Add library to Cmake project

Question

Perhaps I simply can't find it, but I want to add some code to a project of mine (libunwind found here http://www.nongnu.org/libunwind/download.html)
This library does not come with a CMakeLists.txt file and when I try to include it cmake complains about this fact. Right now I've simply added the libunwind directory to my external code and added a reference in my main CMakeLists.txt

Any input would be great.

Build the library. Install it. Then add it as a normal system library. — Some programmer dude, Dec 20 '16 at 14:04
So do you want to include it in such a way that it would be compiled each time you compile your project? — SingerOfTheFall, Dec 20 '16 at 14:11

score 6 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 07 '19 at 16:40

Dealing with libraries there are 2 options for you :

If you've downloaded and was able to build and install it you can try to find it later on inside you CMAKE like this ( in case of Boost ) and link to your target:

find_package( Boost COMPONENTS date_time system serialization thread program_options filesystem unit_test_framework regex chrono REQUIRED )

if( NOT Boost_FOUND )
    message( FATAL_ERROR "Cannot find boost!" )
endif( NOT Boost_FOUND )

message(STATUS "boost found")

include_directories( ${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS} )
link_directories( ${Boost_LIBRARY_DIRS} )

target_link_libraries(YOUR_TARGET_NAME ${Boost_LIBRARIES})

2. You can add external library sources as a stand-alone target and use smth like this for CMake to build it :

set (sources
  async_waiter.h
  async_waiter_impl.h
  async_waiter_impl.cpp
)

add_library( async_waiter ${sources} )

and later on link you target to it with :

target_link_libraries(YOUR_TARGET_NAME async_waiter)

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:30

If you want to build it each time along with your project, the easiest way would be to:

Add the source code somewhere into your project tree
Add a custom CMake target which should run before the compilation starts
In that custom target, run whatever is needed to compile the library (in your case it's ./configure -> make -> make install.

However that is rarely needed and most of the times you should just build the library once and link it as any other external library.

Add library to Cmake project

2 Answers2

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