Advanced Dependencies Model in Conan 2.0 C, C++ Package Manager

Conan C,C++ package manager has been running the 1.X stable version, up to recent 1.43, for the last 4 years. One of its limitations was the relatively simple dependencies model, with "requires" to model "library" dependencies and "build_requires" to model "build time tools" dependencies.

While this model works well in some of the most typical scenarios, like applications linking all static libraries, it can be limited in some advanced scenarios, like mixing shared and static libraries in different topologies, or the (dreaded, but still happening in real life projects) case of depending on different versions of the same static library in the same project, via isolation of shared libraries.

Conan 2.0 introduces a new dependencies model with requirements "traits" like visibility, definition and propagation of headers and libraries independently, and more that allow modeling all these advanced use cases. This talk will present this new model, and apply it to solve different advanced use cases, with real life examples. It will also describe the ABI compatibility implications, and how it can affect and be leveraged while building large C and C++ projects at scale in CI.

Diego Rodriguez-Losada

Diego Rodriguez-Losada‘s passions are robotics and SW engineering and development. He has developed many years in C and C++ in the Industrial, Robotics and AI fields. Diego was also a University (tenure track) professor and robotics researcher for 8 years, till 2012, when he quit academia to try to build a C/C++ dependency manager and co-founded a startup.. Since then he mostly develops in Python. Diego is a conan.io C/C++ package manager co-creator and maintainer, now working at JFrog as Conan Lead Architect and C/C++ Advocate.