cmake, add_custom_command with dependencies from a different directory

Question

I have a question about CMake which seems to be commonly asked here, but none of the answers seem to solve my problem.

In the details subdirectory, there is

Answer 1

CMake docs for add_custom_target:

By default nothing depends on the custom target. Use ADD_DEPENDENCIES to add dependencies to or from other targets.

So I suggest to "connect" the targets with

ADD_DEPENDENCIES( full_out part_out )

EDIT: Working example

As it turned out, you need to set the source file properties for part.out

Here is my working example (tried under Windows with VS2008):

CMakeLists.txt:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8 )
project( full )

add_subdirectory( details )

add_custom_command( OUTPUT full.out 
               COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy ./details/part.out full.out
               DEPENDS details/part.out 
               )


add_custom_target( full_out
               DEPENDS full.out details/part.out details/part.src
              )


set_source_files_properties( details/part.out PROPERTIES GENERATED TRUE ) 


add_dependencies( full_out part_out )

details/CMakeLists.txt:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8 )
project(part)

add_custom_command(OUTPUT part.out
               COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/part.src part.out
               DEPENDS part.src)

add_custom_target(part_out
              DEPENDS part.out)

This example worked for all of your 3 stated cases.