https://github.com/Kitware/CMake
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Tip revision: 2a5e5b25ba4d6eb68dbee29381774562c98e228f authored by Brad King on 30 October 2019, 13:44:41 UTC
CMake 3.15.5
Tip revision: 2a5e5b2
CMP0008.rst
CMP0008
-------

Libraries linked by full-path must have a valid library file name.

In CMake 2.4 and below it is possible to write code like

::

  target_link_libraries(myexe /full/path/to/somelib)

where ``somelib`` is supposed to be a valid library file name such as
``libsomelib.a`` or ``somelib.lib``.  For Makefile generators this
produces an error at build time because the dependency on the full
path cannot be found.  For :ref:`Visual Studio Generators` IDE
and :generator:`Xcode` generators this used to
work by accident because CMake would always split off the library
directory and ask the linker to search for the library by name
(``-lsomelib`` or ``somelib.lib``).  Despite the failure with Makefiles, some
projects have code like this and build only with Visual Studio and/or Xcode.
This version of CMake prefers to pass the full path directly to the
native build tool, which will fail in this case because it does not
name a valid library file.

This policy determines what to do with full paths that do not appear
to name a valid library file.  The ``OLD`` behavior for this policy is to
split the library name from the path and ask the linker to search for
it.  The ``NEW`` behavior for this policy is to trust the given path and
pass it directly to the native build tool unchanged.

This policy was introduced in CMake version 2.6.1.  CMake version
|release| warns when the policy is not set and uses ``OLD`` behavior.  Use
the :command:`cmake_policy` command to set it to ``OLD`` or ``NEW`` explicitly.

.. include:: DEPRECATED.txt
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