CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX — CMake 4.0.1 Documentation (original) (raw)

Install directory used by install().

If make install is invoked or INSTALL is built, this directory is prepended onto all install directories.

This variable defaults as follows:

• Added in version 3.29: If the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX environment variable is set, its value is used as default for this variable.
• c:/Program Files/${PROJECT_NAME} on Windows.
• /usr/local on UNIX platforms.

See CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX_INITIALIZED_TO_DEFAULT for how a project might choose its own default.

On UNIX one can use the DESTDIR mechanism in order to relocate the whole installation to a staging area. See the DESTDIR environment variable for more information.

The installation prefix is also added to CMAKE_SYSTEM_PREFIX_PATHso that find_package(), find_program(),find_library(), find_path(), and find_file()will search the prefix for other software. This behavior can be disabled by setting the CMAKE_FIND_NO_INSTALL_PREFIX to TRUE before the first project() invocation.

Note

Use the GNUInstallDirs module to provide GNU-style options for the layout of directories within the installation.

The CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX may be defined when configuring a build tree to set its installation prefix. Or, when using the cmake(1)command-line tool's --install mode, one may specify a different prefix using the --prefixoption:

cmake --install . --prefix /my/install/prefix