conan link

$ usage: conan link [-h] [--remove] [-l LAYOUT] [target] reference

Links a conan reference (e.g lib/1.0@conan/stable) with a local folder path.

positional arguments:
target                Path to the package folder in the user workspace
reference             Reference to link. e.g.: mylib/1.X@user/channel

optional arguments:
-h, --help            show this help message and exit
--remove              Remove linked reference (target not required)
-l LAYOUT, --layout LAYOUT
                        Relative or absolute path to a file containing the
                        layout. Relative paths will be resolved first relative
                        to current dir, then to local cache "layouts" folder

This command puts a package in “Editable mode”, and consumers of this package will use it from the given user folder instead of using it from the cache. The path pointed by target should exist and contain a conanfile.py.

Examples:

Put the package cool/version@user/dev in editable mode, using the layout specified by the file win_layout.

$ conan link . cool/version@user/dev --layout=win_layout

Remove the “Editable mode”, use again package from the cache:

$ conan link --remove cool/version@user/dev