Should DEAL_II_LIBRARIES be available via deal.IIConfig.cmake?

[Alex Cobb]

Hi Everybody,

I have been using DEAL_II_LIBRARIES and related variables from deal.IIConfig.cmake to build Python extensions against deal.II.  These variables do not seem to be available any longer in installed .cmake files, unless I am missing something?  However, they are still documented as existing and available for external use according to the User CMake configuration page for users

https://www.dealii.org/current/users/cmake_user.html

and for developers

https://www.dealii.org/current/developers/cmake-internals.html

It looks like these variables stopped being exported as of version 9.5.0 due to this commit:

https://github.com/dealii/dealii/commit/800dc279968479e31ac486d99388012e4c9b7b27

which deleted the relevant lines from cmake/config/Config.cmake.in.  I can't seem to find a specific discussion of this change in the release notes

https://www.dealii.org/developer/doxygen/deal.II/changes_between_9_4_0_and_9_5_0.html

Is retaining these variables a possibility?  Or is there some reason the use of these variables (DEAL_II_INCLUDE_DIRS, DEAL_II_LIBRARIES_DEBUG, ...) should be discontinued by users, in favor of some alternative...?

Thanks and regards

Alex