CMake third party library undefined reference - c++

Question

I already read and searched a lot (e.g. 1 2 3, several docs for CMake, similar projects, etc. to find a solution but I have not been able to solve my problem. I am relatively new to Cmake and Linux (Ubuntu 14.04).
I want to use libsbp (https://github.com/swift-nav/libsbp) to write a program in C++ to communicate with a GPS module. I cloned the repository and installed the C-Library. So now in /usr/local/lib there are two files: libsbp.so and libsbp-static.a and the headers are in /usr/local/include/libsbp
In my own project I include the headers with #include "libsbp/sbp.h" which also works.
Now the Problem: if I want to use a method from libsbp e.g. sbp_state_init(&s); I get undefined reference to "sbp_state_init(sbp_state_t*)"
The relevant part of my Cmake for my own project:
link_directories(/usr/local/lib)
add_executable(main ${QT_SOURCES} ${QT_HEADER_HPP})
target_link_libraries(main ${QT_LIBRARIES} ${catkin_LIBRARIES} sbp)
As I said before, I tried some things:
find_library(SBP_LIB sbp /usr/local/lib) -> same error
same goes for using libsbp in target_link_libraries or searching for it
link_directory(/usr/local/lib)
trying different paths, even moveing libsbp.so into the project directory and "finding" it with ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
Maybe you can help me!
edit:
this is the CMakeList.txt from the libsbp/c/src directory
if (NOT DEFINED BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
set(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS ON)
endif (NOT DEFINED BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
file(GLOB libsbp_HEADERS "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/libsbp/*.h")
include_directories("${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/CBLAS/include")
include_directories("${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/clapack-3.2.1-CMAKE/INCLUDE")
include_directories("${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/lapacke/include")
include_directories("${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/libsbp")
set(libsbp_SRCS
edc.c
sbp.c
)
add_library(sbp-static STATIC ${libsbp_SRCS})
install(TARGETS sbp-static DESTINATION lib${LIB_SUFFIX})
if(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
add_library(sbp SHARED ${libsbp_SRCS})
install(TARGETS sbp DESTINATION lib${LIB_SUFFIX})
else(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
message(STATUS "Not building shared libraries")
endif(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
install(FILES ${libsbp_HEADERS} DESTINATION include/libsbp)
this is the CMakeList.txt from /libsbp/c/
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.9)
project(libsbp)
# Setup flags for Code Coverage build mode
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_COVERAGE "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG} --coverage" CACHE STRING
"Flags used by the C++ compiler for building with code coverage."
FORCE )
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_COVERAGE "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS_DEBUG} --coverage" CACHE STRING
"Flags used by the C compiler for building with code coverage."
FORCE )
SET(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE
"${CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_DEBUG} --coverage" CACHE STRING
"Flags used for linking binaries with code coverage."
FORCE )
set(CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE
"${CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_DEBUG} --coverage" CACHE STRING
"Flags used by the shared libraries linker during builds with code coverage."
FORCE )
mark_as_advanced(
CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_COVERAGE
CMAKE_C_FLAGS_COVERAGE
CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE
CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE )
# Update the documentation string of CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE for GUIs
set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}" CACHE STRING
"Choose the type of build, options are: None Debug Release RelWithDebInfo MinSizeRel Coverage."
FORCE )
# Set project version using Git tag and hash.
execute_process(
COMMAND git describe --dirty --tags --always
WORKING_DIRECTORY ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}
RESULT_VARIABLE GIT_VERSION_FOUND
ERROR_QUIET
OUTPUT_VARIABLE GIT_VERSION
OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE
)
if (GIT_VERSION_FOUND)
set(VERSION "unknown")
else (GIT_VERSION_FOUND)
set(VERSION ${GIT_VERSION})
endif (GIT_VERSION_FOUND)
# Set project version explicitly for release tarballs.
#set(VERSION foo)
message(STATUS "libsbp version: ${VERSION}")
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake")
# Some compiler options used globally
set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "-Wall -Wextra -Wno-strict-prototypes -Wno-unknown-warning-option -Werror -std=gnu99 ${CMAKE_C_FLAGS}")
add_subdirectory(src)
add_subdirectory(docs)
add_subdirectory(test)

Answer 1

It seems that your program uses C++ and the library is written in C.
Symbols in C and C++ are encoded differently (mangled). When including C headers from C++ you need to tell the compiler. This can be done by declaring the symbols extern "C".
extern "C" {
#include <libsbp/sbp.h>
}
Some libraries already include this in their headers, but not sbp.

Answer 2

You have (at least) two possibilities:
Installing the library (this is what you did)
Integrating the library in your CMake project
When installing the library, the target_link_libraries command needs to be modified slightly:
find_library(SBP_LIB sbp /usr/local/lib)
target_link_libraries(main ${QT_LIBRARIES} ${catkin_LIBRARIES} ${SBP_LIB})
When you integrate the library in your CMake project, you can directly use the following command without using find_library. This works, because the library is known to CMake since it is built within the current project.
target_link_libraries(main ${QT_LIBRARIES} ${catkin_LIBRARIES} sbp)