# IMPORTED\_LINK\_INTERFACE\_LIBRARIES deprecated ?

**URL:** https://discourse.cmake.org/t/imported-link-interface-libraries-deprecated/7480
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [February 16, 2023, 10:14pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/imported-link-interface-libraries-deprecated/7480 "2023-02-16T22:14:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![neundorf](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/neundorf/32/2075_2.png) [@neundorf](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/neundorf)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2023, 10:14pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/imported-link-interface-libraries-deprecated/7480/1 "2023-02-16T22:14:00Z")

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Hi,

the documentation for IMPORTED\_LINK\_INTERFACE\_LIBRARIES says it is deprecated. I would move it then to the “deprecated target properties” section if that is correct.

I guess the target property IMPORTED\_LINK\_DEPENDENT\_LIBRARIES\_ is also deprecated ?  
The variable CMAKE\_LINK\_INTERFACE\_LIBRARIES is then probably also deprecated ? Is there a non-deprecated replacement for it ?

If they are indeed all deprecated, I can create a branch to move them all to deprecated and mention it explicitly.

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### Author: ![neundorf](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/neundorf/32/2075_2.png) [@neundorf](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/neundorf)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2023, 11:16pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/imported-link-interface-libraries-deprecated/7480/2 "2023-02-16T23:16:24Z")

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While at it, should add\_defintions() and the directory property DEFINITIONS also be moved to deprecated ?

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### Author: ![ben.boeckel](https://discourse.cmake.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@ben.boeckel](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/ben.boeckel)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 12:04am UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/imported-link-interface-libraries-deprecated/7480/3 "2023-02-17T00:04:29Z")

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> [@neundorf](#):
>
> IMPORTED\_LINK\_DEPENDENT\_LIBRARIES

From Slack, I think that this might be for `$<TARGET_RUNTIME_DLLS>`. But that definitely needs double checked.

> [@neundorf](#):
>
> While at it, should add\_defintions() and the directory property DEFINITIONS also be moved to deprecated ?

Probably not going to happen: [https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues/24148](https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues/24148)

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### Author: ![brad.king](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/brad.king/32/11_2.png) [@brad.king](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/brad.king)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2023, 6:08pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/imported-link-interface-libraries-deprecated/7480/4 "2023-02-17T18:08:26Z")

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These are all documented as deprecated and can be moved to the appropriate manual section:

- `prop_tgt/IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES`
- `prop_tgt/IMPORTED_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES_CONFIG`
- `prop_tgt/LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES`
- `prop_tgt/LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES_CONFIG`

The variable

- `variable/CMAKE_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES`

should also be documented as deprecated and moved too.

All of them could be updated to use `.. deprecated:: 2.8.12` markup since they were all deprecated by `CMP0022` in that version.

The other `IMPORTED_LINK_*` properties are still in use, e.g., by `install(EXPORT)`.