[CMake] [Q] LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES and the like

[Marcel Loose]

On Wed, 2009-12-23 at 09:59 +0100, Michael Wild wrote:
> On 23. Dec, 2009, at 9:52 , Marcel Loose wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, 2009-12-22 at 16:22 +0100, Michael Wild wrote:
> >> On 22. Dec, 2009, at 15:52 , Marcel Loose wrote:
> >> 
> >>> Hi all,
> >>> 
> >>> After reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading the manual, I still don't
> >>> really get the concept of LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES, 
> >>> IMPORTED_LINK_DEPENDENT_LIBRARIES, and
> >>> IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES. Is this mostly Windows-specific, or
> >>> does it also apply for Linux?
> >>> 
> >>> Best regards,
> >>> Marcel Loose.
> >>> 
> >> 
> >> LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES is a property you can set if you want to override the set of libraries that appear in the link-interface of one of your own libraries.
> >> 
> >> IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES is the same for IMPORTED targets. E.g. suppose you have this:
> >> 
> >> add_library(foo ${FOO_SRCS})
> >> target_link_libraries(foo bar)
> >> install(EXPORT ${PROJECT_NAME}Dependencies DESTINATION <somewhere>)
> >> 
> >> The created <somewhere>/${PROJECT_NAME}Dependencies.cmake file will list "bar" in the LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES of "foo". This property is essentially a copy of LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES property of "foo" in the build tree (if it is defined).
> >> 
> >> 
> >> IMPORTED_LINK_DEPENDENT_LIBRARIES is AFAIK similar to IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES but refers to dependencies that are "implementation details".
> >> 
> >> 
> >> HTH
> >> 
> >> Michael
> >> 
> > Hi Michael,
> > 
> > That clarifies things a bit. Maybe I'm just not familiar enough with
> > import/export of libraries. Could I compare this
> > <somewhere>/${PROJECT_NAME}Dependencies.cmake file with the <package>.pc
> > file that is generated by pkg-config as a means to record compile and
> > link flags?
> 
> It is similar in that it creates IMPORTED targets and defines the dependencies of them.
> 
> > 
> > Another question: is it common good practice for a CMake-project to
> > export its public libraries using install(EXPORT...), or would you do
> > that on a case-to-case basis?
> 
> Mostly this is useful if you need people to link with their own project against your installed libraries (think boost, VTK and similar). If you create an application, this isn't that useful, except if that application has a plugin-interface and you want people to be able to create plugins for the installed application.
> 
> > 
> > Would there be a use case for LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES within one
> > project, to relate several libraries within that project?
> 
> I use it in my project to prevent static third-party libraries that I build within my project to show up in the IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES of the {PROJECT_NAME}Dependencies.cmake file. This requires however that I wrap the TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES command in a custom function which does all the dirty work.
> 
> > 
> > Best regards,
> > Marcel Loose.
> 
> 
> Michael

OK, thanks for the explanation, Michael.

Seems I won't be needing this stuff in the near future, but I'll keep it
in the back of my head.

Best regards,
Marcel Loose.