Correction, the dynamic library was not linking, it simply wouldn't fail when it couldn't find libraries, which is why I had errors importing.
I was able to fix this by forcing an include of /opt/local/lib in CMakeList.txt with: LINK_DIRECTORIES(/opt/local/lib) I am still confused why the abundance of '/opt/local/lib' in the CMakeCache.txt file did not cause make to add -L/opt/local/lib to the gcc command. GCC command below. Can someone please shed some light? thanks /usr/bin/c++ -fPIC -W -Wall -Werror=return-type -Werror=address -Werror=sequence-point -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wmissing-prototypes -Wundef -Winit-self -Wpointer-arith -Wshadow -Wsign-promo -fdiagnostics-show-option -pthread -fomit-frame-pointer -msse -msse2 -O3 -DNDEBUG -DNDEBUG -arch i386 -arch x86_64 -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk -Wl,-search_paths_first -Wl,-headerpad_max_install_names CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_abs.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_addWeighted.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_arithm.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_bitwise.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_compare.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_convertTo.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_dft.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_dot.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_inRange.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_main.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_math.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_merge.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_minmaxloc.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_norm.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_precomp.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_reduce.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_split.cpp.o CMakeFiles/opencv_perf_core.dir/perf/perf_stat.cpp.o -o ../../bin/opencv_perf_core ../../lib/libopencv_core.a ../../lib/libopencv_ts.a ../../lib/libopencv_highgui.a -lstdc++ ../../lib/libopencv_imgproc.a ../../lib/libopencv_core.a -lstdc++ ../../3rdparty/lib/liblibjpeg.a ../../3rdparty/lib/liblibpng.a ../../3rdparty/lib/liblibtiff.a ../../3rdparty/lib/libzlib.a ../../3rdparty/lib/liblibjasper.a /opt/local/lib/libImath.dylib /opt/local/lib/libIlmImf.dylib /opt/local/lib/libIex.dylib /opt/local/lib/libHalf.dylib /opt/local/lib/libIlmThread.dylib -ldc1394 -lavcodec -lavformat -lavutil -lswscale /opt/local/include/../lib/libavcodec.a /opt/local/include/../lib/libavformat.a /opt/local/include/../lib/libavutil.a /opt/local/include/../lib/libswscale.a -framework Cocoa /usr/lib/libbz2.dylib -framework VideoDecodeAcceleration -lbz2 -framework QTKit -framework QuartzCore -framework AppKit -- View this message in context: http://cmake.3232098.n2.nabble.com/Issues-with-Library-Dependency-while-building-OpenCV-Static-tp7581059p7581155.html Sent from the CMake mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Powered by www.kitware.com Visit other Kitware open-source projects at http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html Please keep messages on-topic and check the CMake FAQ at: http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake_FAQ Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe: http://www.cmake.org/mailman/listinfo/cmake