CMake `INSTALL` for targets and its SO dependencies

Question

My target linked with several libraries using TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES with PUBLIC keyword, The INSTALL command looks like INSTALL(TARGETS foo DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/bin). I want somehow to force the cmake to include all (preferably excluding system libraries) libraries (SOs only) I link with to be included in the installation process. I've tried EXPORT keyword but looks like it affects only libraries which I build with in my project and marked with the same EXPORT as foo library.
Is it possible?
EDIT001: Additional information that may affect answer. I'm using vcpkg to manage third parties. So the TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES looks like

TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(foo PUBLIC
                      GTest::GTest
                      GTest::Main
                      ${GOOGLE_MOCK}
                      event
                      ${THRIFT_LIBRARIES}
                      ${Boost_LIBRARIES}
                      lzo2
                      sqlite3
                      ${ZeroMQ_LIBRARY}
                      gRPC::grpc
                      gRPC::grpc++
                      xml2
                      stdc++fs
                      bfd
                      -l:libisal.so.2
                      sgutils2
                      pthread
                      uuid
                      rt
                      )

So, essentially what I want to achieve is to take all these libraries which are macro'ed by vcpkg, like ${THRIFT_LIBRARIES}, ${Boost_LIBRARIES} and gRPC::grpc and so on

You need to list everything you need to install separately. AFAIK, CMake doesn't make any analysis which will automagically install all the dependencies. Besides, you have only one target: `foo` and the command install *targets*. Of course, there are other install commands but they aren't close to the `TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES` command either. — ixSci, Aug 30 '18 at 14:30
if there is no other option it sounds good enough, other question is, can I access all dependencies added via `target_link_libraries` as they generated into `make` files, since it already has full path to the SO — kreuzerkrieg, Aug 30 '18 at 14:38

Steve Broberg · Answer 1 · 2021-08-04T19:15:57.447

6

As of cmake 3.21, you can now do with:

install(IMPORTED_RUNTIME_ARTIFACTS gRPC::grpc)
install(IMPORTED_RUNTIME_ARTIFACTS ${Boost_LIBRARIES})

etc.

See new Install command.

edited Aug 04 '21 at 19:15

answered Jul 22 '21 at 15:25

Steve Broberg

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I've tried to do this with spdlog by doing: `install(IMPORTED_RUNTIME_ARTIFACTS spdlog::spdlog)`, however, I get the message: "install IMPORTED_RUNTIME_ARTIFACTS given target "spdlog::spdlog" which is not an executable, library, or module." Like the OP I'm using vcpkg and importing spdlog using find_package. Any ideas? – Anthony Calandra Jul 28 '21 at 21:20
@anthony-calandra: I'm not familiar with spdlog, but doing an "apt search" on it says that it's a header-only library. So there shouldn't be any runtime artifacts that you need to install. – Steve Broberg Aug 04 '21 at 19:18
I think they are working on this bug you mentioned @Antony Calandra. https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues/22406 They didn't anticipate people using it in this fashion when they wrote it. But the users think otherwise. To be short: cmake doesn't know whether the lib is .so or .a. – hasdrubal Oct 03 '21 at 18:32

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 31 '18 at 07:43

CMake itself does not allow to install dependencies automatically. This would be a rather hard task, because it would have to consider a lot of corner cases.

Just think of transitive dependencies (I don't know if this is the right word), like: Your libA depends on libB, which depends on libC. How should CMake get this from the CMakeLists, where only libB is listed?

Or: What do you consider a system library? Everything that is not in PATH? How do you know which libraries are installed system-wide on the client's machine?

You see, there are some really tricky things to consider.

Here are some possibilities you have:

Ask your users to install the dependencies.
Statically link libraries into your binary.
Copy library files using install(FILES files... DESTINATION <dir>). Maybe your dependency manager can help creating the list of files.
Write a script that does something like windeployqt for Qt-based applications on Windows: Analyze the binary file (e.g. using ldd myApp) and automatically copy over the required dependencies.

you definitely right about corner cases, but your item three nails the point, give me the list of stuff my library linked with and I will pick whatever needed from this list. Unfortunately, I didnt find way to get aforementioned list — kreuzerkrieg, Aug 31 '18 at 17:01

CMake `INSTALL` for targets and its SO dependencies

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