How can I install a hierarchy of files using CMake?

I am assuming you have a list of files, let's say INCLUDE_FILES. Possibly a selection of files spread over a number of subdirectories, e.g. header files from across the source tree, as opposed to everything in a single subdir like in the other answers.

You can loop over the file list and use get_filename_component() to extract the directory part, then use that in a subsequent install() to set the DESTINATION subdirectory:

foreach ( file ${INCLUDE_FILES} )
    get_filename_component( dir ${file} DIRECTORY )
    install( FILES ${file} DESTINATION include/${dir} )
endforeach()

Done. ;-)

Edit: If all the files you want to install that way match a particular file pattern -- e.g. "all header files" -- then brno's answer has the edge over this one.

The simplest way to install everything from a given directory is:

install(DIRECTORY mydir/ DESTINATION dir/newname)

Trailing '/' is significant. Without it mydir would be installed to newname/mydir.

From the CMake documentation:

The last component of each directory name is appended to the destination directory but a trailing slash may be used to avoid this because it leaves the last component empty.