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.

Source/cmIncludeDirectoryCommand.cxx

@@ -26,12 +26,18 @@ bool cmIncludeDirectoryCommand::InitialPass(std::vector<std::string> const& args
 
   std::vector<std::string>::const_iterator i = args.begin();
 
-  bool before = false;
+  bool before = this->Makefile->IsOn("CMAKE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES_BEFORE");
+
   if ((*i) == "BEFORE")
     {
     before = true;
     ++i;
     }
+  else if ((*i) == "AFTER")
+    {
+    before = false;
+    ++i;
+    }
 
   for(; i != args.end(); ++i)
     {

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);