Conan and vcpkg

Purpose

Guide agents through C/C++ dependency management with Conan and vcpkg: declaring dependencies, integrating with CMake, managing binary compatibility, and choosing the right tool for a given project.

Triggers

• "How do I add a C++ library dependency with Conan?"

• "How do I use vcpkg with CMake?"

• "What's the difference between Conan and vcpkg?"

• "How do I add zlib/openssl/fmt with a package manager?"

• "How do I create a vcpkg.json manifest?"

• "My Conan package build is failing — how do I debug it?"

Workflow

1. Conan vs vcpkg decision

Which package manager? ├── Team uses MSVC on Windows primarily → vcpkg (better MSVC integration) ├── Need binary packages (no source builds in CI) → Conan (binary cache) ├── Need cross-compilation support → Conan (profiles) or Zig-based builds ├── Need a specific version of a package → Conan (flexible versioning) ├── Quick project setup, just need it to work → vcpkg (simpler) └── Open-source project, broad audience → vcpkg (GitHub-integrated)

2. vcpkg setup

Clone vcpkg

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git ./vcpkg/bootstrap-vcpkg.sh # Linux/macOS ./vcpkg/bootstrap-vcpkg.bat # Windows

Install packages (classic mode)

./vcpkg/vcpkg install zlib curl openssl

Integrate with CMake

cmake -S . -B build
-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=/path/to/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake

3. vcpkg manifest mode (recommended)

// vcpkg.json — place at project root { "name": "myapp", "version": "1.0.0", "dependencies": [ "zlib", "curl", { "name": "openssl", "version>=": "3.0.0" }, { "name": "boost-filesystem", "platform": "!windows" }, { "name": "fmt", "features": ["core"] } ], "builtin-baseline": "abc123..." }

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.20) project(myapp)

find_package(ZLIB REQUIRED) find_package(CURL REQUIRED) find_package(fmt REQUIRED)

add_executable(myapp src/main.cpp) target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE ZLIB::ZLIB CURL::libcurl fmt::fmt)

Build — vcpkg automatically installs dependencies

cmake -S . -B build
-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=/path/to/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake cmake --build build

4. Conan setup

Install Conan

pip install conan

Set up default profile (detects compiler, OS)

conan profile detect

Check your profile

conan profile show

5. Conan with CMake (Conan 2.x)

conanfile.txt

[requires] zlib/1.3 fmt/10.2.1 openssl/3.2.0

[generators] CMakeDeps CMakeToolchain

[options] openssl/*:shared=False

Install dependencies

conan install . --output-folder=build --build=missing

Configure and build

cmake -S . -B build
-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=build/conan_toolchain.cmake
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release cmake --build build

CMakeLists.txt

find_package(ZLIB REQUIRED) find_package(fmt REQUIRED) find_package(OpenSSL REQUIRED)

add_executable(myapp src/main.cpp) target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE ZLIB::ZLIB fmt::fmt OpenSSL::SSL OpenSSL::Crypto )

6. Conan profiles for cross-compilation

~/.conan2/profiles/linux-arm64

[settings] os=Linux arch=armv8 compiler=gcc compiler.version=12 compiler.libcxx=libstdc++11 build_type=Release

[buildenv] CC=aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc CXX=aarch64-linux-gnu-g++

[tool_requires]

Tools that run on build machine (x86)

Cross-compile

conan install .
--profile:build=default
--profile:host=linux-arm64
--output-folder=build-arm
--build=missing

7. conanfile.py (advanced)

conanfile.py

from conan import ConanFile from conan.tools.cmake import CMakeToolchain, CMakeDeps, CMake

class MyAppConan(ConanFile): name = "myapp" version = "1.0" settings = "os", "compiler", "build_type", "arch"

def requirements(self):
    self.requires("zlib/1.3")
    self.requires("fmt/10.2.1")
    if self.settings.os == "Linux":
        self.requires("openssl/3.2.0")

def generate(self):
    tc = CMakeToolchain(self)
    tc.generate()
    deps = CMakeDeps(self)
    deps.generate()

def build(self):
    cmake = CMake(self)
    cmake.configure()
    cmake.build()

8. Common dependency lookup

Library vcpkg name Conan name

zlib zlib

zlib/1.3

OpenSSL openssl

openssl/3.2.0

libcurl curl

libcurl/8.4.0

{fmt} fmt

fmt/10.2.1

spdlog spdlog

spdlog/1.12.0

Boost boost

boost/1.83.0

nlohmann-json nlohmann-json

nlohmann_json/3.11.3

googletest gtest

gtest/1.14.0

Google Benchmark benchmark

benchmark/1.8.3

SQLite sqlite3

sqlite3/3.44.0

protobuf protobuf

protobuf/4.25.1

For vcpkg baseline pinning and Conan binary cache setup, see references/package-manager-patterns.md.

Related skills

• Use skills/build-systems/cmake for CMake integration with both Conan and vcpkg

• Use skills/compilers/cross-gcc for cross-compilation with Conan profiles

• Use skills/build-systems/ninja as the backend for package-managed projects