I have a situation where I've created a custom command to generate .cpp files to be compiled (in my case running bison/flex).
I'm using CMake 3.13.4 However, I have to compile this code in two different ways for two different targets. I am seeing the Visual Studio generator re-running bison/flex once for each of these targets, which is (a) not necessary and (b) causes my builds to fail since it often happens that the second run can't replace the output files (due to Windows' annoying habit of locking files that are open). I have a custom command like this: add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${OUT_DIR}/MyParser.tab.cpp ${OUT_DIR}/MyParser.tab.hpp COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E make_directory ${OUT_DIR} COMMAND ${BISON} -d -o ${OUT_DIR}/MyParser.tab.cpp MyParser.y DEPENDS MyParser.y COMMENT "Building MyParser parser") set(MyParserOutput ${OUT_DIR}/MyParser.tab.cpp ${OUT_DIR}/MyParser.tab.hpp) add_custom_target(MyGenParser DEPENDS ${MyParserOutput}) Then I have two different libraries, both depending on this: add_library(OneLib STATIC ${MyParserOutput} ...) target_compile_definitions(OneLib PRIVATE -DONELIB) target_include_directories(OneLib PRIVATE ${OUT_DIR}) add_dependencies(OneLib MyGenparser) add_library(TwoLib STATIC ${MyParserOutput} ...) target_compile_definitions(TwoLib PRIVATE -DTWOLIB) target_include_directories(TwoLib PRIVATE ${OUT_DIR}) add_dependencies(TwoLib MyGenparser) On Linux and MacOS, this works fine. However on Windows with Visual Studio I see the custom target being run twice, once for each library: 18:27:10 21>PrepareForBuild: 18:27:10 Creating directory "OneLib.dir\RelWithDebInfo\". 18:27:10 Creating directory "OneLib.dir\RelWithDebInfo\OneLib.tlog\". 18:27:10 InitializeBuildStatus: 18:27:10 Creating "OneLib.dir\RelWithDebInfo\OneLib.tlog\unsuccessfulbuild" because "AlwaysCreate" was specified. 18:27:10 ComputeCustomBuildOutput: 18:27:10 Creating directory "D:\builds\src\". 18:27:10 CustomBuild: 18:27:10 Building MyParser parser Then again later: 18:27:20 69>PrepareForBuild: 18:27:20 Creating directory "TwoLib.dir\RelWithDebInfo\". 18:27:20 Creating directory "TwoLib.dir\RelWithDebInfo\TwoLib.tlog\". 18:27:20 InitializeBuildStatus: 18:27:20 Creating "TwoLib.dir\RelWithDebInfo\TwoLib.tlog\unsuccessfulbuild" because "AlwaysCreate" was specified. 18:27:20 CustomBuild: 18:27:20 Building MyParser parser See how this second one is re-building the parser; then this fails because the output file is locked by Windows (in use by the compiler): 18:27:21 69>CustomBuild: 18:27:21 bison.exe: could not create D:/builds/src/MyParser.tab.cpp 18:27:25 69>C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\Common7\IDE\VC\VCTargets\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets(209,5): error MSB6006: "cmd.exe" exited with code 1. [D:\builds\TwoLib.vcxproj] How can I get CMake to only run the bison command one time, then use the output for two different libraries? -- Powered by www.kitware.com Please keep messages on-topic and check the CMake FAQ at: http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake_FAQ Kitware offers various services to support the CMake community. For more information on each offering, please visit: CMake Support: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/support.html CMake Consulting: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/consulting.html CMake Training Courses: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/training.html Visit other Kitware open-source projects at http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe: https://cmake.org/mailman/listinfo/cmake