Tamás Kenéz wrote: >> For example, if an ALIAS can be IMPORTED, does it makes sense that it can > be >> exported with export() and install(EXPORT)? > > Yes: couple of months ago I was adding install(EXPORT) to an existing > CMakeList. The name of the library target which I had to export was not > correct as export target name but I was not able change the library target > name because of backward compatibility. Being able to export an alias > would have helped.
I still think exporting should be a follow up to allowing IMPORTED ALIAS. Just too keep the branch and discussion as short as possible. Nevertheless, I think you wouldn't need ALIAS targets for your use-case. They are more than you need. You don't need the aliases anywhere except for exporting. So, we could design something which allows you to export aliases, but be completely separate from ALIAS targets. For example, add_library(foo ${foo_SRCS}) set_target_property(foo EXPORT_NAMES foo foo_old_name) ... install(EXPORT ...) resulting in a generated file containing add_library(foo IMPORTED) ... add_library(foo_old_name IMPORTED) ... where each of the generated targets get the same target properties. Note that there is already an EXPORT_NAME target property http://www.cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.3/prop_tgt/EXPORT_NAME.html but it is not a list, so the task would probably be to deprecate that one and add EXPORT_NAMES. I filed http://public.kitware.com/Bug/view.php?id=15745 Thanks, Steve. -- Powered by www.kitware.com Please keep messages on-topic and check the CMake FAQ at: http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake_FAQ Kitware offers various services to support the CMake community. For more information on each offering, please visit: CMake Support: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/support.html CMake Consulting: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/consulting.html CMake Training Courses: http://cmake.org/cmake/help/training.html Visit other Kitware open-source projects at http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe: http://public.kitware.com/mailman/listinfo/cmake-developers