CMake: how to use INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES with ExternalProject?

Question

I\'m trying to add external project as a library to my project using ExternalProject_Add:

ExternalProject_Add(
        xgboost
        GIT_REPOSITORY https://gi         


        

Answer 1

I'll post the final CMakeLists.txt to include xgboost into your project, it might be useful for someone, the solution to the problem above is to create directories during cmake configure phase (NOTE: I'm using OSX to build that, so you would need to use liblibxgboost.so for GNU/Linux instead of liblibxgboost.dylib):

include(ExternalProject)

ExternalProject_Add(
        xgboost
        GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/dmlc/xgboost.git
        GIT_TAG v0.60
        PREFIX ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
        INSTALL_COMMAND ""
)

set(XGBOOST_PREFIX_PATH "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/src")
set(XGBOOST_BINARY_PATH "${XGBOOST_PREFIX_PATH}/xgboost-build")

set(XGBOOST_LIB_INCLUDE "${XGBOOST_PREFIX_PATH}/xgboost/include")
set(DMLC_LIB_INCLUDE "${XGBOOST_PREFIX_PATH}/xgboost/dmlc-core/include")
set(RABIT_LIB_INCLUDE "${XGBOOST_PREFIX_PATH}/xgboost/rabit/include")
set(XGBOOST_BINARY_INCLUDE "${XGBOOST_LIB_INCLUDE};${DMLC_LIB_INCLUDE};${RABIT_LIB_INCLUDE}")

# Hack to make it work, otherwise INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES will not be propagated
file(MAKE_DIRECTORY ${XGBOOST_LIB_INCLUDE})
file(MAKE_DIRECTORY ${DMLC_LIB_INCLUDE})
file(MAKE_DIRECTORY ${RABIT_LIB_INCLUDE})

add_library(libxgboost IMPORTED STATIC GLOBAL)
add_dependencies(libxgboost xgboost)

set_target_properties(libxgboost PROPERTIES
        "IMPORTED_LOCATION" "${XGBOOST_BINARY_PATH}/liblibxgboost.dylib"
        "INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES" "${XGBOOST_BINARY_INCLUDE}"
)