Add a vcpkg library

Need fmt, spdlog, boost-asio, or any of the ~2200 vcpkg ports?

TL;DR

luban add fmt        # edits vcpkg.json + luban.cmake
luban build          # cmake fetches + builds fmt via vcpkg manifest mode

Step-by-step

  1. In your project directory, run luban add <port>. Replace <port> with the vcpkg port name (e.g., fmt, nlohmann-json, boost-asio).

  2. Use the library in your src/<target>/main.cpp:

    #include <fmt/core.h>
int main() { fmt::print("hello, {}\n", "fmt"); }

  3. Build:

    luban build

    The first build triggers vcpkg's manifest-mode install. It's slow on first add (vcpkg builds the lib from source) but cached afterward. Subsequent builds reuse the same vcpkg_installed/ and just compile your code.

Version constraints

luban add fmt              # any version (uses baseline)
luban add fmt@10           # version >= 10.0.0
luban add fmt@10.2.1       # version >= 10.2.1

To pin an exact version, edit vcpkg.json manually after luban add to add an "overrides": [...] entry. See reference/vcpkg-json.md.

Boost (and other multi-port libs)

Boost in vcpkg is split per-component. Add only what you need:

luban add boost-asio
luban add boost-beast
luban add boost-program-options

Each adds the correct Boost::<sublib> cmake target via Luban's curated mapping.

When the cmake target name is wrong

Luban's table covers ~50 popular libs. For uncovered libs, Luban writes find_package(<port>) but doesn't auto-link. After first luban build, find the target name in vcpkg_installed/<triplet>/share/<pkg>/usage, then:

# in src/<your-target>/CMakeLists.txt
target_link_libraries(<your-target> PRIVATE <ModuleName>::<target>)

Removing a dep

luban remove fmt

vcpkg_installed/ is not auto-cleaned (vcpkg manages its own cache). Delete build/ and vcpkg_installed/ for a clean state.

See also