# CMP0008

Libraries linked by full-path must have a valid library file name.

In CMake 2.4 and below it is possible to write code like

    target_link_libraries(myexe /full/path/to/somelib)

where `somelib` is supposed to be a valid library file name such as `libsomelib.a` or `somelib.lib`. For Makefile generators this produces an error at build time because the dependency on the full path cannot be found. For Visual Studio Generators IDE and `Xcode` generators this used to work by accident because CMake would always split off the library directory and ask the linker to search for the library by name (`-lsomelib` or `somelib.lib`). Despite the failure with Makefiles, some projects have code like this and build only with Visual Studio and/or Xcode. This version of CMake prefers to pass the full path directly to the native build tool, which will fail in this case because it does not name a valid library file.

This policy determines what to do with full paths that do not appear to name a valid library file. The `OLD` behavior for this policy is to split the library name from the path and ask the linker to search for it. The `NEW` behavior for this policy is to trust the given path and pass it directly to the native build tool unchanged.

This policy was introduced in CMake version 2.6.1. CMake version 3.26.0-rc5 warns when the policy is not set and uses `OLD` behavior. Use the `cmake_policy()` command to set it to `OLD` or `NEW` explicitly.

Note

The `OLD` behavior of a policy is `deprecated by definition` and may be removed in a future version of CMake.