Are CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR and PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR the same in CMake?and CMAKE_BINARY_DIR?etc

There is a difference between these variables. CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR does indeed refer to the folder where the top-level CMakeLists.txt is defined. However, PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR refers to the folder of the CMakeLists.txt containing the most recent project() command.

For example, say you have a top-level project called Outer and this contains a subdirectory with its own project called Inner. Outer's CMakeLists.txt has:

project(Outer)
add_subdirectory(Inner)

and Inner's:

project(Inner)

Then in both of these CMakeLists files, CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR will refer to Outer's source dir. But while PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR for Outer is also this same dir, this is not the case for Inner. Inner's PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR is the subdirectory containing its CMakeLists.txt.

This difference applies to all PROJECT_<var> vs CMAKE_<var> variables.

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https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.5/variable/CMAKE_BINARY_DIR.html

CMAKE_BINARY_DIR

The path to the top level of the build tree.

This is the full path to the top level of the current CMake build tree. For an in-source build, this would be the same as CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR.

When run in -P script mode, CMake sets the variables CMAKE_BINARY_DIR, CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR, CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIRand CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR to the current working directory.

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CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR,PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR,_SOURCE_DIR：

这三个变量内容一致，都指的是工程的顶级目录。

CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR：外部编译时，指的是target目录，内部编译时，指的是顶级目录

CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR：CMakeList.txt所在的目录

CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR：CMakeList.txt的完整路径

CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_LINE：当前所在的行

CMAKE_MODULE_PATH：如果工程复杂，可能需要编写一些cmake模块，这里通过SET指定这个变量

LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIR,BINARY_OUTPUT_DIR：库和可执行的最终存放目录