[SOLVED] What install command does in cmake?

What install command does in cmake?

I couldn't understand the CMake documentation for install. I have a sample cmake file, where an executable is generated by

add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME}_node src/filename.cpp)

Then later installed by the following command

install(TARGETS ${PROJECT_NAME}_node ${PROJECT_NAME}   
ARCHIVE DESTINATION ${CATKIN_PACKAGE_LIB_DESTINATION}   
LIBRARY DESTINATION ${CATKIN_PACKAGE_LIB_DESTINATION}   
RUNTIME DESTINATION ${CATKIN_PACKAGE_BIN_DESTINATION} )

This CMake is from ROS so catkin is there. The overall question remains the same. Does someone know, why do we need to install TARGETS/ FILES?

Solution

You don't need to use the INSTALL function of catkin.

INSTALL function will just copy your final BINARY,LIBRARY,etc to a safer place (ex. main ros package space located at /opt/ros/<your-version>/share,lib,include) to keep the build workspace less crowded and to keep files safe in case your workspace got corrupted.