Customize your settings: create your settings_user.yml

Please, first clone the sources to recreate this project. You can find them in the examples2 repository in GitHub:

$ git clone https://github.com/conan-io/examples2.git
$ cd examples2/examples/config_files/settings_user

In this example we are going to see how to customize your settings without overwriting the original settings.yml file.

Note

To understand better this example, it is highly recommended to read previously the reference about settings.yml.

Locate the settings_user.yml

First of all, let’s have a look at the proposed source/settings_user.yml:

settings_user.yml
os:
    webOS:
        sdk_version: [null, "7.0.0", "6.0.1", "6.0.0"]
arch: ["cortexa15t2hf"]
compiler:
    gcc:
        version: ["13.0-rc"]

As you can see, we don’t have to rewrite all the settings because they will be merged with the already defined in settings.yml.

Then, what are we adding through that settings_user.yml file?

  • New OS: webOS, and its sub-setting: sdk_version.

  • New arch available: cortexa15t2hf.

  • New gcc version: 13.0-rc.

Now, it’s time to copy the file source/settings_user.yml into your [CONAN_HOME]/ folder:

$ conan config install sources/settings_user.yml
Copying file settings_user.yml to /Users/myuser/.conan2/.

Use your new settings

After having copied the settings_user.yml, you should be able to use them for your recipes. Add this simple one into your local folder:

conanfile.py
from conan import ConanFile

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

Then, create several Conan packages (not binaries, as it does not have any source file for sure) to see that it’s working correctly:

Using the new OS and its sub-setting
$ conan create . -s os=webOS -s os.sdk_version=7.0.0
...
Profile host:
[settings]
arch=x86_64
build_type=Release
compiler=apple-clang
compiler.cppstd=gnu98
compiler.libcxx=libc++
compiler.version=12.0
os=webOS
os.sdk_version=7.0.0

Profile build:
[settings]
arch=x86_64
build_type=Release
compiler=apple-clang
compiler.cppstd=gnu98
compiler.libcxx=libc++
compiler.version=12.0
os=Macos
...
-------- Installing (downloading, building) binaries... --------
pkg/1.0: Copying sources to build folder
pkg/1.0: Building your package in /Users/myuser/.conan2/p/t/pkg929d53a5f06b1/b
pkg/1.0: Generating aggregated env files
pkg/1.0: Package 'a0d37d10fdb83a0414d7f4a1fb73da2c210211c6' built
pkg/1.0: Build folder /Users/myuser/.conan2/p/t/pkg929d53a5f06b1/b
pkg/1.0: Generated conaninfo.txt
pkg/1.0: Generating the package
pkg/1.0: Temporary package folder /Users/myuser/.conan2/p/t/pkg929d53a5f06b1/p
pkg/1.0 package(): WARN: No files in this package!
pkg/1.0: Package 'a0d37d10fdb83a0414d7f4a1fb73da2c210211c6' created
pkg/1.0: Created package revision 6a947a7b5669d6fde1a35ce5ff987fc6
pkg/1.0: Full package reference: pkg/1.0#637fc1c7080faaa7e2cdccde1bcde118:a0d37d10fdb83a0414d7f4a1fb73da2c210211c6#6a947a7b5669d6fde1a35ce5ff987fc6
pkg/1.0: Package folder /Users/myuser/.conan2/p/pkgb3950b1043542/p
Using new gcc compiler version
$ conan create . -s compiler=gcc -s compiler.version=13.0-rc -s compiler.libcxx=libstdc++11
...
Profile host:
[settings]
arch=x86_64
build_type=Release
compiler=gcc
compiler.libcxx=libstdc++11
compiler.version=13.0-rc
os=Macos

Profile build:
[settings]
arch=x86_64
build_type=Release
compiler=apple-clang
compiler.cppstd=gnu98
compiler.libcxx=libc++
compiler.version=12.0
os=Macos
...
-------- Installing (downloading, building) binaries... --------
pkg/1.0: Copying sources to build folder
pkg/1.0: Building your package in /Users/myuser/.conan2/p/t/pkg918904bbca9dc/b
pkg/1.0: Generating aggregated env files
pkg/1.0: Package '44a4588d3fe63ccc6e7480565d35be38d405718e' built
pkg/1.0: Build folder /Users/myuser/.conan2/p/t/pkg918904bbca9dc/b
pkg/1.0: Generated conaninfo.txt
pkg/1.0: Generating the package
pkg/1.0: Temporary package folder /Users/myuser/.conan2/p/t/pkg918904bbca9dc/p
pkg/1.0 package(): WARN: No files in this package!
pkg/1.0: Package '44a4588d3fe63ccc6e7480565d35be38d405718e' created
pkg/1.0: Created package revision d913ec060e71cc56b10768afb9620094
pkg/1.0: Full package reference: pkg/1.0#637fc1c7080faaa7e2cdccde1bcde118:44a4588d3fe63ccc6e7480565d35be38d405718e#d913ec060e71cc56b10768afb9620094
pkg/1.0: Package folder /Users/myuser/.conan2/p/pkg789b624c93fc0/p
Using the new OS and the new architecture
$ conan create . -s os=webOS -s arch=cortexa15t2hf
...
Profile host:
[settings]
arch=cortexa15t2hf
build_type=Release
compiler=apple-clang
compiler.cppstd=gnu98
compiler.libcxx=libc++
compiler.version=12.0
os=webOS

Profile build:
[settings]
arch=x86_64
build_type=Release
compiler=apple-clang
compiler.cppstd=gnu98
compiler.libcxx=libc++
compiler.version=12.0
os=Macos
...
-------- Installing (downloading, building) binaries... --------
pkg/1.0: Copying sources to build folder
pkg/1.0: Building your package in /Users/myuser/.conan2/p/t/pkgde9b63a6bed0a/b
pkg/1.0: Generating aggregated env files
pkg/1.0: Package '19cf3cb5842b18dc78e5b0c574c1e71e7b0e17fc' built
pkg/1.0: Build folder /Users/myuser/.conan2/p/t/pkgde9b63a6bed0a/b
pkg/1.0: Generated conaninfo.txt
pkg/1.0: Generating the package
pkg/1.0: Temporary package folder /Users/myuser/.conan2/p/t/pkgde9b63a6bed0a/p
pkg/1.0 package(): WARN: No files in this package!
pkg/1.0: Package '19cf3cb5842b18dc78e5b0c574c1e71e7b0e17fc' created
pkg/1.0: Created package revision f5739d5a25b3757254dead01b30d3af0
pkg/1.0: Full package reference: pkg/1.0#637fc1c7080faaa7e2cdccde1bcde118:19cf3cb5842b18dc78e5b0c574c1e71e7b0e17fc#f5739d5a25b3757254dead01b30d3af0
pkg/1.0: Package folder /Users/myuser/.conan2/p/pkgd154182aac59e/p

As you could observe, each command has created a different package. That was completely right because we were using different settings for each one. If you want to see all the packages created, you can use the conan list command:

List all the pkg/1.0’s packages
$ conan list pkg/1.0:*
Local Cache
  pkg
    pkg/1.0
      revisions
        637fc1c7080faaa7e2cdccde1bcde118 (2023-02-16 06:42:10 UTC)
          packages
            19cf3cb5842b18dc78e5b0c574c1e71e7b0e17fc
              info
                settings
                  arch: cortexa15t2hf
                  build_type: Release
                  compiler: apple-clang
                  compiler.cppstd: gnu98
                  compiler.libcxx: libc++
                  compiler.version: 12.0
                  os: webOS
            44a4588d3fe63ccc6e7480565d35be38d405718e
              info
                settings
                  arch: x86_64
                  build_type: Release
                  compiler: gcc
                  compiler.libcxx: libstdc++11
                  compiler.version: 13.0-rc
                  os: Macos
            a0d37d10fdb83a0414d7f4a1fb73da2c210211c6
              info
                settings
                  arch: x86_64
                  build_type: Release
                  compiler: apple-clang
                  compiler.cppstd: gnu98
                  compiler.libcxx: libc++
                  compiler.version: 12.0
                  os: webOS
                  os.sdk_version: 7.0.0

Try any other custom setting!

See also