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Asked: 2026-06-09T15:56:01+00:00

I am trying to link against the libconfig++ library using cmake. I installed the

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I am trying to link against the libconfig++ library using cmake. I installed the library
using apt-get so I am assuming it will have a .cmake file so I can use find_package. Problem is I don’t know what package name to use. I tried libconfig, config, config++ as the package name to no avail.

As a general question, how does one find out which package is associated with a library.

I know that find_package looks into CMAKE_MODULE_PATH to see if there is a .cmake script. How to I find out what is the value of CMAKE_MODULE_PATH on my system. It’s not an environment variable. I am running ubuntu 12.04.

Any help is appreciated.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    To use find_package you need to have corresponding Find or Config cmake file. But library may not to provide it, seems with your library is such a case. You can use find_library for finding libraries and find_path to find include directories. With these commands you can even write FindXXX.cmake yourself.

    CMAKE_MODULE_PATH is not an environment variable, it is CMake’s one. This variable is intended for you to set, if you have additional directories with modules, by default it’s empty. This is used in the “Module” mode. In this mode CMake searches FindXXX.cmake in the CMAKE_MODULE_PATH (your modules) or in modules shipped with CMake and if it’s found, it then used to find library and it’s headers.

    If that module wasn’t found, it then switches into “Config” mode. On Unix it searches for ConfigXXX.cmake in the following directories:

    <prefix>/(lib/<arch>|lib|share)/cmake/<name>*/
<prefix>/(lib/<arch>|lib|share)/<name>*/
<prefix>/(lib/<arch>|lib|share)/<name>*/(cmake|CMake)/

    This files is shipped with the library, so there is no need to find anything, they contain all information, where library and includes located, etc.

    About naming scheme, there is no standard one. You can look at Standard CMake modules. Modules found in internet for your library named FindLibConfig.cmake

    For your case, library ships without corresponding cmake file, so you should write it your self (or find already written) and add directory with that file to CMAKE_MODULE_PATH.

    I suggest you to read how find_package command works and how to write FindXXX.cmake files.

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