GTest cannot load imported share library - c++

Question

I am trying to use a few imported shared libraries in a project which is to be tested through GTest. If I create test executables manually (e.g. without GTest), everything works fine. However, when enabling executables that rely on GTest, the build crashes with the following error:
<path to build dir>/test_gtest: error while loading shared libraries: ./libDependencyL2.so: >cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
CMake Error at /usr/share/cmake-3.24/Modules/GoogleTestAddTests.cmake:112 (message):
Error running test executable.
Path: '<path to build dir>/test_gtest/test_gtest'
Result: 127
Output:
Call Stack (most recent call first):
/usr/share/cmake-3.24/Modules/GoogleTestAddTests.cmake:225 (gtest_discover_tests_impl)
I am using CMake as the build system. Compilation and running take place on a x86 Ubuntu 20.04.
Project structure
My directory structure is:
test_project/
CMakeLists.txt
src/
test_handcrafted/
CMakeLists.txt
test_handcrafted.cpp
test_gtest/
CMakeLists.txt
test_gtest.cpp
test_utils
CMakeLists.txt
test_utils.cpp
test_utils.hpp
lib/
libTarget.so
Target.hpp
libDependencyLevel1.so
DependencyLevel1.hpp
libDependencyLevel2.so
DependencyLevel2.hpp
build/
libTarget.so contains the functionalities to be verified. libDependencyLevel1.so contains utils for visualizing test outputs and it depends on libDependencyLevel2.so. test_utils contains all functions and classes that are actually called by the tests.
For instance, the command $ldd libDependencyLevel1.so returns:
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007fff17bb6000)
libDependencyLevel2.so => not found
libstdc++.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007fe5f3357000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007fe5f333c000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007fe5f314a000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007fe5f2ffb000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fe5f358d000)
Build system
test_project/CMakeLists.txt
project(MY_TEST)
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.22)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
include(ExternalProject)
add_library(libTarget SHARED IMPORTED)
set_target_properties(libTarget PROPERTIES
IMPORTED_LOCATION "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/lib/libTarget.so"
)
add_library(libDependencyLevel2 SHARED IMPORTED)
set_target_properties(libDependencyLevel2 PROPERTIES
IMPORTED_LOCATION "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/lib/libDependencyLevel2.so"
)
add_library(libDependencyLevel1 SHARED IMPORTED)
set_target_properties(libDependencyLevel2 PROPERTIES
IMPORTED_LOCATION "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/lib/libDependencyLevel2.so"
)
add_dependencies(libDependencyLevel1 libDependencyLevel2)
include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(
googletest
URL https://github.com/google/googletest/archive/03597a01ee50ed33e9dfd640b249b4be3799d395.zip
)
set(MY_LIBRARIES_HEADERS_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/lib)
add_subdirectory(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/src/test_utils)
add_subdirectory(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/src/test_handcrafted)
# add_subdirectory(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/src/test_gtest) # UNCOMMENTING THIS LINE CAUSES BUILD ERROR
src/test_utils/CMakeLists.txt
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.22)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
add_library(test_utils test_utils.cpp)
target_include_directories(test_utils PUBLIC
${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
MY_LIBRARIES_HEADERS_DIR
)
target_link_libraries(test_utils PUBLIC libTarget libDependencyLevel1 libDependencyLevel2)
src/test_handcrafted/CMakeLists.txt
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.22)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
add_executable(test_handcrafted test_handcrafted.cpp)
target_link_libraries(test_handcrafted PRIVATE libTarget test_utils)
src/test_gtest/CMakeLists.txt
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.22)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
add_executable(test_gtest test_gtest.cpp)
target_link_libraries(test_gtest PRIVATE libTarget test_utils GTest::gtest_main)
include(GoogleTest)
gtest_discover_tests(test_gtest)
Finally, when building test_handcrafted.cpp we can also check its dependencies ldd test_handcrafted:
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffdaa561000)
libTarget.so => <path to repo dir>/lib/libTarget.so (0x00007ff7ab7ab000)
../lib/libDependencyLevel1.so (0x00007ff7ab76d000)
../lib/libDependencyLevel2.so (0x00007ff7ab612000)
libstdc++.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007ff7ab3e5000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007ff7ab294000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007ff7ab279000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007ff7ab087000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007ff7ab064000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007ff7ab05e000)
./libDependencyLevel2.so => not found
libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007ff7ab040000)
libjpeg.so.8 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjpeg.so.8 (0x00007ff7aafbb000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007ff7ac01b000)
Unsuccessful solution attempts
Here is a list of things I have tried without success to solve the issue:
target_link_libraries on test_project/CMakeLists.txt
target_link_libraries(libDependencyLevel1 PUBLIC libDependencyLevel2) # INTERFACE and PRIVATE specifiers were also evaluated
link_directories on test_project/CMakeLists.txt
link_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/lib)
Reasoning and questions
According to the error message shown in the beginning of this post, the build system is not finding the shared libraries needed when GTest is used. But why is this happening? And why not using GTest solves the linking error, even if the IMPORTED SHARED libraries are imported in the same way for building both executables?
Finally, what can I do to solve the building issue when using GTest?