cmake_logo CMake

Conan provides different tools to integrate with CMake in a transparent way. Using these tools, the consuming CMakeLists.txt file does not need to be aware of Conan at all. The CMake tools also provide better IDE integration via cmake-presets.

To learn how to integrate Conan with your current CMake project you can follow the Conan tutorial that uses CMake along all the sections.

Please also check the reference for the CMakeDeps, CMakeToolchain, and CMake tools:

  • CMakeDeps: responsible for generating the CMake config files for all the required dependencies of a package.

  • CMakeToolchain: generates all the information needed for CMake to build the packages according to the information passed to Conan about things like the operating system, the compiler to use, architecture, etc. It will also generate cmake-presets files for easy integration with some IDEs that support this CMake feature off-the-shelf.

  • CMake build helper is the tool used by Conan to run CMake and will pass all the arguments that CMake needs to build successfully, such as the toolchain file, build type file, and all the CMake definitions set in the recipe.