How to set up googleTest as a shared library on Linux

Question

Debian does not provide any precompiled packages for gTest anymore. They suggest you integrate the framework into your project\'s makefile. But I want to keep my makefile cl

Answer 1

The following method avoids manually messing with the /usr/lib directory while also requiring minimal change in your CMakeLists.txt file. It also lets your package manager cleanly uninstall libgtest-dev.

The idea is that when you get the libgtest-dev package via

sudo apt install libgtest-dev

The source is stored in location /usr/src/googletest

You can simply point your CMakeLists.txt to that directory so that it can find the necessary dependencies

Simply replace FindGTest with add_subdirectory(/usr/src/googletest gtest)

At the end, it should look like this

add_subdirectory(/usr/src/googletest gtest)
target_link_libraries(your_executable gtest)