[CMake] /path/to/libpng.so automatic conversion to -lpng ?

[René J. V. Bertin]

FWIW, I do question this rewriting feature, because it clearly can go wrong.

I'd argue that programmers (or build script/cmake modules/...) usually have good 
reason when they give the absolute path to a library: making darn sure it's 
indeed that one that gets linked.

While I agree that replacing a full path with the -lfoo notation makes the final 
command shorter and thus more readable it can also introduce subtle bugs. The 
fact that a library can be found by the linker because it's on the search path 
doesn't mean that the linker will find the right, intended library. In my case I 
could get the correct linking by just adding -L/opt/local/lib, but what if for 
some reason I had wanted to include the system libpng, i.e. if PNG_LIBRARIES had 
pointed to /usr/lib/libpng.so?

I hope this is not such a corner case that Kitware haven't foreseen it and 
implemented a way to deactivate the rewriting?

R.