[CMake] Unable to find source files in different directory using target_sources(INTERFACE)

[Craig Scott]

When using target_sources(), if you specify the source file(s) with a
relative path, CMake does not convert that to an absolute path when storing
it in the target's SOURCES property (that's my interpretation anyway). The
end result is that the source you specify is going to be interpreted as
being relative to the source directory the dependent target is defined in,
not the directory where you called target_sources().  You can prevent the
problem you described by ensuring the path for the source file(s) is always
an absolute one. For example:

target_sources(foo INTERFACE "${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/foo.h")

You may find the following blog article useful (it discusses the above
problem and also other related material):

https://crascit.com/2016/01/31/enhanced-source-file-handling-with-target_sources/




On Sun, Jul 10, 2016 at 9:03 AM, Robert Dailey <rcdailey.lists at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I have the following:
>
> cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.1.0 FATAL_ERROR)
> project(foo)
> add_library(foo INTERFACE)
> target_sources(foo INTERFACE foo.h)
> add_subdirectory(subdir)
>
> And inside subdir, I specify add_executable() and then
> target_link_libraries(myexe foo).
>
> I get an error:
>
> Cannot find source file: foo.h
>
> I'm using CMake 3.6. What am I doing wrong here?
>
> My goal is to generate a header-only project in Visual Studio.
> According to the documentation, what I'm trying to do won't give me
> that. Instead, foo.h would exist in every project that links to it as
> a dependency (that's what it seems like anyhow).
>
> Advice is appreciated.
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-- 
Craig Scott
Melbourne, Australia
http://crascit.com
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