command like cmake clean to remove all these files automatically? Ideally this should follow the recursive structure defined within the current directory’s CMakeLists.txt file.

Answer 1

CMake 3.X

CMake 3.X offers a ‘clean’ target.

cmake --build C:/foo/build/ --target clean

From the CMake docs for 3.0.2:

--clean-first  = Build target 'clean' first, then build.
                 (To clean only, use --target 'clean'.)

CMake 2.X

There is no cmake clean in CMake version 2.X

I usually build the project in a single folder like "build". So if I want to make clean, I can just rm -rf build.

The "build" folder in the same directory as the root "CMakeLists.txt" is usually a good choice. To build your project, you simply give cmake the location of the CMakeLists.txt as an argument. For example: cd <location-of-cmakelists>/build && cmake ... (From @ComicSansMS)