FindPackageNamecmake

FindPackageNamecmake is a CMake module designed to help locate and integrate external libraries into a project. When building software with CMake, it's often necessary to depend on libraries that are not part of the standard C++ library or the operating system's core components. These external libraries need to be found by CMake so that the build system can correctly link against them and include their headers.

The FindPackageNamecmake module provides a standardized way to perform this discovery process. It typically defines variables such as PackageName_FOUND, PackageName_INCLUDE_DIRS, and PackageName_LIBRARIES. The PackageName_FOUND variable is a boolean that indicates whether the library was successfully located. If found, PackageName_INCLUDE_DIRS will contain the paths to the header files, and PackageName_LIBRARIES will list the library files to be linked.

Developers include this module in their CMakeLists.txt file using the find_package() command. For example, find_package(PackageName REQUIRED) attempts to locate the PackageName library. The 'REQUIRED' keyword ensures that CMake will halt the build if the library cannot be found. Once the library is located, the defined variables can be used in target_include_directories() and target_link_libraries() commands to configure the build for the project. This modular approach simplifies dependency management and improves the portability of CMake-based projects.