How to remove BASE_DIRS of FILE_SET from INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES property

Usage
1

I’m using CMake 3.23.0 to enjoy the FILE_SET feature.

However, I don’t want to add BASE_DIRS of FILE_SET into INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES property.

I can remove it from BUILD_INTERFACE, but how to remove from INSTALL_INTERFACE?

add_library(Math SHARED)
file(GLOB_RECURSE MathHeader ${MathRoot}/*.h ${MathRoot}/*.hpp)
target_sources(Math INTERFACE FILE_SET HEADERS FILES ${MathHeader})

# it's ok for me , to remove the BASE_DIRS from INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES under this scope
# Remove the relative FILE_SET HEADERS BASE_DIRS from INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES property
get_target_property(include_dirs Math INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES)
list(REMOVE_ITEM include_dirs "$<BUILD_INTERFACE:${MathRoot}>")
set_target_properties(Math PROPERTIES INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES "${include_dirs}")

# but, how to remove BASE_DIRS from INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES property of EXPORT install target?

install(TARGETS Math
EXPORT MathTargets
RUNTIME DESTINATION bin # Executables & DLLs 
LIBRARY DESTINATION lib # Shared libraries, except DLLs
ARCHIVE DESTINATION lib # DLL import libraries & Static libraries .lib
FILE_SET HEADERS DESTINATION math/# FILE_SET
)

after installing Math target (install with EXPORT), I will get an automatically generated MathTargets.cmake file which contains this statements:

if(NOT CMAKE_VERSION VERSION_LESS "3.23.0")
  target_sources(Math
    INTERFACE
      FILE_SET "HEADERS"
      TYPE "HEADERS"
      BASE_DIRS "${_IMPORT_PREFIX}/xx/math"
      FILES "${_IMPORT_PREFIX}/xx/math/Common.h" "${_IMPORT_PREFIX}/xx/math/Constants.h" "${_IMPORT_PREFIX}/xx/math/Operator.h" 
  )
endif()

then linking Math will bring the BASE_DIRS into INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES property.

How to remove BASE_DIRS from INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES property?

2

What if you use PRIVATE instead of INTERFACE for the visibility of the header sources?

3

Thanks for your reply.

It works for me after changing INTERFACE to PRIVATE

5

Actually, the header files would not be installed if I set the FILE_SET as PRIVATE.

So, If I want to install the FILE_SET and not to add BASE_DIRS into INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.

How to achieve this goal?

6

Non-PRIVATE FILE_SETs will add their BASE_DIRS to the interface include directories. It’s how they work. I guess let’s back up: why do you not want this include interface?

7

Ok. Let me explain this by more details.

I have two folders like these:

projectRoot/math/extension/
Common.h
Math.h

projectRoot/solver/extension/
Common.h
Solver.h

Actually, if I want to explicitly include math/Common.h, I have to write like this:

#include "math/extension/Common.h"

Otherwise, it would bring ambiguity into my project if I have the “math/extension” and “solver/extension/” in INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.

For example, the math library will be integrated by other host project, which contains it own Common.h.
Some of the host’s project might have this:

#include "Common.h"

If the Math library contains “math/extension” and “solver/extension/” in INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES.

Compiler will complain <#include “Common.h”: Common.h is ambiguous path. math/extension/Common.h or solver/extension/Common.h ?>

8

I think what you want here is the BASE_DIRS to be high up so that the file’s paths relative to it are math/common/Math.h and the like.

9

Thanks for your help.

After setting the BASE_DIR to be the higher folder path, the FILE_SET relative paths does NOT change.

It does NOT work for me.

10

Hi, could you solve this? I am facing the same problem

11

Posting a complete example that demonstrates the problem would help.