Link libraries by full path even in implicit directories

When CMP0003 was first introduced we wanted to link all libraries by
full path.  However, some projects had problems on platforms where
find_library would find /usr/lib/libfoo.so when the project really
wanted to link to /usr/lib/<arch>/libfoo.so and had been working by
accident because pre-CMP0003 behavior used -lfoo to link.

We first tried to address that in commit v2.6.0~440 (Teach find_library
to avoid returning library paths in system directories, 2008-01-23) by
returning just "foo" for libraries in implicit link directories.  This
caused problems for projects expecting find_library to always return a
full path.  We ended up using the solution in commit v2.6.0~366 (...
switch library paths found in implicit link directories to use -l,
2008-01-31).  However, the special case for libraries in implicit link
directories has also proven problematic and confusing.

Introduce policy CMP0060 to switch to linking all libraries by full path
even if they are in implicit link directories.  Explain in the policy
documentation the factors that led to the original approach and now to
this approach.

1 files changed, 6 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Help/release/dev/link-implicit-libs-full-path.rst b/Help/release/dev/link-implicit-libs-full-path.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ed7245
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+++ b/Help/release/dev/link-implicit-libs-full-path.rst
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+link-implicit-libs-full-path
+----------------------------
+
+* Linking to library files by a full path in an implicit linker search
+  directory (e.g. ``/usr/lib/libfoo.a``) no longer asks the linker to
+  search for the library (e.g. ``-lfoo``).  See policy :policy:`CMP0060`.