Enable users of github program to configure their own DCMake prefix path - github

Question

Consider a situation where people work together on the same code base; c++ with cmake. Code base depends on a library, that must be installed separately.
Each user may have the library in a different location. A user may invoke cmake like this:
cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/path/for/that/user .
However, this is not very easy in all circumstances (e.g. windows and visual studio), and requires retyping. So instead, we have
list(APPEND CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH "/path/for/user")
In the CMakeLists.txt. This works, but requires people to constantly change that path after pulling a branch, which is annoying and easily forgotten. Is it possible to configure in a way that pulling new branches does not override this path, once set on a specific machine?

Answer 1

You can have each of your users create their own CMakeUserPresets.json file, and set it in the cacheVariables field of a configurePresets entry.
// CmakeUserPresets.json
{
"version": , // pick one
"cmakeMinimumRequired": {
"major": , // pick one
"minor": , // pick one
"patch": // pick one
},
"configurePresets": [
{
"name": "starball",
"displayName": "Starball's config",
"description": "Starball's private configuration preset",
"generator": "...",
"binaryDir": "...",
"cacheVariables": {
"CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH": "..."
},
"environment": {}
}
],
// ...
}
Make sure to put CMakeUserPresets.json in your .gitignore file (or whatever else you have to do for your specific VCS so that the user preset file isn't tracked in the VCS).