[c++] How to create a shared library with cmake?

I have written a library that I used to compile using a self-written Makefile, but now I want to switch to cmake. The tree looks like this (I removed all the irrelevant files):

.
+-- include
¦   +-- animation.h
¦   +-- buffers.h
¦   +-- ...
¦   +-- vertex.h
¦   +-- world.h
+-- src
    +-- animation.cpp
    +-- buffers.cpp
    +-- ...
    +-- vertex.cpp
    +-- world.cpp

So what I am trying to do is just to compile the source into a shared library and then install it with the header files.

Most examples that I have found compile executables with some shared libraries but never just a plain shared library. It would also be helpful if someone could just tell me a very simple library that uses cmake, so I can use this as an example.

This minimal CMakeLists.txt file compiles a simple shared library:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)

project (test)
set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE Release)

include_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include)
add_library(test SHARED src/test.cpp)

However, I have no experience copying files to a different destination with CMake. The file command with the COPY/INSTALL signature looks like it might be useful.

First, this is the directory layout that I am using:

.
+-- include
¦   +-- class1.hpp
¦   +-- ...
¦   +-- class2.hpp
+-- src
    +-- class1.cpp
    +-- ...
    +-- class2.cpp

After a couple of days taking a look into this, this is my favourite way of doing this thanks to modern CMake:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.5)
project(mylib VERSION 1.0.0 LANGUAGES CXX)

set(DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE "Release")

if(NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE AND NOT CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
  message(STATUS "Setting build type to '${DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE}' as none was specified.")
  set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "${DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE}" CACHE STRING "Choose the type of build." FORCE)
  # Set the possible values of build type for cmake-gui
  set_property(CACHE CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE PROPERTY STRINGS "Debug" "Release" "MinSizeRel" "RelWithDebInfo")
endif()

include(GNUInstallDirs)

set(SOURCE_FILES src/class1.cpp src/class2.cpp)

add_library(${PROJECT_NAME} ...)

target_include_directories(${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC
    $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include>
    $<INSTALL_INTERFACE:include>
    PRIVATE src)

set_target_properties(${PROJECT_NAME} PROPERTIES
    VERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION}
    SOVERSION 1)

install(TARGETS ${PROJECT_NAME} EXPORT MyLibConfig
    ARCHIVE  DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}
    LIBRARY  DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}
    RUNTIME  DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR})
install(DIRECTORY include/ DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}/${PROJECT_NAME})

install(EXPORT MyLibConfig DESTINATION share/MyLib/cmake)

export(TARGETS ${PROJECT_NAME} FILE MyLibConfig.cmake)

After running CMake and installing the library, there is no need to use Find***.cmake files, it can be used like this:

find_package(MyLib REQUIRED)

#No need to perform include_directories(...)
target_link_libraries(${TARGET} mylib)

That's it, if it has been installed in a standard directory it will be found and there is no need to do anything else. If it has been installed in a non-standard path, it is also easy, just tell CMake where to find MyLibConfig.cmake using:

cmake -DMyLib_DIR=/non/standard/install/path ..

I hope this helps everybody as much as it has helped me. Old ways of doing this were quite cumbersome.

I'm trying to learn how to do this myself, and it seems you can install the library like this:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.4.0)

project(mycustomlib)

# Find source files
file(GLOB SOURCES src/*.cpp)

# Include header files
include_directories(include)

# Create shared library
add_library(${PROJECT_NAME} SHARED ${SOURCES})

# Install library
install(TARGETS ${PROJECT_NAME} DESTINATION lib/${PROJECT_NAME})

# Install library headers
file(GLOB HEADERS include/*.h)
install(FILES ${HEADERS} DESTINATION include/${PROJECT_NAME})