Back in the days when we used the old rbuild build system, we did have a "make install" that did just what you describe, but the system was lost in the upgrade to cmake, and none of the current developers wants to reimplement it. If any of you want to try, it would be welcome by many.

On 9 December 2014 at 07:25, Thomas Mueller <mueller6723@twc.com> wrote:

> Is there a build command to install ReactOS to a folder. Something equivalent
> to "make install" of good old RBuild days?
> I used to install ReactOS on real hardware this way, because it allowed me to
> have more control over the install process (aka control it completely).

> Thanks,
> João Jerónimo

I've been wondering about that too.

Perhaps I'm spoiled by the procedures in NetBSD and FreeBSD for building and installing from source code, but I'd like to be able to build ReactOS from source with ROSBE from FreeBSD, NetBSD or Linux, or even from Wine, and install directly to USB stick or old IDE hard drive in a Sabrent enclosure connecting by USB 2.0 (making it effectively a USB hard drive).

That would save burning CDs which would become obsolete with every new build from updated source, and might not even boot, as was the case with downloaded 0.3.15 installation ISO.

It would also be good, with "make installworld" or "make install", to be able to control the installation target and not mess up the wrong disk.

Tom