Linking ready made external static library

Question

I have a ready made external static library (.a) that I want to link to my executable. How exactly can I do it with cmake?

Answer 1

You should use the TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES command. But before that you might want to make sure CMake looks into correct directories by using FIND_LIBRARY or LINK_DIRECTORIES . All are documented in detail here: ( CMake help: TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES ) ( CMake help: LINK_DIRECTORIES ) ( CMake help: FIND_LIBRARY )

According to the comment by @Fraser, it is better to use find_library over link_directories .