" ./configure && make && make install , the binaries are directly installed without any packages being produced (is that correct?) "
Sorry I didn’t respond earlier to this. Yes you are correct. This installs on the developer’s local system only and produces no binary rpm or deb packages. By default it installs under /usr/local/bin, /usr/local/lib, …
One use-case is not just single system install, but also single user install with no root privileges. All I need is a writable directory for my local installation tree, e.g.
mkdir -p $HOME/myprefix
export PATH=$HOME/myprefix/bin:$PATH
Then I build and install with:
./configure --prefix=$HOME/myprefix
make; make install
How is this done with CMake ?