Question

set(TestProject_additional_libs
        optimized  foobar.lib   
        debug   foobard.lib    
}  

especially what is optimized/debug mean here? Is this the standard way to add libs using cmake?

Answer 1

It looks like a “misuse” to me. Those all are just assigned to a variable TestProject_additional_libs. The magic happens probably later when it is expanded in something like target_link_libraries. I did not know one can do something like that. But indeed it is not clear what actually is going on when it is written this way.

Citing the manual from aforementioned link:

A “debug”, “optimized”, or “general” keyword indicates that the
library immediately following it is to be used only for the
corresponding build configuration.