Linking different libraries for Debug and Release builds in Cmake on windows?

65
votes

So I've got a library I'm compiling and I need to link different third party things in depending on if it's the debug or release build (specifically the release or debug versions of those libraries). Is there an easy way to do this in Cmake?

Edit: I should note I'm using visual studio

4
c++windowscmake

4 Answers

92
votes

According to the CMake documentation:

target_link_libraries(<target> [lib1 [lib2 [...]]] [[debug|optimized|general] <lib>] ...)

A "debug", "optimized", or "general" keyword indicates that the library immediately following it is to be used only for the corresponding build configuration.

So you should be able to do this:

add_executable( MyEXE ${SOURCES})

target_link_libraries( MyEXE debug 3PDebugLib)
target_link_libraries( MyEXE optimized 3PReleaseLib)
15
votes

Somehow the answer from @Mike Willekes got CMake linking in the same target both release and debug for me :(

I only got this working by setting both configurations in one line, as suggested by @sakra in a related question - and doing so for every library that needed to be linked:

target_link_libraries ( app
    debug ${Boost_FILESYSTEM_LIBRARY_DEBUG}
    optimized ${Boost_FILESYSTEM_LIBRARY_RELEASE} )

target_link_libraries ( app
    debug ${Boost_LOG_LIBRARY_DEBUG}
    optimized ${Boost_LOG_LIBRARY_RELEASE} )

target_link_libraries ( app
    debug ${Boost_PROGRAM_OPTIONS_LIBRARY_DEBUG}
    optimized ${Boost_PROGRAM_OPTIONS_LIBRARY_RELEASE} )

# ...
5
votes

I would like to add a few notes to the previous answers.

If you need to create a list of multiple files you want to link and store that in a cache variable then you need to add the optimized or debug specified before each and every library. This can be especially useful for larger makefiles/projects.

So for example you could do something like this:

set( MyFavLib_LIBRARIES 
    debug debug/module1.lib optimized release/module1.lib
    debug debug/module2.lib optimized release/module2.lib )
target_link_libraries( app ${MyFavLib_LIBRARIES} )
1
votes

What worked for me was to use $(Configuration) macro in a lib path provided to cmake.

So, assuming libs are stored in separate, correctly named folders, e.g.:

C:\boost\lib\Debug\libfoo.lib
C:\boost\lib\Release\libfoo.lib

You can then call cmake with:

cmake -G "Visual Studio 10 2010" -DBOOST_LIBRARYDIR=C:\boost\lib\$(Configuration)\libfoo.lib

That'll generate .vcxproj with Additional Dependencies including C:\boost\lib\$(Configuration)\libfoo.lib, what is evaluated to either C:\boost\lib\Release\libfoo.lib or C:\boost\lib\Debug\libfoo.lib depending on a chosen Configuration.