CODEWITHSUNDEEP
visual-c++visual-studio-2008cmake
George Hilliard
George Hilliard

Reputation: 15942

CMake: Depending on Visual Studio projects

My project currently depends upon a library (PJSIP) that is distributed with Autotools build scripts for *NIX and Visual Studio project files for Windows.

My project currently uses the CMake build system. The current script is Linux-specific: it assumes that PJSIP has been installed as a prerequisite (in a system-wide library location, managed by the package manager) and only specifies target_link_libraries(pj pjnath pjlib-util). This is canonical for Linux software.

I would like to make my project also work for Visual Studio. What is the canonical Windows way to set up this dependency? Should it be configured in some global Visual Studio setting? Or should PJSIP be in a subdirectory, and CMake told to invoke the correct build system itself?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 224

Answers (1)

spellmansamnesty
spellmansamnesty

Reputation: 479

To find dependent 3rd Party libraries, follow the CMake guide, http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake:How_To_Find_Libraries

Generally speaking, CMake prefers absolute paths. During my evaluation of CMake, I found that it does not have a canonical way to reference dependent libraries in Visual Studio. Their message is that CMake should be run on every developer system in order to set up the build environment for that specific target station. Therefore I could never create a solution file directly from CMake that could be versioned because the paths would be absolute. It would be possible but only after modifying the CMake project files after creation.

I had labored over this issue many times as CMake software needed to be approved on our developer stations before the build system was created.

In the end, I had versioned modified CMakeLists.txt files for all our dependent projects that finds the correct canonical paths to locations and had the caveat that anyone that built (these were for dependent 3rd party libraries that only get built on version changes) must have CMake installed.

Upvotes: 1

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