Cmake target_link_libraries not linking my library

Question

I'll begin stating that I'm almost complete dumb in Cmake matter.

I have the following CMakeLists.txt for a Kdevelop 4.1 project:

project(uart)

find_package(KDE4 REQUIRED)
include (KDE4Defaults)

include_directories( ${KDE4_INCLUDES} ${QT_INCLUDES} src/include src/include/QSerialDevce )

add_subdirectory(doc)
add_subdirectory(src)
add_subdirectory(icons)

link_directories(/usr/lib)

find_library(SERIALDEVICE_LIB qserialdeviced)

add_executable(uart ${uart_SRCS})
target_link_libraries(uart ${SERIALDEVICE_LIB})

When I try to build my project I see:

uart/build> make -j2
-- Found Qt-Version 4.6.3 (using /usr/bin/qmake-qt4)
-- Found X11: /usr/lib64/libX11.so
-- Found KDE 4.5 include dir: /usr/include/kde4
-- Found KDE 4.5 library dir: /usr/lib64/kde4/devel
-- Found the KDE4 kconfig_compiler4 preprocessor: /usr/bin/kconfig_compiler4
-- Found automoc4: /usr/bin/automoc4
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:16 (add_executable):
  add_executable called with incorrect number of arguments


CMake Error: Attempt to add link library "/usr/lib/libqserialdeviced.so" to target "uart" which is not built by this project.
-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
make: *** [cmake_check_build_system] Error 1
*** Failed ***

Everything I read says that add_executable and target_link_libraries should look like the last two lines of my file:

add_executable(uart ${uart_SRCS})
target_link_libraries(uart ${SERIALDEVICE_LIB})

If I change those two lines of CMakeLists.txt leaving it as:

project(uart)

find_package(KDE4 REQUIRED)
include (KDE4Defaults)

include_directories( ${KDE4_INCLUDES} ${QT_INCLUDES} src/include src/include/QSerialDevce )

add_subdirectory(doc)
add_subdirectory(src)
add_subdirectory(icons)

link_directories(/usr/lib)

find_library(SERIALDEVICE_LIB qserialdeviced)

target_link_libraries(${SERIALDEVICE_LIB})

I see:

uart/build> make -j2
-- Found Qt-Version 4.6.3 (using /usr/bin/qmake-qt4)
-- Found X11: /usr/lib64/libX11.so
-- Found KDE 4.5 include dir: /usr/include/kde4
-- Found KDE 4.5 library dir: /usr/lib64/kde4/devel
-- Found the KDE4 kconfig_compiler4 preprocessor: /usr/bin/kconfig_compiler4
-- Found automoc4: /usr/bin/automoc4
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: uart/build
[ 11%] Built target doc-handbook
[ 11%] Built target uart_automoc
Linking CXX executable uart
CMakeFiles/uart.dir/uart.o: In function `uart::setupSerial()':
uart/src/uart.cpp:126: undefined reference to `AbstractSerial::AbstractSerial(QObject*)'
CMakeFiles/uart.dir/uart.o: In function `uart::setupEnumerator()':
uart/src/uart.cpp:108: undefined reference to `SerialDeviceEnumerator::SerialDeviceEnumerator(QObject*)'
CMakeFiles/uart.dir/uart.o: In function `uart::setupSerial()':
uart_/uart/src/uart.cpp:136: undefined reference to `AbstractSerial::enableEmitStatus(bool)'
CMakeFiles/uart.dir/uart.o: In function `uart::setupEnumerator()':
uart_/uart/src/uart.cpp:112: undefined reference to `SerialDeviceEnumerator::setEnabled(bool)'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [src/uart] Error 1
make[1]: *** [src/CMakeFiles/uart.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [all] Error 2
*** Failed ***

That clearly shows that target_link_libraries is not linking my qserialdeviced.

qserialdeviced is at /usr/lib/libqserialdeviced.so.1.0.0, correctly simlinked to /usr/lib/libqserialdeviced.so and easily found if I manually add it in the Makefile.

I obviously tried:

target_link_libraries(-lqserialdeviced)

with no change.

I also tried:

if ("${SERIALDEVICE_LIB}" STREQUAL "SERIALDEVICE_LIB-NOTFOUND")
    message(FATAL_ERROR "'qserialdeviced' wasn't found!")
else()
    message("'qserialdeviced' found: " ${SERIALDEVICE_LIB})
endif ()

But this test succeeds. The library is found:

'qserialdeviced' found: /usr/lib/libqserialdeviced.so

Can anybody please help me to understand what happens here?

I am using Linux Fedora 13, cmake version 2.8.0, gcc (GCC) 4.4.5 20101112 (Red Hat 4.4.5-2) and kdevelop-4.1.0-1.fc13.x86_64.

Thanks i advance.

---

EDIT:

As suggested by @DatChu, I split my CMakeLists.txt across my subdirectories and everything makes sense to me now.

Thanks everbody!

Answer 1

For the original CMakeLists.txt file, the problem is not with target_link_libraries but with add_executable

add_executable(uart ${uart_SRCS})

where did you set your uart_SRCS variable? Do you have

set(uart_SRCS src/blahblah.cpp src/somethingblahblah.cpp)

I think you might misunderstand what add_subdirectory does. It does not add the source files inside. It tells CMake to descend into that folder and look for another CMakeLists.txt. You typically use it when you have a sub-project inside of your project folder.

If you have many source files which you don't want to manually set, you can also do

file(GLOB uart_SRCS src/*.cpp src/*.c)

The downside is you need to manually re-run CMake in order for it to detect new files. See Jack's comment on why this might not be what you want to use.

Your CMakeLists.txt will most likely be

project(uart)

find_package(Qt4 REQUIRED)
include (${QT_USE_FILE})
find_package(KDE4 REQUIRED)
include (KDE4Defaults)

include_directories( ${KDE4_INCLUDES} ${QT_INCLUDES} src/include src/include/QSerialDevice )
link_directories(/usr/lib) 

file(GLOB uart_SRCS src/*.cpp src/*.h)
file(GLOB uart_HDRS include/*.h include/QSerialDevice/*.h)

find_library(SERIALDEVICE_LIB qserialdeviced)

add_executable(uart ${uart_SRCS} ${uart_HDRS})
target_link_libraries(uart ${SERIALDEVICE_LIB} ${QT_LIBRARIES})