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Why does add_dependencies add a third party lib into my executable project?

I have the following CMake projects:

testexe: which depends on shared library testlib

testlib: shared library which uses a third party DLL, say test3rd.lib

After generating the solution, I found that everything was fine except testexe requires test3rd.lib as well as testlib, but my test should only depend on testlib.

What is the reason for this extra dependency?

Solution

  • You could link test3rd.lib as a PRIVATE dependency of testlib, PUBLIC is default.

    target_link_libraries(testlib PRIVATE test3rd.lib)

    Reference