The IMP C++ library can be used in other projects. When IMP is built or installed, it creates a CMake file called IMPConfig.cmake which contains information about how IMP was configured and where all the parts of IMP can be found. This can be used to easily add IMP as a dependency to other C++ projects using CMake. When built from source, this file is placed in the CMake build directory; when installed, it is placed under the library directory, for example in /usr/lib64/cmake/IMP/.

The IMPConfig.cmake file defines a number of CMake variables:

IMP_USE_FILE: the path to a CMake file which can be included into other CMake scripts to make IMP-related CMake functions available.
IMP_INCLUDE_DIR: the path containing IMP C++ headers.
IMP_xxx_LIBRARY: the full path to the dynamic library for the xxx module (for example IMP_kernel_LIBRARY points to the IMP kernel and IMP_atom_LIBRARY to the IMP::atom library).
RMF_INCLUDE_PATH: the path containing RMF C++ headers.
IMP_DATA_DIR: the path containing IMP data files.
IMP_SWIG_DIR: the path containing SWIG .i files for all IMP modules.

The paths to all IMP dependent libraries and headers are also present in this file - for example EIGEN3_INCLUDE_DIR and Boost_INCLUDE_DIR.

A FindIMP.cmake file is provided to help CMake find this IMP configuration (using the find_package command), and can be used in other CMake projects.

See also the tutorial on using IMP as a C++ library for a worked example of using IMP in a CMake project.

This functionality can also be used to build an IMP module "out of tree", that is to build the module by itself and link to an existing pre-built IMP installation. See the out of tree page for more information.