[CMake] Dependency on imported target with ninja-generator

[Nicholas Braden]

If Project B depends on Project A, you should probably be using the
ExternalProject module with a superproject structure that builds both
projects in the proper order.

https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/module/ExternalProject.html

Trying to manually call CMake is not really a good idea IMO - let
ExternalProject handle it for you.

On Wed, Jun 22, 2016 at 10:59 AM, Patrick Boettcher
<patrick.boettcher at posteo.de> wrote:
> Hi list,
>
> I'm finding myself in the following situation.
>
> - Project A generates libmain.a and export(TARGETS ... NAMESPACE ns) it
>   to a file. The target is called ns::main
>
> - Project B includes this file and has some executables link with
>   libmain.a (via target_link_libraries(exe ns::main).
>
> - Project B's CMakeLists.txt contains a add_custom_target(build ...)
>   which runs cmake --build in project A's build-dir.
>
> - the target build is a add_dependency() of ns::main.
>
> Building it with gnu-make works like a charm - make is entering project
> A's build-dir before linking.
>
> Building it with ninja fails with not finding libmain.a - which is
> normal it has not yet been built. Ninja seems to evaluate the complete
> dependency-tree of files before doing anything.
>
> Is there a way to fix this?
>
> Thanks.
>
> best regards,
> --
> Patrick.
>
>
>
> --
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