nv_test could not add_dependencies of header-ONLY library

[QiJune]

eigen3 is a header only library and we take eigen3 as a cmake external library.
And in my device_context implementation #2709 , the device_context depends on eigen3.
So, we must have eigen3 download before device_context_test compiled.
However, if i write
nv_test(device_context_test SRCS device_context_test.cc DEPS place eigen3 glog gflags)

There will be such error:

CMake Error at cmake/generic.cmake:246 (target_link_libraries):
  Target "eigen3" of type UTILITY may not be linked into another target.  One
  may link only to STATIC or SHARED libraries, or to executables with the
  ENABLE_EXPORTS property set.

I just hack the nv_test in generic.cmake as follows:

function(nv_test TARGET_NAME)
  if (WITH_GPU AND WITH_TESTING)
    set(options "")
    set(oneValueArgs "")
    set(multiValueArgs SRCS INCS DEPS)
    cmake_parse_arguments(nv_test "${options}" "${oneValueArgs}" "${multiValueArgs}" ${ARGN})
    cuda_add_executable(${TARGET_NAME} ${nv_test_SRCS})
    target_link_libraries(${TARGET_NAME} ${nv_test_DEPS} gtest gtest_main)
    add_dependencies(${TARGET_NAME} ${nv_test_INCS} ${nv_test_DEPS} gtest gtest_main)
    add_test(${TARGET_NAME} ${TARGET_NAME})
  endif()
endfunction(nv_test)

And change my compiling command to

nv_test(device_context_test SRCS device_context_test.cc INCS eigen3 DEPS place glog gflags)

And it works.

So, how can we handle this circumstance, and is the hacking way appropriate?

[gangliao]

It's not suitable to add new keyword INC. I will consider another way

[wangkuiyi]

I guess @gangliao 's point is that we should try to make full use of CMake's intrinsic features, other than recreating the wheel. Looking forward to @gangliao 's new proposal.

[reyoung]

@gangliao @QiJune
Maybe this link is helpful.