---
short-description: Installing targets
...

# Installing

By default Meson will not install anything. Build targets can be installed by tagging them as installable in the definition.

```meson
project('install', 'c')
shared_library('mylib', 'libfile.c', install : true)
```

There is usually no need to specify install paths or the like. Meson
will automatically install it to the standards-conforming location. In
this particular case the executable is installed to the `bin`
subdirectory of the install prefix. However if you wish to override the
install dir, you can do that with the `install_dir` argument.

```meson
executable('prog', 'prog.c', install : true, install_dir : 'my/special/dir')
```

Other install commands are the following.

```meson
install_headers('header.h', subdir : 'projname') # -> include/projname/header.h
install_man('foo.1') # -> share/man/man1/foo.1.gz
install_data('datafile.cat', install_dir : join_paths(get_option('datadir'), 'progname')) # -> share/progname/datafile.dat
```

Sometimes you want to copy an entire subtree directly. For this use case there is the `install_subdir` command, which can be used like this.

```meson
install_subdir('mydir', install_dir : 'include') # mydir subtree -> include/mydir
```

Most of the time you want to install files relative to the install
prefix. Sometimes you need to go outside of the prefix (such as writing
files to `/etc` instead of `/usr/etc`. This can be accomplished by
giving an absolute install path.

```meson
install_data(sources : 'foo.dat', install_dir : '/etc') # -> /etc/foo.dat
```

## Custom install behavior

Sometimes you need to do more than just install basic targets. Meson makes this easy by allowing you to specify a custom script to execute at install time. As an example, here is a script that generates an empty file in a custom directory.

```bash
#!/bin/sh

mkdir "${DESTDIR}/${MESON_INSTALL_PREFIX}/mydir"
touch "${DESTDIR}/${MESON_INSTALL_PREFIX}/mydir/file.dat"
```

As you can see, Meson sets up some environment variables to help you write your script (`DESTDIR` is not set by Meson, it is inherited from the outside environment). In addition to the install prefix, Meson also sets the variables `MESON_SOURCE_ROOT` and `MESON_BUILD_ROOT`.

Telling Meson to run this script at install time is a one-liner.

```meson
meson.add_install_script('myscript.sh')
```

The argument is the name of the script file relative to the current subdirectory.

## DESTDIR support

Sometimes you need to install to a different directory than the install prefix. This is most common when building rpm or deb packages. This is done with the `DESTDIR` environment variable and it is used just like with other build systems:

```console
$ DESTDIR=/path/to/staging/area ninja install
```