How to get CMake to recognize pthread on Ubuntu?

Question

If I compile on the command-line with g++ directly, I can see everything I need is there:

$ g++ -pthread test.cpp $ ldd a.out     linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x00007fffd05b3000)     libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007f4a1ba8d000)     libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f4a1b870000)     ...more... 

Then I try to create a simple cmake file for this 5-line test app:

$ cat CMakeLists.txt  PROJECT ( Test CXX ) CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED ( VERSION 2.8 ) FIND_PACKAGE ( Threads REQUIRED ) ADD_EXECUTABLE ( test test.cpp ) TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES ( test ${CMAKE_THREAD_LIBS_INIT} ) 

However, I cannot figure out why CMake doesn't find what it needs to use for Threads:

$ cd build/ $ cmake .. CMake Error at /usr/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:97 (MESSAGE):   Could NOT find Threads (missing: Threads_FOUND) Call Stack (most recent call first):   /usr/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:288 (_FPHSA_FAILURE_MESSAGE)   /usr/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/FindThreads.cmake:166 (FIND_PACKAGE_HANDLE_STANDARD_ARGS)   CMakeLists.txt:4 (FIND_PACKAGE) -- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred! 

Answer 1

Oh, this was was a pain! I probably lost 2 hours on this. Here is the solution:

CMake uses short 'C' applications to test/try things. If the CMakeLists.txt states that C++ is used for the project, without also listing C, then some of those shorts tests incorrectly fail, and cmake then thinks those things aren't found.

The solution was to change the first line of CMakeLists from this:

PROJECT ( Test CXX ) 

...to include C as a language:

PROJECT ( Test C CXX ) 

Then delete build, recreate it, and everything then works:

rm -rf build mkdir build cd build cmake ..