How do I set up CMake to generate header-only projects?

Question

I want to set up header-only C++ (or C) library projects, but can\'t find a clean way.

After some searches I\'ve found that you can\'t set up a normal library using

Answer 1

You can do this using the recent Interface Library feature:

add_library(mylib INTERFACE)
target_include_directories(mylib INTERFACE my_include_dir1 my_include_dir2)

This creates a library target without any source files, and adds the include directories to the INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES property of the target. This means that any target that links to this library will get these directories as include paths (-I) when built.

For instance, to use the library with an executable target, just do:

add_executable(myexec ${MY_SOURCES})
target_link_libraries(myexec mylib)