conan-io/conan

★ 9,350PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5LicenseSetup · moderate

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      C++ package manager
      Dependency automation
    Features
      Pre-built binaries
      Private servers
      Cross-platform
    Build integrations
      CMake MSBuild
      Meson Makefiles
    Distribution
      ConanCenter public
      Artifactory private

mindmap root((repo)) What it does C++ package manager Dependency automation Features Pre-built binaries Private servers Cross-platform Build integrations CMake MSBuild Meson Makefiles Distribution ConanCenter public Artifactory private

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Add Conan to a C++ project to automatically download and link all its third-party library dependencies.

USE CASE 2

Host a private Conan server to distribute pre-compiled C++ libraries within your organization without recompiling.

USE CASE 3

Integrate Conan into a CI/CD pipeline to speed up C++ builds by caching and reusing compiled binary packages.

USE CASE 4

Write a Conan recipe to package your own C++ library for distribution on ConanCenter.

Tech stack

PythonCMakeC++

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires Python and pip, initial setup involves creating a Conan profile that matches your platform's compiler and build settings.

Use, modify, and distribute freely for any purpose including commercial use.

In plain English

Conan is an open-source package manager built for C and C++ developers. A package manager is a tool that automates the process of finding, downloading, and installing the libraries and dependencies that a software project needs. C and C++ are programming languages commonly used for systems software, games, and performance-sensitive applications, and managing their dependencies has historically been much harder than in languages like Python or JavaScript. Conan addresses that gap. One of Conan's distinguishing characteristics is that it is fully decentralized. Rather than relying on a single central registry, teams can host their own package servers privately, or use services like Artifactory. Packages can include pre-compiled binaries, which means you download ready-to-run code rather than having to compile everything yourself from source. This can save significant time in both local development and in automated build pipelines. Conan works across platforms: Linux, macOS, and Windows are all supported, including more specialized environments like embedded systems, cross-compilation setups, and Docker containers. It integrates with the major C++ build systems, including CMake, MSBuild, Makefiles, and Meson, so you do not need to change your existing build setup to start using it. The tool is configured through Python-based recipe files, which describe how a package should be built and what it depends on. This makes it extensible: you can customize behavior to fit unusual project requirements. ConanCenter is the main public repository of community-maintained packages. Conan has been in production use at many companies since its 1.0 release, and the project commits to not breaking existing package recipes or documented behavior across stable releases. The project is maintained under the MIT license, meaning it is free to use and modify. Developer and maintainer documentation is in the repository itself, end-user documentation lives at docs.conan.io.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Set up Conan in my C++ CMake project and add Boost and OpenSSL as dependencies, show me the conanfile.txt and the CMakeLists.txt changes needed.

Prompt 2

Create a Conan recipe in conanfile.py for a simple static C++ library so I can share it with my team's private server.

Prompt 3

Configure Conan to point to an Artifactory instance as a private package server and show me how to upload a built package to it.

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