CMake not settings compile definitions transitively

Question

I am working on a project that use cmake build. I have my cmake files like this:

dirA/CMakeLists.txt :

add_library(A STATIC ${SRC_FILES})
target_compile_definitions(A public -DABC)

dirB/CMakeLists.txt :

add_library(B STATIC ${SRC_FILES})
target_link_libraries(B PRIVATE A)        //-DABC is passed to B

dirC/CMakeLists.txt :

add_library(C STATIC ${SRC_FILES})
target_link_libraries(C B)                ////-DABC is not passed to C

I observe that flag -DABC is being passed to library B but not to library C . Is there a way to pass the compile definitions in cmake transitively?

Answer 1

Sure. Link A to B publicly.

target_link_libraries(B PUBLIC A)

Private linkage explicitly halts transitive propagation of properties.