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Provide a nice way to generate Windows RC files

With the current state, developers have to manually specify manually maintained RC files via target_sources. They either generate the file themselves using file(GENERATE) / configure_file() or have it checked into their VCS project.

It would be nice if CMake provided a default .rc file with sensible defaults that is embedded into built executables / libraries.

CMake already does that for macOS application bundles and framework bundles by providing a default Info.plist file, which can further be tweaked by setting various target properties.

From the top of my head I can see a couple of ways of doing it:

  1. Follow the Info.plist approach, and have a default .rc file template that can be tweaked by property targets, and replaced entirely via some other property.

  2. Provide a CMake module that exposes a function that generates an .rc file. It would take various parameters to control the .rc file content, and provide sensible defaults when not set.

Developers can then manually target_sources() the file.

Here's an existing .rc file creating function we currently use in Qt, but it would be nice if something like it could be upstreamed.

.rc generation function 
# Generate Win32 RC files for a target. All entries in the RC file are generated
# from target properties:
#
# QT_TARGET_COMPANY_NAME: RC Company name
# QT_TARGET_DESCRIPTION: RC File Description
# QT_TARGET_VERSION: RC File and Product Version
# QT_TARGET_COPYRIGHT: RC LegalCopyright
# QT_TARGET_PRODUCT_NAME: RC ProductName
# QT_TARGET_COMMENTS: RC Comments
# QT_TARGET_ORIGINAL_FILENAME: RC Original FileName
# QT_TARGET_TRADEMARKS: RC LegalTrademarks
# QT_TARGET_INTERNALNAME: RC InternalName
# QT_TARGET_RC_ICONS: List of paths to icon files
#
# If you do not wish to auto-generate rc files, it's possible to provide your
# own RC file by setting the property QT_TARGET_WINDOWS_RC_FILE with a path to
# an existing rc file.
function(_qt_internal_generate_win32_rc_file target)
    set(prohibited_target_types INTERFACE_LIBRARY STATIC_LIBRARY OBJECT_LIBRARY)
    get_target_property(target_type ${target} TYPE)
    if(target_type IN_LIST prohibited_target_types)
        return()
    endif()

    get_target_property(target_binary_dir ${target} BINARY_DIR)

    get_target_property(target_rc_file ${target} QT_TARGET_WINDOWS_RC_FILE)
    get_target_property(target_version ${target} QT_TARGET_VERSION)

    if (NOT target_rc_file AND NOT target_version)
        return()
    endif()

    if (target_rc_file)
        # Use the provided RC file
        target_sources(${target} PRIVATE "${target_rc_file}")
    else()
        # Generate RC File
        set(rc_file_output "${target_binary_dir}/")
        if(QT_GENERATOR_IS_MULTI_CONFIG)
            string(APPEND rc_file_output "$<CONFIG>/")
        endif()
        string(APPEND rc_file_output "${target}_resource.rc")
        set(target_rc_file "${rc_file_output}")

        set(company_name "")
        get_target_property(target_company_name ${target} QT_TARGET_COMPANY_NAME)
        if (target_company_name)
            set(company_name "${target_company_name}")
        endif()

        set(file_description "")
        get_target_property(target_description ${target} QT_TARGET_DESCRIPTION)
        if (target_description)
            set(file_description "${target_description}")
        endif()

        set(legal_copyright "")
        get_target_property(target_copyright ${target} QT_TARGET_COPYRIGHT)
        if (target_copyright)
            set(legal_copyright "${target_copyright}")
        endif()

        set(product_name "")
        get_target_property(target_product_name ${target} QT_TARGET_PRODUCT_NAME)
        if (target_product_name)
            set(product_name "${target_product_name}")
        else()
            set(product_name "${target}")
        endif()

        set(comments "")
        get_target_property(target_comments ${target} QT_TARGET_COMMENTS)
        if (target_comments)
            set(comments "${target_comments}")
        endif()

        set(legal_trademarks "")
        get_target_property(target_trademarks ${target} QT_TARGET_TRADEMARKS)
        if (target_trademarks)
            set(legal_trademarks "${target_trademarks}")
        endif()

        set(product_version "")
        if (target_version)
            if(target_version MATCHES "[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+")
                # nothing to do
            elseif(target_version MATCHES "[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+")
                set(target_version "${target_version}.0")
            elseif(target_version MATCHES "[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+")
                set(target_version "${target_version}.0.0")
            elseif (target_version MATCHES "[0-9]+")
                set(target_version "${target_version}.0.0.0")
            else()
                message(FATAL_ERROR "Invalid version format: '${target_version}'")
            endif()
            set(product_version "${target_version}")
        else()
            set(product_version "0.0.0.0")
        endif()

        set(file_version "${product_version}")
        string(REPLACE "." "," version_comma ${product_version})

        set(original_file_name "$<TARGET_FILE_NAME:${target}>")
        get_target_property(target_original_file_name ${target} QT_TARGET_ORIGINAL_FILENAME)
        if (target_original_file_name)
            set(original_file_name "${target_original_file_name}")
        endif()

        set(internal_name "")
        get_target_property(target_internal_name ${target} QT_TARGET_INTERNALNAME)
        if (target_internal_name)
            set(internal_name "${target_internal_name}")
        endif()

        set(icons "")
        get_target_property(target_icons ${target} QT_TARGET_RC_ICONS)
        if (target_icons)
            set(index 1)
            foreach( icon IN LISTS target_icons)
                string(APPEND icons "IDI_ICON${index}    ICON    \"${icon}\"\n")
                math(EXPR index "${index} +1")
            endforeach()
        endif()

        set(target_file_type "VFT_DLL")
        if(target_type STREQUAL "EXECUTABLE")
            set(target_file_type "VFT_APP")
        endif()

        set(contents "#include <windows.h>
${icons}
VS_VERSION_INFO VERSIONINFO
FILEVERSION ${version_comma}
PRODUCTVERSION ${version_comma}
FILEFLAGSMASK 0x3fL
#ifdef _DEBUG
    FILEFLAGS VS_FF_DEBUG
#else
    FILEFLAGS 0x0L
#endif
FILEOS VOS_NT_WINDOWS32
FILETYPE ${target_file_type}
FILESUBTYPE VFT2_UNKNOWN
BEGIN
    BLOCK \"StringFileInfo\"
    BEGIN
        BLOCK \"040904b0\"
        BEGIN
            VALUE \"CompanyName\", \"${company_name}\"
            VALUE \"FileDescription\", \"${file_description}\"
            VALUE \"FileVersion\", \"${file_version}\"
            VALUE \"LegalCopyright\", \"${legal_copyright}\"
            VALUE \"OriginalFilename\", \"${original_file_name}\"
            VALUE \"ProductName\", \"${product_name}\"
            VALUE \"ProductVersion\", \"${product_version}\"
            VALUE \"Comments\", \"${comments}\"
            VALUE \"LegalTrademarks\", \"${legal_trademarks}\"
            VALUE \"InternalName\", \"${internal_name}\"
        END
    END
    BLOCK \"VarFileInfo\"
    BEGIN
        VALUE \"Translation\", 0x0409, 1200
    END
END
/* End of Version info */\n"
        )

        # We can't use the output of file generate as source so we work around
        # this by generating the file under a different name and then copying
        # the file in place using add custom command.
        file(GENERATE OUTPUT "${rc_file_output}.tmp"
            CONTENT "${contents}"
        )

        if(QT_GENERATOR_IS_MULTI_CONFIG)
            set(cfgs ${CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES})
            set(outputs "")
            foreach(cfg ${cfgs})
                string(REPLACE "$<CONFIG>" "${cfg}" expanded_rc_file_output "${rc_file_output}")
                list(APPEND outputs "${expanded_rc_file_output}")
            endforeach()
        else()
            set(cfgs "${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}")
            set(outputs "${rc_file_output}")
        endif()
        while(outputs)
            list(POP_FRONT cfgs cfg)
            list(POP_FRONT outputs output)
            set(input "${output}.tmp")
            add_custom_command(OUTPUT "${output}"
                DEPENDS "${input}"
                COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_if_different "${input}" "${output}"
            )

            # We would like to do the following:
            #     target_sources(${target} PRIVATE "$<$<CONFIG:${cfg}>:${output}>")
            # However, https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues/20682 doesn't let us.
            add_library(${target}_${cfg}_rc OBJECT "${output}")
            target_link_libraries(${target} PRIVATE "$<$<CONFIG:${cfg}>:${target}_${cfg}_rc>")
        endwhile()
    endif()
endfunction()
Edited by Brad King
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