Packages in editable mode¶

The normal way of working with Conan packages is to run a conan create or conan export-pkg to store them in the local cache, so that consumers use the packages stored in the cache. In some cases, when you want to consume these packages while developing them, it can be tedious to run conan create each time you make changes to the package. For those cases, you can put your package in editable mode and consumers will be able to find the headers and artifacts in your local working directory, eliminating the need for packaging.

Let’s see how we can put a package in editable mode and consume it from the local working directory.

Please, first of all, 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/tutorial/developing_packages/editable_packages

There are two folders inside this project:

.
├── hello
│   ├── CMakeLists.txt
│   ├── conanfile.py
│   └── src
│       └── hello.cpp
└── say
    ├── CMakeLists.txt
    ├── conanfile.py
    ├── include
    │   └── say.h
    └── src
        └── say.cpp

A “say” folder containing a full-fledged package, with its conanfile.py and its source code.
A “hello” folder containing a simple consumer project with a conanfile.py and its source code, which depends on the say/1.0 requirement.

We will put say/1.0 in editable mode and show how the hello consumer can find say/1.0 headers and binaries in its local working directory.

Put say/1.0 package in editable mode¶

To avoid creating the package say/1.0 in the cache for every change, we are going to put that package in editable mode, creating a link from the reference in the cache to the local working directory:

$ conan editable add say
$ conan editable list
say/1.0
    Path: /Users/.../examples2/tutorial/developing_packages/editable_packages/say/conanfile.py

From now on, every usage of say/1.0 by any other Conan package or project will be redirected to the /Users/.../examples2/tutorial/developing_packages/editable_packages/say/conanfile.py user folder instead of using the package from the Conan cache.

Note that the key of editable packages is a correct definition of the layout() of the package. Read the package layout() section to learn more about this method.

In this example, the say conanfile.py recipe is using the predefined cmake_layout() which defines the typical CMake project layout that can be different depending on the platform and generator used.

Now that the say/1.0 package is in editable mode, let’s build it locally:

$ cd say

# Windows: we will build two configurations to show multi-config
$ conan install . -s build_type=Release
$ conan install . -s build_type=Debug
$ cmake --preset conan-default
$ cmake --build --preset conan-release
$ cmake --build --preset conan-debug

# Linux, macOS: we will build only one configuration
$ conan install .
$ cmake --preset conan-release
$ cmake --build --preset conan-release

Note

We use CMake presets in this example. This requires CMake >= 3.23 because the “include” from CMakeUserPresets.json to CMakePresets.json is only supported since that version. If you prefer not to use presets you can use something like:

cmake <path> -G <CMake generator> -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=<path to
conan_toolchain.cmake> -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

Conan will show the exact CMake command everytime you run conan install in case you can’t use the presets feature.

Using say/1.0 package in editable mode¶

Consuming a package in editable mode is transparent from the consumer perspective. In this case we can build the hello application as usual:

$ cd ../hello

# Windows: we will build two configurations to show multi-config
$ conan install . -s build_type=Release
$ conan install . -s build_type=Debug
$ cmake --preset conan-default
$ cmake --build --preset conan-release
$ cmake --build --preset conan-debug
$ build\Release\hello.exe
say/1.0: Hello World Release!
...
$ build\Debug\hello.exe
say/1.0: Hello World Debug!
...

# Linux, macOS: we will only build one configuration
$ conan install .
$ cmake --preset conan-release
$ cmake --build --preset conan-release
$ ./build/Release/hello
say/1.0: Hello World Release!

As you can see, hello can successfully find the header and library files of the say/1.0 package.

Working with editable packages¶

Once the above steps have been completed, you can work with your build system or IDE without involving Conan and make changes to the editable packages. Any changes will directly apply to consumers. Let’s see how this works by making a change in the say source code:

$ cd ../say
# Edit src/say.cpp and change the error message from "Hello" to "Bye"

# Windows: we will build two configurations to show multi-config
$ cmake --build --preset conan-release
$ cmake --build --preset conan-debug

# Linux, macOS: we will only build one configuration
$ cmake --build --preset conan-release

And build and run the “hello” project:

$ cd ../hello

# Windows
$ cd build
$ cmake --build --preset conan-release
$ cmake --build --preset conan-debug
$ Release\hello.exe
say/1.0: Bye World Release!
$ Debug\hello.exe
say/1.0: Bye World Debug!

# Linux, macOS
$ cmake --build --preset conan-release
$ ./hello
say/1.0: Bye World Release!

In this manner, you can develop both the say library and the hello application simultaneously without executing any Conan command in between. If you have both open in your IDE, you can simply build one after the other.

Building editable dependencies¶

If there are many editable dependencies, it might be inconvenient to go one by one, building them in the right order. It is possible to do an ordered build of the editable dependencies with the --build argument.

Let’s clean the previous local executables first:

$ git clean -xdf

Using the build() method in the hello/conanfile.py recipe that we haven’t really used so far (because we have been building directly calling cmake, not by calling conan build command), we can do such build with just:

$ conan build hello

Note that all we had to do to perform a full build of this project is these two commands. Starting from scratch in a different folder:

$ git clone https://github.com/conan-io/examples2.git
$ cd examples2/tutorial/developing_packages/editable_packages
$ conan editable add say
$ conan build hello --build=editable

Note that if we don’t pass the --build=editable to conan build hello, the binaries for say/0.1 that is in editable mode won’t be available and it will fail. With the --build=editable, first a build of the say binaries is done locally and incrementally, and then another incremental build of hello will be done. Everything will still happen locally, with no packages built in the cache. If there are multiple editable dependencies, with nested transitive dependencies, Conan will build them in the right order.

If editable packages have dependants in the Conan cache, it is possible to force the rebuild from source of the cache dependants by using --build=editable --build=cascade. In general, this should be avoided, however. If it is needed to rebuild those dependencies, the recommendation is to put them in editable mode too.

Note that it is possible to build and test a package in editable mode with its own test_package folder. If a package is put in editable mode, and if it contains a test_package folder, the conan create command will still do a local build of the current package.

Revert the editable mode¶

In order to disable editable mode for a package, just remove the link using:

$ conan editable remove --refs=say/1.0

It will remove the link (the local directory won’t be affected) and all the packages consuming this requirement will get it from the cache again.

Warning

Packages that are built while consuming an editable package in their upstreams can generate binaries and packages that are incompatible with the released version of the editable package. Avoid uploading these packages without re-creating them with the in-cache version of all libraries.