How to print messages after make done with cmake? - post

Question

I'm trying to print messages after building process done using CMake.
I just want to inform the user after make command is done without any error.
How can I do it? I tried add_custom_target() but I cannot choose when to run.
Also, I tried add_custom_command(), again it doesn't give me the right result.
Any idea?
Thank you for your idea in advance.

Answer 1

You could, indeed, do the following:
add_custom_target( FinalMessage ALL
${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E cmake_echo_color --cyan "Compilation is over!"
COMMENT "Final Message" )
add_dependencies( FinalMessage ${ALL_TARGETS} )
That custom target depending on the list of all the targets you previously defined, you make sure it will be run last.

Answer 2

To print a message after building a specific target, e. g. make yourtarget, you can use
add_custom_command(TARGET yourtarget POST_BUILD
COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E cmake_echo_color --cyan
"Message after yourtarget has been built.")
Instead of POST_BUILD, you could also use PRE_BUILD or PRE_LINK for other purposes, see documentation.
(You specified in the comments, that you like to print a message after all targets, but the original question is less precise. So it might be of some value for people looking here.)

Answer 3

I just resolved the issue with the help of smarquis.
Thank you.
Here's the step by step procedure to do it. Since my source tree are connected complicatedly with add_subdirectory() method, this method can be applied everyone.
Initialize ALL_TARGETS variable cached. Add the line in CMakeLists.txt right below the version checking command.
Set(ALL_TARGETS "" CACHE INTERNAL "")
Override Add_library() and Add_executable() methods. If there's any other target, override it as well. Add the lines below at the end of CMakeLists.txt file.
function(Add_library NAME)
Set(ALL_TARGETS ${ALL_TARGETS} "${ARGN}" CACHE INTERNAL "ALL_TARGETS")
_add_library(${NAME} ${ARGN})
endfunction()
function(Add_executable NAME)
Set(ALL_TARGETS ${ALL_TARGETS} "${ARGN}" CACHE INTERNAL "ALL_TARGETS")
_add_executable(${NAME} ${ARGN})
endfunction()
Create custom target that will execute all the things you want to do after building. In this example I just print some information on screen. Add it followed by the above.
add_custom_target(BUILD_SUCCESSFUL ALL
DEPENDS ${ALL_TARGETS}
COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E echo ""
COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E echo "====================="
COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E echo " Compile complete!"
COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E echo "====================="
COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E echo ""
)
Tada!