Catkin and CMake integration question for cross-compilation ROS node - cmake

Question

Trying to cross-compile a ros node which relays on some arm64 libraries located in a different path other than /usr/lib/arm64-
Error received is:
Errors << gps_confidence_module:make /gitlab/soads-ros/DAS/ros/logs/gps_confidence_module/build.make.013.log
make[2]: *** No rule to make target '/usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libconsole_bridge.so.0.4', needed by '/gitlab/soads-ros/DAS/ros/devel/.private/gps_confidence_module/lib/gps_confidence_module/gps_confidence_module'. Stop.
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/gps_confidence_module.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [all] Error 2
cd /gitlab/soads-ros/DAS/ros/build/gps_confidence_module; catkin build --get-env gps_confidence_module | catkin env -si /usr/bin/make --jobserver-fds=6,7 -j; cd -
.....................................................................................................................................................................................
The error goes away when I add the path inside the CMakelist.txt with:
link_directories(
${PDK_PATH}/targetfs/usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu
)
Is there a way to make this link_directories global to my catkin environment?
trying to avoid to insert the link_directories code on every single CMakelists.txt of my ROS source code.

Answer 1

You should not do this in your CMakeLists.txt files yourself. This kind of info should go into your toolchain file (see https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-toolchains.7.html).
I haven't worked with your kind of setup, but setting CMAKE_SYSROOT should work in your case.
toolchain-arm64.cmake
set(PDK_PATH ...)
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME ...)
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR arm64)
set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER /path/to/c++/compiler)
set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER /path/to/c/compiler)
set(CMAKE_SYSROOT "${PDK_PATH}/targetfs")
...
set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PROGRAM NEVER)
set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_LIBRARY ONLY)
set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE ONLY)
set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PACKAGE ONLY)