Compiling a static executable with CMake

Question

for a project I need to create an executable that includes all the libraries that I used (opencv, cgal) in order to execute it on a computer that has not those libraries. Cu

Answer 1

As global CMake settings, add these lines before add_executable, valid for gcc/clang:

SET(CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_SUFFIXES ".a")
SET(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS OFF)
SET(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "-static")

On Modern CMake (3.x+ - target_link_libraries doc), you can apply the flag to specific targets, in this way:

target_link_libraries(your_target_name -static)

If you're using MSVC, you have to set the compiler and linker flags:

SET(CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_SUFFIXES ".lib")
target_compile_options(your_target_name [PUBLIC|PRIVATE] /MT)
target_link_options(your_target_name [PUBLIC|PRIVATE] /INCREMENTAL:NO /NODEFAULTLIB:MSVCRT)

and if you are using MFC, you need to specify the flag to 1 see here:

 set(CMAKE_MFC_FLAG 1) 

Answer 2

Add these lines after add_executable(MyExec "main.c") (for exemple) :

target_link_libraries(MyExec PUBLIC "-static")

or before : link_libraries("-static")