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My project currently depends upon a library (PJSIP) that is distributed with Autotools build scripts for *NIX and Visual Studio project files for Windows.

My project currently uses the CMake build system. The current script is Linux-specific: it assumes that PJSIP has been installed as a prerequisite (in a system-wide library location, managed by the package manager) and only specifies target_link_libraries(pj pjnath pjlib-util). This is canonical for Linux software.

I would like to make my project also work for Visual Studio. What is the canonical Windows way to set up this dependency? Should it be configured in some global Visual Studio setting? Or should PJSIP be in a subdirectory, and CMake told to invoke the correct build system itself?

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To find dependent 3rd Party libraries, follow the CMake guide, http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake:How_To_Find_Libraries

Generally speaking, CMake prefers absolute paths. During my evaluation of CMake, I found that it does not have a canonical way to reference dependent libraries in Visual Studio. Their message is that CMake should be run on every developer system in order to set up the build environment for that specific target station. Therefore I could never create a solution file directly from CMake that could be versioned because the paths would be absolute. It would be possible but only after modifying the CMake project files after creation.

I had labored over this issue many times as CMake software needed to be approved on our developer stations before the build system was created.

In the end, I had versioned modified CMakeLists.txt files for all our dependent projects that finds the correct canonical paths to locations and had the caveat that anyone that built (these were for dependent 3rd party libraries that only get built on version changes) must have CMake installed.

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How do I "find the correct canonical path" to PJSIP? Where should it be installed so that CMake might find it?
You can install a cmake find module. There are examples, but basics would look like FIND_PACKAGE(PJSIP) and in your CMakeModules create the module, "FindPJSIP.cmake". Is this what you mean?
I think so. So it is not much different for Windows: libraries are still installed system-wide (where?), and you must find them at configuration time. Correct? Now to just find a FindPJSIP.cmake...
And here is one such example: CMake:How To Find Libraries
There is usually less automation with this in Windows. nix's, which I am not extremely familiar with so I may be out of touch, have package managers that make dependency installing simple. Not so much for windows as you will *usually have to include all source and bins for dependencies in source control.

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