Step 3: Adding Usage Requirements for a Library — CMake 3.31.6 Documentation

# Step 3: Adding Usage Requirements for a Library

## Exercise 1 - Adding Usage Requirements for a Library

Usage requirements of a target parameters allow for far better control over a library or executable's link and include line while also giving more control over the transitive property of targets inside CMake. The primary commands that leverage usage requirements are:

- `target_compile_definitions()`

- `target_compile_options()`

- `target_include_directories()`

- `target_link_directories()`

- `target_link_options()`

- `target_precompile_headers()`

- `target_sources()`

### Goal

Add usage requirements for a library.

### Helpful Materials

- `CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR`

### Files to Edit

- `MathFunctions/CMakeLists.txt`

- `CMakeLists.txt`

### Getting Started

In this exercise, we will refactor our code from `Adding a Library` to use the modern CMake approach. We will let our library define its own usage requirements so they are passed transitively to other targets as necessary. In this case, `MathFunctions` will specify any needed include directories itself. Then, the consuming target `Tutorial` simply needs to link to `MathFunctions` and not worry about any additional include directories.

The starting source code is provided in the `Step3` directory. In this exercise, complete `TODO 1` through `TODO 3`.

First, add a call to `target_include_directories()` in `MathFunctions/CMakeLists`. Remember that `CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR` is the path to the source directory currently being processed.

Then, update (and simplify!) the call to `target_include_directories()` in the top-level `CMakeLists.txt`.

### Build and Run

Make a new directory called `Step3_build`, run the `cmake` executable or the `cmake-gui` to configure the project and then build it with your chosen build tool or by using `cmake --build .` from the build directory. Here's a refresher of what that looks like from the command line:

    mkdir Step3_build
    cd Step3_build
    cmake ../Step3
    cmake --build .

Next, use the newly built `Tutorial` and verify that it is working as expected.

### Solution

Let's update the code from the previous step to use the modern CMake approach of usage requirements.

We want to state that anybody linking to `MathFunctions` needs to include the current source directory, while `MathFunctions` itself doesn't. This can be expressed with an `INTERFACE` usage requirement. Remember `INTERFACE` means things that consumers require but the producer doesn't.

At the end of `MathFunctions/CMakeLists.txt`, use `target_include_directories()` with the `INTERFACE` keyword, as follows:

TODO 1: Click to show/hide answer
TODO 1: MathFunctions/CMakeLists.txt

    target_include_directories(MathFunctions
                               INTERFACE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
                               )

Now that we've specified usage requirements for `MathFunctions` we can safely remove our uses of the `EXTRA_INCLUDES` variable from the top-level `CMakeLists.txt`.

Remove this line:

TODO 2: Click to show/hide answer
TODO 2: CMakeLists.txt

    list(APPEND EXTRA_INCLUDES "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/MathFunctions")

And remove `EXTRA_INCLUDES` from `target_include_directories`:

TODO 3: Click to show/hide answer
TODO 3: CMakeLists.txt

    target_include_directories(Tutorial PUBLIC
                               "${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}"
                               )

Notice that with this technique, the only thing our executable target does to use our library is call `target_link_libraries()` with the name of the library target. In larger projects, the classic method of specifying library dependencies manually becomes very complicated very quickly.

## Exercise 2 - Setting the C++ Standard with Interface Libraries

Now that we have switched our code to a more modern approach, let's demonstrate a modern technique to set properties to multiple targets.

Let's refactor our existing code to use an `INTERFACE` library. We will use that library in the next step to demonstrate a common use for `generator expressions`.

### Goal

Add an `INTERFACE` library target to specify the required C++ standard.

### Helpful Resources

- `add_library()`

- `target_compile_features()`

- `target_link_libraries()`

### Files to Edit

- `CMakeLists.txt`

- `MathFunctions/CMakeLists.txt`

### Getting Started

In this exercise, we will refactor our code to use an `INTERFACE` library to specify the C++ standard.

Start this exercise from what we left at the end of Step3 exercise 1. You will have to complete `TODO 4` through `TODO 7`.

Start by editing the top level `CMakeLists.txt` file. Construct an `INTERFACE` library target called `tutorial_compiler_flags` and specify `cxx_std_11` as a target compiler feature.

Modify `CMakeLists.txt` and `MathFunctions/CMakeLists.txt` so that all targets have a `target_link_libraries()` call to `tutorial_compiler_flags`.

### Build and Run

Since we have our build directory already configured from Exercise 1, simply rebuild our code by calling the following:

    cd Step3_build
    cmake --build .

Next, use the newly built `Tutorial` and verify that it is working as expected.

### Solution

Let's update our code from the previous step to use interface libraries to set our C++ requirements.

To start, we need to remove the two `set()` calls on the variables `CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD` and `CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED`. The specific lines to remove are as follows:

CMakeLists.txt

    set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
    set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED True)

Next, we need to create an interface library, `tutorial_compiler_flags`. And then use `target_compile_features()` to add the compiler feature `cxx_std_11`.

TODO 4: Click to show/hide answer
TODO 4: CMakeLists.txt

    add_library(tutorial_compiler_flags INTERFACE)
    target_compile_features(tutorial_compiler_flags INTERFACE cxx_std_11)

Finally, with our interface library set up, we need to link our executable `Tutorial`, our `SqrtLibrary` library and our `MathFunctions` library to our new `tutorial_compiler_flags` library. Respectively, the code will look like this:

TODO 5: Click to show/hide answer
TODO 5: CMakeLists.txt

    target_link_libraries(Tutorial PUBLIC MathFunctions tutorial_compiler_flags)

this:

TODO 6: Click to show/hide answer
TODO 6: MathFunctions/CMakeLists.txt

      target_link_libraries(SqrtLibrary PUBLIC tutorial_compiler_flags)

and this:

TODO 7: Click to show/hide answer
TODO 7: MathFunctions/CMakeLists.txt

    target_link_libraries(MathFunctions PUBLIC tutorial_compiler_flags)

With this, all of our code still requires C++ 11 to build. Notice though that with this method, it gives us the ability to be specific about which targets get specific requirements. In addition, we create a single source of truth in our interface library.