CMake:How To Find Libraries

This article mostly discusses creating new Find*.cmake files for libraries that don't have one yet. But in case you already have one, let's see how it works. In CMakeLists.txt, write

find_package(LibXML++ REQUIRED)
include_directories(${LibXML++_INCLUDE_DIRS})
set(LIBS ${LIBS} ${LibXML++_LIBRARIES})

Then, after detecting all the libraries, for your target:

target_link_libraries(exampleProgram ${LIBS})

For this to work, you'll need a file called FindLibXML++.cmake in your CMake module path. Since CMake (currently) doesn't ship one, you'll have to ship it within your project. Create a folder named cmake/Modules/ under your project root, and in the root CMakeLists.txt, include the following code:

set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH} "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/Modules/")

As you may have guessed, you need to put the CMake modules that you use, and that CMake has to find automatically, inside that folder.

That's it, usually. Some libraries might require something else, so be sure to look inside that FindSomething.cmake file to see the documentation for that specific library.