dungducphan / cmake-example-library

How to install a library with cmake

cmake-example-library

This is an example of how to install a library with CMake, and then use find_package() command to find it.

In this example, Foo is the library and Bar a binary (which uses the library).

The advantage of this example is that it is auto-generated. You only need to change the project name.

It is based on the these two examples:

• [How to create a ProjectConfig.cmake file (cmake.org)] (http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake/Tutorials/How_to_create_a_ProjectConfig.cmake_file)
• [How to install a library (kde.org)] (https://projects.kde.org/projects/kde/kdeexamples/repository/revisions/master/show/buildsystem/HowToInstallALibrary)

How to create a library from this example?

Follow these steps:

• Copy files in a new folder.

• Change project name in the top-level CMakeLists.txt.

• [Optional] Set variables: LIBRARY_NAME and LIBRARY_FOLDER. If it is not set explicitally, project name in lowercase will be used. See cmake/SetEnv.cmake file to see the implementation details.

• [Optional] 'examples/' folder can be removed, it is the 'bar' example. In this case, remove the 'add_subdirectory(examples)' too.

How to compile?

Assume the following settings:

project(Foo)
...
set(LIBRARY_NAME foo)   # [optional] generated automatically (in lowercase)
set(LIBRARY_FOLDER foo) # [optional] generated automatically (in lowercase)

Example of a local installation:

> mkdir build
> cd build
> cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../installed ..
> make install

Installed files:

> tree ../installed

├── bin
│   └── bar
├── include
│   └── foo
│       ├── foo.h
│       └── version.h
└── lib
    ├── CMake
    │   └── Foo
    │       ├── FooConfig.cmake
    │       ├── FooConfigVersion.cmake
    │       ├── FooTargets.cmake
    │       └── FooTargets-noconfig.cmake
    └── libfoo.so

Unintall library:

> make uninstall

How to use the library (internally)?

See the bar example.

How to use the library (in an external project)?

Once the library is installed, CMake will be able to find it using find_package() command. For example:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.6)
project(Bar)

find_package(Foo REQUIRED)
include_directories(${FOO_INCLUDE_DIRS})

add_executable(bar bar.cpp)
target_link_libraries(bar ${FOO_LIBRARIES})