diff --git a/cmake/CMakeLists.txt b/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
index 1f8a0322f5..7ac0294f09 100644
--- a/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -248,12 +248,6 @@ if(ENABLE_USER-QMMM)
   list(APPEND LAMMPS_LINK_LIBS ${QE_LIBRARIES} ${CMAKE_Fortran_IMPLICIT_LINK_LIBRARIES})
 endif()
 
-if(ENABLE_USER-H5MD)
-  find_package(HDF5 REQUIRED)
-  list(APPEND LAMMPS_LINK_LIBS ${HDF5_LIBRARIES})
-  include_directories(${HDF5_INCLUDE_DIRS} ${LAMMPS_LIB_SOURCE_DIR}/h5md/include)
-endif()
-
 if(ENABLE_USER-VTK)
   find_package(VTK REQUIRED NO_MODULE)
   include(${VTK_USE_FILE})
@@ -366,6 +360,8 @@ foreach(SIMPLE_LIB REAX MEAM POEMS USER-ATC USER-AWPMD USER-COLVARS USER-H5MD
       if(PKG_LIB STREQUAL awpmd)
         set_property(SOURCE ${PKG_SRC} APPEND PROPERTY COMPILE_FLAGS -I${LAMMPS_LIB_SOURCE_DIR}/${PKG_LIB}/systems/interact)
         set_property(SOURCE ${PKG_SRC} APPEND APPEND_STRING PROPERTY COMPILE_FLAGS " -I${LAMMPS_LIB_SOURCE_DIR}/${PKG_LIB}/ivutils/include")
+      elseif(PKG_LIB STREQUAL h5md)
+        include_directories(${LAMMPS_LIB_SOURCE_DIR}/h5md/include) #ch5md.h is included indirectly in style.h
       else()
         set_property(SOURCE ${PKG_SRC} APPEND PROPERTY COMPILE_FLAGS -I${LAMMPS_LIB_SOURCE_DIR}/${PKG_LIB})
       endif()
@@ -378,6 +374,13 @@ if(ENABLE_USER-AWPMD)
     "${LAMMPS_LIB_SOURCE_DIR}/awpmd/systems/interact;${LAMMPS_LIB_SOURCE_DIR}/awpmd/ivutils/include")
 endif()
 
+if(ENABLE_USER-H5MD)
+  find_package(HDF5 REQUIRED)
+  target_link_libraries(h5md ${HDF5_LIBRARIES})
+  set_target_properties(h5md PROPERTIES INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES
+    "${HDF5_INCLUDE_DIRS};${LAMMPS_LIB_SOURCE_DIR}/h5md/include")
+endif()
+
 ######################################################################
 # packages which selectively include variants based on enabled styles
 # e.g. accelerator packages