Add include directories to a target.
target_include_directories(<target> [SYSTEM] [BEFORE] <INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items1...] [<INTERFACE|PUBLIC|PRIVATE> [items2...] ...])
Specifies include directories to use when compiling a given target. The named <target>
must have been created by a command such as add_executable()
or add_library()
and must not be an ALIAS target.
If BEFORE
is specified, the content will be prepended to the property instead of being appended.
The INTERFACE
, PUBLIC
and PRIVATE
keywords are required to specify the scope of the following arguments. PRIVATE
and PUBLIC
items will populate the INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
property of <target>
. PUBLIC
and INTERFACE
items will populate the INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
property of <target>
. (IMPORTED targets only support INTERFACE
items.) The following arguments specify include directories.
Specified include directories may be absolute paths or relative paths. Repeated calls for the same <target> append items in the order called. If SYSTEM
is specified, the compiler will be told the directories are meant as system include directories on some platforms (signalling this setting might achieve effects such as the compiler skipping warnings, or these fixed-install system files not being considered in dependency calculations - see compiler docs). If SYSTEM
is used together with PUBLIC
or INTERFACE
, the INTERFACE_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
target property will be populated with the specified directories.
Arguments to target_include_directories
may use “generator expressions” with the syntax $<...>
. See the cmake-generator-expressions(7)
manual for available expressions. See the cmake-buildsystem(7)
manual for more on defining buildsystem properties.
Include directories usage requirements commonly differ between the build-tree and the install-tree. The BUILD_INTERFACE
and INSTALL_INTERFACE
generator expressions can be used to describe separate usage requirements based on the usage location. Relative paths are allowed within the INSTALL_INTERFACE
expression and are interpreted relative to the installation prefix. For example:
target_include_directories(mylib PUBLIC $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/mylib> $<INSTALL_INTERFACE:include/mylib> # <prefix>/include/mylib )
Note that it is not advisable to populate the INSTALL_INTERFACE
of the INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
of a target with absolute paths to the include directories of dependencies. That would hard-code into installed packages the include directory paths for dependencies as found on the machine the package was made on.
The INSTALL_INTERFACE
of the INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
is only suitable for specifying the required include directories for headers provided with the target itself, not those provided by the transitive dependencies listed in its INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES
target property. Those dependencies should themselves be targets that specify their own header locations in INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
.
See the Creating Relocatable Packages section of the cmake-packages(7)
manual for discussion of additional care that must be taken when specifying usage requirements while creating packages for redistribution.
© 2000–2020 Kitware, Inc. and Contributors
Licensed under the BSD 3-clause License.
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.19/command/target_include_directories.html