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Diffstat (limited to 'Help/include/INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES_WARNING.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Help/include/INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES_WARNING.txt | 30 |
1 files changed, 30 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Help/include/INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES_WARNING.txt b/Help/include/INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES_WARNING.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33f7183 --- /dev/null +++ b/Help/include/INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES_WARNING.txt @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ + +Note that it is not advisable to populate the ``INSTALL_INTERFACE`` of 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**. + +The ``INSTALL_INTERFACE`` of the |INTERFACE_PROPERTY_LINK| is only +suitable for specifying the required include directories of the target itself, +not its dependencies. + +That is, code like this is incorrect for targets which will be used to +generate :manual:`cmake-packages(7)`: + +.. code-block:: cmake + + target_include_directories(mylib INTERFACE + $<INSTALL_INTERFACE:${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS};${OtherDep_INCLUDE_DIRS}> + ) + +Dependencies must provide their own :ref:`IMPORTED targets <Imported Targets>` +which have their own |INTERFACE_PROPERTY_LINK| populated +appropriately. Those :ref:`IMPORTED targets <Imported Targets>` may then be +used with the :command:`target_link_libraries` command for ``mylib``. + +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>`. |