[tn1]

> CMake has working FindXyz modules for most major libraries

Unless you have that library installed anywhere that is not /usr/include Then you have to just hope and pray that there's some magic incantation that will make it find the right one (especially if your system-installed version is the wrong version and you'd really like to use the newer version you installed to $HOME)

[MaxBarraclough]

Right, but it's always like this. If you're on Windows and you install Boost to C:\random\directory, it seems fair that CMake will require you to specify that directory manually.

The alternative is to have a global database, like the Windows registry or like pkg-config (which I have to admit I don't know much about). Perhaps CMake could have better support for pkg-config, I don't know.