Manually set the CMake output folder

If you want to manually set the global output folder for you whole CMake project and depending on the output you expect add the following configuration lines in the root CMakeLists.txt file of your project:

set(CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib)
set(CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib)
set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/bin)

In case you wan to specify those folders per target, you can update them as follows:

set_target_properties( target_or_targets
  PROPERTIES
  ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib"
  LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib"
  RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/bin"
)

Please note that we are setting the same properties using different variables.

The CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY variable is used to initialize the ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY property on all the targets.
ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY property specifies the directory into which archive target files should be built.
An archive output artifact of a buildsystem target may be:

• The static library file (e.g. .lib or .a) of a static library target created by the add_library() command with the STATIC option.
• On DLL platforms: the import library file (e.g. .lib) of a shared library target created by the add_library() command with the SHARED option.
• On DLL platforms: the import library file (e.g. .lib) of an executable target created by the add_executable() command when its ENABLE_EXPORTS target property is set.

 

The CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY variable is used to initialize the LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY property on all the targets.
LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY property specifies the directory into which library target files should be built.
A library output artifact of a buildsystem target may be:
The loadable module file (e.g. .dll or .so) of a module library target created by the add_library() command with the MODULE option.
On non-DLL platforms: the shared library file (e.g. .so or .dylib) of a shared shared library target created by the add_library() command with the SHARED option.

 

The CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY variable is used to initialize the RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY property on all the targets.
RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY property specifies the directory into which runtime target files should be built.
A runtime output artifact of a buildsystem target may be:

• The executable file (e.g. .exe) of an executable target created by the add_executable() command.
• On DLL platforms: the executable file (e.g. .dll) of a shared library target created by the add_library() command with the SHARED option.

From: https://cmake.org/documentation/