How-to: Install & Configure Conan

Conan is a dependency manager for C and C++. It will handle the huge hassle of finding and managing the dependencies for your C++ programs and libraries. It is also the primary way of delivering our SDKs (and starting from 2023, our sample programs) to you. Powerful tools often come with a complex set of features, commands and interactions, and this guide will help you understand the basics and set Conan up the right way to get your hands on our products.

Installation

Conan is a Python 3 program. The easiest way to install it is through Python’s package installer pip. At the time of writing this guide, Vivoka needs Conan version 1.53+, and this requirement goes up regularly.

Linux

Simply run the following command (both for installing and upgrading):

BASH

[sudo] pip install -U "conan<2.0"
# 
# Test the installation
conan --version

If you didn't install as root, make sure to add the binary to your PATH!

Windows

If you don’t have Python 3 already installed on your system, simply pick the latest version (3.11 at the time of writing this guide):

Check “Add python.exe to your PATH”
Click “Customize installation”
- Uncheck “Documentation”, “td/tk and IDLE”, “Python test suite”, “py launcher”
- Click “Next”
- Check “Install Python 3.11 for all users”, “Add Python to environment variables”, “Precompile standard library”
- Uncheck “Create shortcuts for installed applications”
- Set the installation path to C:\Python\Python311
- Click “Install”

Once the installation is done, one last step is required to have pip available in command line:
Add C:\Python\Python311\Scripts to your PATH variable.

Open a terminal and input pip install -U "conan<2.0" (this will install or update Conan).

Check that the operation is successful with conan --version.

Configuration

Run the following commands:

BASH

conan config set general.revisions_enabled=1
conan remote add vivoka-customer https://conan-customer.vivoka.com/artifactory/api/conan/vivoka-customer
conan user <username> -r vivoka-customer -p <password> # Use your VDK login

You can set the password in the CONAN_PASSWORD_VIVOKA_CUSTOMER environment variable if you want to avoid inputting it regularly.

Setting up your compiler

Run the following command to let Conan detect your compiler:

CODE

conan profile new --detect default

Linux

Only GCC 7-10 using libstdc++ is supported (version support also vary depending on the architecture). Run this command to make sure the right version of the standard library is selected:

BASH

conan profile update settings.compiler.libcxx=libstdc++11 default

Windows

Only MSVC 15 and 16 (which maps to Visual Studio 2017 and 2019) are supported. If you’re unsure Conan detected a compatible version, print it:

POWERSHELL

conan profile get settings.compiler.version default

If you have Visual Studio 2022 or the Build Tools 2022 installed on your system, Conan will select it by default during detection. To set VS2019 version as default instead, do this afterwards:

BASH

conan profile update settings.compiler.version=16 default

If you would like to have a profile for VS2022 for yourself still, you can create a new one:

BASH

cp $(conan config home)/profiles/{default,msvc17}
conan profile update settings.compiler.version=17 msvc17

To select the right profile during operations, add the -pr msvc17 option to the conan install command.