target_link_libraries() requires full path for some but not all project libraries?

Usage
1

My project builds several libraries, then links them to generate an executable. When calling target_link_libraries() for the executable, some - but not all - of the project libraries must be specified with full path ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR/src/dir, else the linker cannot find them. Yet other project libraries don’t require this. Why? Each project library was added to the project with add_library().

My executable’s CMakeLists.txt looks like this:

add_executable(mbgrdviz
               mbgrdviz_callbacks.c  mbgrdviz_creation.c  mbgrdviz_main.c)

target_include_directories(mbgrdviz
                           PUBLIC
                           .
                           ${GMT_INCLUDE_DIR}
                           ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/mbio
                           ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/mbaux
                           ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/mbview
                           ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/bsio
                           ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/surf
                           ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/gsf)
                           
# Why do libbsio.a, libmbsapi.a and libgsf.a require full path else
# they aren't found by linker?
target_link_libraries(mbgrdviz
                      PRIVATE libmbio.a
                      PRIVATE libmbaux.a
                      PRIVATE libmbview.a
                      PRIVATE ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/src/bsio/libbsio.a
                      PRIVATE ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/src/surf/libmbsapi.a
                      PRIVATE ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/src/gsf/libgsf.a
                      PRIVATE gmt
                      PRIVATE Xm
                      PRIVATE Xt
                      PRIVATE X11
                      PRIVATE GL
                      PRIVATE GLU
                      PRIVATE m
                      PRIVATE netcdf
                      PRIVATE gdal
                      PRIVATE proj
                      PRIVATE pthread)

target_link_libraries() documentation says that libraries may be specified by name only (as several of them are).
Thanks!

2

Your own libraries should be specified by target name, not file name.

3

Tom O’Reilly wrote:

My project builds several libraries, then links them to generate an
executable. When calling target_link_libraries() for the executable, some -
but not all - of the project libraries must be specified with full path
${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR/src/dir, else the linker cannot find them. Yet other
project libraries don’t require this. Why? Each project library was added
to the project with add_library().

# Library names with ‘lib’ prefix are built by this project,
# others are third-party already installed on system.
# Some of my project libraries - libbsio.a, libmbsapi.a,
# libgsf.a - require full pathname else they are not found
# by linker - why is this?
target_link_libraries(mbgrdviz
                PRIVATE libmbio.a
                PRIVATE libmbaux.a
                PRIVATE libmbview.a
                PRIVATE ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/src/bsio/libbsio.a
                PRIVATE ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/src/surf/libmbsapi.a
                PRIVATE ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/src/gsf/libgsf.a
                PRIVATE gmt
                PRIVATE Xm
                PRIVATE Xt
                PRIVATE X11
                PRIVATE GL
                PRIVATE GLU
                PRIVATE m
                PRIVATE netcdf
                PRIVATE gdal
                PRIVATE proj
                PRIVATE pthread)

That means you should pass the target name: if you do add_library(mbio),
then you do target_link_libraries(mbgrdviz PRIVATE mbio). Btw, you need to
specify PRIVATE only once.

Eike

1 Like
4

That fixes it - thanks!