CMake - dependencies (headers) between apps/libraries in same project

Question

I have the following project structure:

• CMakeLists.txt
  • lib1/CMakeLists.txt and all cpp and header files of the lib
  • lib2/CMakeLists.txt and al

Answer 1

Project
 CMakeLists.txt
 \-lib1
   CMakeLists.txt
   \- include \ lib1
   \- src
 \-lib2
   CMakeLists.txt
   \- include \ lib2
   \- src
 \-app
   CMakeLists.txt
   \- src

Suppose dependencies as follow:

lib1 ---> lib2 ---> app 
   \--------------> app

Something like this:

CMakeLists.txt:

add_subdirectory(lib1)
add_subdirectory(lib2)
add_subdirectory(app)

lib1/CMakeLists.txt:

  file(GLOB_RECURSE _HDRS "include/*.hpp")
  file(GLOB_RECURSE _SRCS "src/*.[hc]pp")
  add_library(lib1 ${_HDRS} ${_SRCS})
  #target_link_libraries(lib1)
  target_include_directories(lib1 PUBLIC include)

  install(TARGETS lib1 DESTINATION lib)
  install(FILES ${_HDRS} DESTINATION include/lib1)

lib2/CMakeLists.txt:

  file(GLOB_RECURSE _HDRS "include/*.hpp")
  file(GLOB_RECURSE _SRCS "src/*.[hc]pp")
  add_library(lib2 ${_HDRS} ${_SRCS})
  target_link_libraries(lib2 lib1)
  target_include_directories(lib2 PUBLIC include)

  install(TARGETS lib2 DESTINATION lib)
  install(FILES ${_HDRS} DESTINATION include/lib2)

so in lib2/src/file.cpp you could do #include

app/CMakeLists.txt:

  file(GLOB_RECURSE _SRCS "src/*.[hc]pp")
  add_executable(app ${_SRCS})
  target_link_libraries(app lib1 lib2)

  install(TARGETS app DESTINATION bin)

so in app/src/file.cpp you could do #include and #include

The magic is target_include_directories which attach the "include" directory to the target, so when linking with it you pull the include directory also ;)