Add CMake option to disable installing

[nickanthony-dgl]

It would be nice to have an option like "OPENXLSX_ENABLE_INSTALL" that allows projects using this as subroject to avoid having the headers and static libs installed.

[jurassicLizard]

Can you explain further what you wish to achieve ? i happen to be building this without having to "install" anything anywhere. just use the add_subdirectory CMAKE directive to add the project and then link against it by using

#....blabla your code here
add_subdirectory(relative/path/to/OpenXLSX)
#.....blabla your code here
add_executable(your_exe ${YOUR_EXE_SOURCES})
target_link_libraries(your_exe PRIVATE OpenXLSX::OpenXLSX)

cmake magic will take care of the rest

or have i misunderstood what you wish to achieve ?

[nickanthony-dgl]

I am doing the same as what you descirbe above with the addition of install(TARGETS your_exe). I want to be able to configure cmake so that when I run cmake --install it will install my targets (i.e. your_exe) but it won't also install extra things like OpenXLSX's targets.

So I am proposing that OpenXLSX adds something like option(OPENXLSX_ENABLE_INSTALL "Should headers and static lib be installed" ON). Then you use if(OPENXLSX_ENABLE_INSTALL) to guard any part of OpenXLSX CMake files that use the install() command. Then people using the library with add_subdirectory just need to set this option to OFF if they don't want to install OpenXLSXs targets.

Many libraries do the same thing. For example take a look at GTest's INSTALL_GTEST option https://github.com/google/googletest/blob/main/CMakeLists.txt

[jurassicLizard]

Yeah, i can see many cases where that might be needed . If you are interested , i currently tested with a rather small, private project and it appears using the EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL might achieve exactly what you want by excluding OpenXLSXs own install targets and only linking against it (tested with CMAKE 3.16.3) .This is , In case the requested option was never integrated in the project.

add_subdirectory(relative/path/to/OpenXLSX EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)

Source : https://cmake.cmake.narkive.com/WKIKLMMB/disabling-install-target-for-subdirectory

[nickanthony-dgl]

I'll give that a try, thanks.