ENH: INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES should have been written to prepend to the include path so that the most local directories are included first. This is a patch from Alex to resolve the problem by allowing users to switch the default using a variable CMAKE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES_BEFORE and then still explicitly appending or prepending by using AFTER or BEFORE arguments explicitly.

1 files changed, 6 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/Source/cmIncludeDirectoryCommand.h b/Source/cmIncludeDirectoryCommand.h
index 0249f9f57f..a22bc0e13b 100644
--- a/Source/cmIncludeDirectoryCommand.h
+++ b/Source/cmIncludeDirectoryCommand.h
@@ -61,10 +61,13 @@ public:
   virtual const char* GetFullDocumentation()
     {
     return
-      "  INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES([BEFORE] dir1 dir2 ...)\n"
+      "  INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES([AFTER|BEFORE] dir1 dir2 ...)\n"
       "Add the given directories to those searched by the compiler for "
-      "include files.  If BEFORE is specified, the directories are prepended "
-      "onto the current list of directories instead of appended.";
+      "include files. By default the directories are appended onto "
+      "the current list of directories. This default behavior can be "
+      "changed by setting CMAKE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES_BEFORE to ON. "
+      "By using BEFORE or AFTER you can select between appending and "
+      "prepending, independent from the default. ";
     }
   
   cmTypeMacro(cmIncludeDirectoryCommand, cmCommand);