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# LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES

List public interface libraries for a shared library or executable.

By default linking to a shared library target transitively links to targets with which the library itself was linked. For an executable with exports (see the `ENABLE_EXPORTS` target property) no default transitive link dependencies are used. This property replaces the default transitive link dependencies with an explicit list. When the target is linked into another target using the `target_link_libraries()` command, the libraries listed (and recursively their link interface libraries) will be provided to the other target also. If the list is empty then no transitive link dependencies will be incorporated when this target is linked into another target even if the default set is non-empty. This property is initialized by the value of the `CMAKE_LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES` variable if it is set when a target is created. This property is ignored for `STATIC` libraries.

This property is overridden by the `INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES` property if policy `CMP0022` is `NEW`.

This property is deprecated. Use `INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES` instead.

Note that it is not advisable to populate the `LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES` of a target with paths for dependencies. That would hard-code into installed packages the include directory paths for dependencies as found on the machine the package was made on.

That is, code like this is incorrect for targets which will be used to generate `cmake-packages(7)`:

    target_link_libraries(mylib INTERFACE
      ${Boost_LIBRARIES};${OtherDep_LIBRARIES}
    )

Dependencies must provide their own IMPORTED targets which have their own `IMPORTED_LOCATION` populated appropriately. That way, when a consumer uses the installed package, the consumer will run the appropriate `find_package()` command to find the dependencies on their own machine and populate the IMPORTED targets with appropriate paths. See Creating Packages for more. Note that many modules currently shipped with CMake do not currently provide IMPORTED targets.

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