CMAKE_<LANG>_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_<FEATURE>

New in version 3.24.

This variable defines how to link a library or framework for the specified <FEATURE> when a LINK_LIBRARY generator expression is used and the link language for the target is <LANG>. For this variable to have any effect, the associated CMAKE_<LANG>_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_<FEATURE>_SUPPORTED variable must be set to true.

The CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_<FEATURE> variable should be defined instead for features that are independent of the link language.

Feature names are case-sensitive and may only contain letters, numbers and underscores. Feature names defined in all uppercase are reserved for CMake's own built-in features (see Predefined Features further below).

Feature Definitions

A library feature definition is a list that contains one or three elements:

[<PREFIX>] <LIBRARY_EXPRESSION> [<SUFFIX>]

When <PREFIX> and <SUFFIX> are specified, they precede and follow respectively the whole list of libraries specified in the LINK_LIBRARY expression, not each library item individually. There is no guarantee that the list of specified libraries will be kept grouped together though, so the <PREFIX> and <SUFFIX> may appear more than once if the library list is reorganized by CMake to satisfy other constraints. This means constructs like --start-group and --end-group, as supported by the GNU ld linker, cannot be used in this way. The LINK_GROUP generator expression should be used instead for such constructs.

<LIBRARY_EXPRESSION> is used to specify the pattern for constructing the corresponding fragment on the linker command line for each library. The following placeholders can be used in the expression:

• <LIBRARY> is expanded to the full path to the library for CMake targets, or to a platform-specific value based on the item otherwise (the same as <LINK_ITEM> on Windows, or the library base name for other platforms).

• <LINK_ITEM> is expanded to how the library would normally be linked on the linker command line.

• <LIB_ITEM> is expanded to the full path to the library for CMake targets, or the item itself exactly as specified in the <LIBRARY_EXPRESSION> otherwise.

In addition to the above, it is possible to have one pattern for paths (CMake targets and external libraries specified with file paths) and another for other items specified by name only. The PATH{} and NAME{} wrappers can be used to provide the expansion for those two cases, respectively. When wrappers are used, both must be present. For example:

set(CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_weak_library
    "PATH{-weak_library <LIBRARY>}NAME{LINKER:-weak-l<LIB_ITEM>}"
)

For all three elements of this variable (<PREFIX>, <LIBRARY_EXPRESSION>, and <SUFFIX>), the LINKER: prefix can be used.

To pass options to the linker tool, each compiler driver has its own syntax. The LINKER: prefix and , separator can be used to specify, in a portable way, options to pass to the linker tool. LINKER: is replaced by the appropriate driver option and , by the appropriate driver separator. The driver prefix and driver separator are given by the values of the CMAKE_<LANG>_LINKER_WRAPPER_FLAG and CMAKE_<LANG>_LINKER_WRAPPER_FLAG_SEP variables.

For example, "LINKER:-z,defs" becomes -Xlinker -z -Xlinker defs for Clang and -Wl,-z,defs for GNU GCC.

The LINKER: prefix can be specified as part of a SHELL: prefix expression.

The LINKER: prefix supports, as an alternative syntax, specification of arguments using the SHELL: prefix and space as separator. The previous example then becomes "LINKER:SHELL:-z defs".

Note

Specifying the SHELL: prefix anywhere other than at the beginning of the LINKER: prefix is not supported.

Examples

Loading a whole static library

A common need is to prevent the linker from discarding any symbols from a static library. Different linkers use different syntax for achieving this. The following example shows how this may be implemented for some linkers. Note that this is for illustration purposes only. Projects should use the built-in WHOLE_ARCHIVE feature instead (see Predefined Features), which provides a more complete and more robust implementation of this functionality.

set(CMAKE_C_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_load_archive_SUPPORTED TRUE)
if(CMAKE_C_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL "AppleClang")
  set(CMAKE_C_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_load_archive "-force_load <LIB_ITEM>")
elseif(CMAKE_C_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL "GNU" AND CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME STREQUAL "Linux")
  set(CMAKE_C_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_load_archive
    "LINKER:--push-state,--whole-archive"
    "<LINK_ITEM>"
    "LINKER:--pop-state"
  )
elseif(CMAKE_C_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL "MSVC")
  set(CMAKE_C_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_load_archive "/WHOLEARCHIVE:<LIBRARY>")
else()
  # feature not yet supported for the other environments
  set(CMAKE_C_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_load_archive_SUPPORTED FALSE)
endif()

add_library(lib1 STATIC ...)
add_library(lib2 SHARED ...)

if(CMAKE_C_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_load_archive_SUPPORTED)
  # The -force_load Apple linker option requires a file name
  set(external_lib
    "$<IF:$<LINK_LANG_AND_ID:C,AppleClang>,libexternal.a,external>"
  )
  target_link_libraries(lib2 PRIVATE
    "$<LINK_LIBRARY:load_archive,lib1,${external_lib}>"
  )
else()
  target_link_libraries(lib2 PRIVATE lib1 external)
endif()

CMake will generate the following link expressions:

• AppleClang: -force_load /path/to/lib1.a -force_load libexternal.a

• GNU: -Wl,--push-state,--whole-archive /path/to/lib1.a -lexternal -Wl,--pop-state

• MSVC: /WHOLEARCHIVE:/path/to/lib1.lib /WHOLEARCHIVE:external.lib

Linking a library as weak

On macOS, it is possible to link a library in weak mode (the library and all references are marked as weak imports). Different flags must be used for a library specified by file path compared to one specified by name. This constraint can be solved using PATH{} and NAME{} wrappers. Again, the following example shows how this may be implemented for some linkers, but it is for illustration purposes only. Projects should use the built-in WEAK_FRAMEWORK or WEAK_LIBRARY features instead (see Predefined Features), which provide more complete and more robust implementations of this functionality.

if (CMAKE_C_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL "AppleClang")
  set(CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_weak_library
      "PATH{-weak_library <LIBRARY>}NAME{LINKER:-weak-l<LIB_ITEM>}"
  )
  set(CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_weak_library_SUPPORTED TRUE)
endif()

add_library(lib SHARED ...)
add_executable(main ...)
if(CMAKE_LINK_LIBRARY_USING_weak_library_SUPPORTED)
  target_link_libraries(main PRIVATE "$<LINK_LIBRARY:weak_library,lib,external>")
else()
  target_link_libraries(main PRIVATE lib external)
endif()

CMake will generate the following linker command line fragment when linking main using the AppleClang toolchain:

-weak_library /path/to/lib -Xlinker -weak-lexternal.

Predefined Features

The following built-in library features are pre-defined by CMake:

DEFAULT

This feature corresponds to standard linking, essentially equivalent to using no feature at all. It is typically only used with the LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE and LINK_LIBRARY_OVERRIDE_<LIBRARY> target properties.

WHOLE_ARCHIVE

Force inclusion of all members of a static library. This feature is only supported for the following platforms, with limitations as noted:

• Linux.

• All BSD variants.

• SunOS.

• All Apple variants. The library must be specified as a CMake target name, a library file name (such as libfoo.a), or a library file path (such as /path/to/libfoo.a). Due to a limitation of the Apple linker, it cannot be specified as a plain library name like foo, where foo is not a CMake target.

• Windows. When using a MSVC or MSVC-like toolchain, the MSVC version must be greater than 1900.

• Cygwin.

• MSYS.

FRAMEWORK

This option tells the linker to search for the specified framework using the -framework linker option. It can only be used on Apple platforms, and only with a linker that understands the option used (i.e. the linker provided with Xcode, or one compatible with it).

The framework can be specified as a CMake framework target, a bare framework name, or a file path. If a target is given, that target must have the FRAMEWORK target property set to true. For a file path, if it contains a directory part, that directory will be added as a framework search path.

add_library(lib SHARED ...)
target_link_libraries(lib PRIVATE "$<LINK_LIBRARY:FRAMEWORK,/path/to/my_framework>")

# The constructed linker command line will contain:
#   -F/path/to -framework my_framework

File paths must conform to one of the following patterns (* is a wildcard, and optional parts are shown as [...]):

• [/path/to/]FwName[.framework]

• [/path/to/]FwName.framework/FwName

• [/path/to/]FwName.framework/Versions/*/FwName

Note that CMake recognizes and automatically handles framework targets, even without using the $<LINK_LIBRARY:FRAMEWORK,...> expression. The generator expression can still be used with a CMake target if the project wants to be explicit about it, but it is not required to do so. The linker command line may have some differences between using the generator expression or not, but the final result should be the same. On the other hand, if a file path is given, CMake will recognize some paths automatically, but not all cases. The project may want to use $<LINK_LIBRARY:FRAMEWORK,...> for file paths so that the expected behavior is clear.

NEEDED_FRAMEWORK

This is similar to the FRAMEWORK feature, except it forces the linker to link with the framework even if no symbols are used from it. It uses the -needed_framework option and has the same linker constraints as FRAMEWORK.

REEXPORT_FRAMEWORK

This is similar to the FRAMEWORK feature, except it tells the linker that the framework should be available to clients linking to the library being created. It uses the -reexport_framework option and has the same linker constraints as FRAMEWORK.

WEAK_FRAMEWORK

This is similar to the FRAMEWORK feature, except it forces the linker to mark the framework and all references to it as weak imports. It uses the -weak_framework option and has the same linker constraints as FRAMEWORK.

NEEDED_LIBRARY

This is similar to the NEEDED_FRAMEWORK feature, except it is for use with non-framework targets or libraries (Apple platforms only). It uses the -needed_library or -needed-l option as appropriate, and has the same linker constraints as NEEDED_FRAMEWORK.

REEXPORT_LIBRARY

This is similar to the REEXPORT_FRAMEWORK feature, except it is for use with non-framework targets or libraries (Apple platforms only). It uses the -reexport_library or -reexport-l option as appropriate, and has the same linker constraints as REEXPORT_FRAMEWORK.

WEAK_LIBRARY

This is similar to the WEAK_FRAMEWORK feature, except it is for use with non-framework targets or libraries (Apple platforms only). It uses the -weak_library or -weak-l option as appropriate, and has the same linker constraints as WEAK_FRAMEWORK.