CMake does not find includes / libraries

by

CMake’s find routines look for headers and libraries at some specific places. This includes the PATH variable, and the default locations for installed software, e.g., for many Linuces /usr/bin. Additionally, it evaluates the CMake variable CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH.

You have two possibilities to help CMake finding the required files:

  1. Check whether your software is properly installed. For self-compiled software, that’s usually done by make install or similar. If you use packages (RPM or deb), they are in general installed and can be found with the PATH variable.

  2. If you don’t want or can install the software, add its path to the CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH variable. Either pass it to the CMake call cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/path/to/software .. or edit/add the according field in the CMake-GUI.

You have to delete the CMakeCache.txt, otherwise CMake will not find the library, because it does not check but use the cached result. Re-run CMake and it should work.

Evaluation order

If you have multiple versions of a library on your system, add the one you want to use to the CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH as the variables gets evaluated prior to the system path variables.

Module-specific variables

Some modules offer specific variables like mylib_DIR or mylib_ROOT to indicate the search path. Its use is discouraged and they are only left for backwards-compatibility. New modules don’t have these modules and commits adding such variables are rejected by the CMake developers.

Documentation

More details on how CMake searches files and in which order can be found in the documentation: https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/command/find_library.html

More Related Contents:

  1. Is it better to specify source files with GLOB or each file individually in CMake?
  2. CMake: use a custom linker
  3. CMake add_custom_command not being run
  4. What is the modern method for setting general compile flags in CMake?
  5. Switching between GCC and Clang/LLVM using CMake
  6. Looking for a ‘cmake clean’ command to clear up CMake output
  7. How to set warning level in CMake?
  8. How to set linker flags for OpenMP in CMake’s try_compile function
  9. Compile with /MT instead of /MD using CMake
  10. How to make CMake reconfiguration depend on custom file?
  11. CMake: how create a single shared library from all static libraries of subprojects?
  12. CMake – linking to library downloaded from ExternalProject_add()
  13. Does CMake offer a method to set the working directory for a given build system to use when running/debugging the project?
  14. CMake: How to add dependency on linker script for executable
  15. Correct way to use third-party libraries in cmake project
  16. CMake compare to empty string with STREQUAL failed
  17. How to always run command when building regardless of any dependency?
  18. How do I debug CMakeLists.txt files?
  19. How to Trace CMakeLists.txt [duplicate]
  20. How to run ctest after building my project with cmake
  21. Add all files under a folder to a CMake glob?
  22. How do I include a literal double quote in a custom CMake command?
  23. Check CMake Cache Variable in Toolchain File
  24. How to tell CMake to use relative paths
  25. Retrieve all link flags in CMake
  26. Postpone making custom target until install
  27. Specifying build directory within CMakeLists file
  28. How to list all CMake build options and their default values?
  29. Passing an argument to CMAKE via command prompt
  30. CMake: how to change compiler for individual target

Leave a Comment