Why are tests in a separate project?

[PatrickKa]

Hi, I have been using cmake-init as a source of inspiration and best practices for a while now, so thanks for putting in all the work. I am wondering, though, why the tests are in a separate project. By this I mean the project() calls in test/CMakeLists.txt like here and here in the examples. What is the advantage of that compared to just adding the test targets to the not-test project?

[friendlyanon]

Keeping the testing as a separate project enables you to also test the project when installed as a relocatable CMake package. This ensures that you use the same workflow your users would, i.e. find_package() followed by everything else.

However, I did not make this the default in CI primarily because that would require a bit more code and the setup would be different than what the developers have locally. I should probably put an example together to show what testing using the install interface looks like at least.

[PatrickKa]

Ah, so instead of including the test project via add_subdirectory(), you would make a "real" stand-alone project requiring an additional find_package(the-package-to-test) in the CML file and installing the-package-to-test in CI. I see that this is a bit less convenient/more work for the developer. Since I am working only on projects with a limited to non-existing external user base, I will not change the current approach, but an example would definitely be nice.