Help: Warn that paths should not be used in INTERFACE_ build properties.

1 files changed, 23 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Help/include/INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_WARNING.txt b/Help/include/INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_WARNING.txt
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+++ b/Help/include/INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES_WARNING.txt
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+
+Note that it is not advisable to populate the
+|INTERFACE_PROPERTY_LINK| of a target with paths for dependencies.
+That would hard-code into installed packages the include directory paths
+for dependencies **as found on the machine the package was made on**.
+
+That is, code like this is incorrect for targets which will be used to
+generate :manual:`cmake-packages(7)`:
+
+.. code-block:: cmake
+
+  target_link_libraries(mylib INTERFACE
+    ${Boost_LIBRARIES};${OtherDep_LIBRARIES}
+  )
+
+Dependencies must provide their own :ref:`IMPORTED targets <Imported Targets>`
+which have their own :prop_tgt:`IMPORTED_LOCATION` populated
+appropriately.  That way, when a consumer uses the installed package, the
+consumer will run the appropriate :command:`find_package` command to find
+the dependencies on their own machine and populate the
+:ref:`IMPORTED targets <Imported Targets>` with appropriate paths.  See
+:ref:`Creating Packages` for more.  Note that many modules currently shipped
+with CMake do not currently provide :ref:`IMPORTED targets <Imported Targets>`.